Brand Recognition: Important Components That Will Make Your Brand Stand Out
There once was a time when shopping was easy. If you needed shoes, there was one brand that everyone knew to buy from; If you needed groceries, there was one local market to shop at… But in today’s day and age, shopping is more difficult than ever before.
Instead of having one or two options to choose from, consumers now have millions of brands to choose from. According to the Small Business Administration, as of 2018, there were 30.2 million small businesses operating in the United States… so take that number and imagine where it is now!
In knowing that statistic, just imagine how your business would even have a chance of standing out or competing with a fraction of those businesses. To complicate things even further, all 30.2 million (and counting) of those brands are competing with each other for online visibility as well. Competition alone is one of the biggest barriers to starting a business. When people see the amount of competition out there, some won’t even continue with starting their business because they feel that there is no way their business will stand out.
As you know, we live in a digital era and search engines give consumers the ability to search for whatever products they want to buy online. Depending on how well your business is ranked, that’s going to determine how easy it will be for consumers to find your business.
In this cut-throat world of entrepreneurship, how can you make your business stand out in a sea of competitors? Well, it’s not going to happen overnight but there are some qualities that your brand must have and showcase to have the slightest chance of grabbing the attention of your audience. Take a look at these important components that will make your brand stand out.
Component 1: Originality
First and foremost, your brand needs to have originality. If you think about it, originality is the very thing that’s going to set your brand apart from any other brand. Sure, people try to mimic a competitor’s brand and make it better, and it works sometimes, but a lot of the time it doesn’t work and because a brand lacks originality. It ultimately doesn’t give consumers any reason to choose one brand over the next.
The great thing about originality is that it can come in many different forms. If you’re a chef, your originality can be displayed through your food presentations and the utilization of different flavors. If you’re a fashion designer, your originality can be showcased through custom printed labels or in the tiny details of every garment you produce.
The whole point of originality is to do or showcase something with your brand that no one has ever seen before to make your brand stand out in their mind.
Component 2: Consistency
In making your brand stand out, there needs to be some consistency so that it will be easy for consumers to remember your brand. That’s not saying that you can’t try new things or put out new products, but your customers or followers need to see some familiarity and even predictability in your brand.
Why? Because that’s what’s going to help people establish trust in your brand. You want your brand to be the go-to shopping destination for customers when they need a specific item and the only way to make that happen is through consistency in your brand.
Component 3: Relatability
A very important factor in making your brand stand out is to make your brand relatable to your target audience. If you’re a woman with no children, it might be difficult to make your brand relatable to mothers. That’s not saying it’s not possible but if you’re promoting products meant for busy moms, the busy moms your marketing to are going to want to understand why they should buy from someone who doesn’t have children… you wouldn’t be relatable to them.
Now, let’s say you have children and you have social media pages… Using social media to be relatable to your target audience is what “humanizes your brand.” You could post about the issues you have of establishing a morning routine for your little ones, which is a relatable problem among lots of parents. Your target audience will then be able to chime in on what they did to establish a routine and actively interact with your brand.
By becoming relatable, it builds trust in your brand, which will eventually lead to sales.
Component 4: Quality and Value
Quality and value go hand in hand but lots of business owners only have one or the other or utilize the two in ineffective ways. It’s okay to have great quality products and price them as such. Business owners will sell themselves short a lot of times by having quality products and pricing them too low.
What you have to understand is that people want what they pay for and if you’re selling high-quality products, people are willing to pay for it… don’t sell yourself short just to get the numbers up. You have to find that balance that will allow you to sell great products at a price that people are willing to pay for.
