Building, maintaining, and growing your brand is tricky. Here are tips from 3 of the Philippines’ most recognisable digital brands.
Building your brand – whether personal or company – is similar quite similar to developing a personality. Having a consistent and recognisable brand enables the people to associate you with your product, values, and expected behaviour, and sets you apart from others.
Good branding is especially important in a crowded startup ecosystem, as it is critical in establishing loyalty, trust, and relevance. A good brand gives employees a sense of direction and purpose, and at the same time providing investors with a sense of stability. In today’s age of the internet, when a brand’s identity can get drowned in the amount of information and noise, individuals and businesses who wish to establish their brand need to be properly skilled in managing the platforms, media, and opportunities available to them.
Also read: The change; and how to survive this rapidly evolving business environment
In QBO Philippines’ QLITAN, three of the most recognisable digital brands in the Philippine startup community came together to talk about branding. Blogapalooza’s Ace Gapuz, When in Manila’s Rebecca Lee, and marketing consultant Nix Eniego shared how they built their respective brands, and how individuals and startups can use the lessons from their experiences to make a recognisable and reliable brand.
1. Focus and leverage on your strengths
Stay in your lane – Nix Eniego
Do not confuse people; your audience should know without hesitation what it is that you do. And the way to do that is revolving your branding around your strength. When you build your brand based on your strength, key product, or expertise, it does not matter how may ways you recalibrate the manner in which you engage with people – whatever platform you may use to present yourself be it digital or physical, your branding will have maintained its core identity. Be it personal or company branding, you will be known because of your expertise.
Does that mean that you cannot expand? Of course not. It only means that when you present yourself, you leverage on your strengths. Take Lego as an example. While the brand has expanded to products that are much too different from their original product (from building blocks to movies), they have kept to their original branding identity: they are fun and they spark their audience’s imaginations.
Also read: Stop making these startup branding mistakes
2. Talk like a human
Humanise the people behind the brand – Rebecca Lee
People want to talk to people, not brands. This is especially true today not only because of the increasing power of social media but also because people are getting their content in their mobile phones. But even when people invite brands into their mobile phones, they still want a degree of personalisation in the content that they accept. They do not want you to blatantly sell to them; they want to engage with you like they would a human friend.
Does that mean your company’s personality should be based on the people behind your company? Not really. Your brand should have an identity that is apart from the people behind. People leave, after all. But it helps if you put faces to the people behind your brand, and build relationships with your audience through them. When in Manila, for example created profiles for their writers, allowing their audience to associate and engage with the people behind the articles.
Also read: Startups should believe in the power of branding
3. Adjust to your audience
Speak the language of the stakeholders – Ace Gapuz
The way companies present themselves 10 years ago won’t cut it today. Before the internet, brands relied heavily on ads to reach their market, which presents their brand in a rather impersonal way (at least compared to recent years). However, if you look at these brands today, you would notice that they have adjusted the way they present their brand. They are found in social media, interacting directly with their audience.
Does this mean you adjust your branding to fit trends? Yes and no. A great brand is one that is strong and reliable and you should not compromise your company’s identity for small wins. Sports brand Nike, for example, has retained almost everything about their branding from 10 years ago; with the only difference in the way they speak with their audience. It is easier said than done, but a strong brand retains its identity even as it adjusts the way it engages its audience.
Are you doing these? Do you have any questions? Let us know in the comments section below.
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Featured image credit: melpomen / 123RF Stock Photo
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