Five Basic Elements That Define Good Branding:

 

As an entrepreneur, whether solopreneuring, freelancing, or startup company, your drive and desire are to build a valuable brand through good branding. So, how can you understand what it is and how to achieve it, like Canva, Google, Facebook, Apple, and Amazon? I am not going to go into details about these brands. I only mentioned them for their global presence and value. And how valuable they are, and how they represent good branding. So, what is good branding? And what does it involve?

Good branding should not be as complex and confusing due to any disruptive marketing apps rolled out now and again in the market. It should be creative and holistically based on the purpose and value of your business venture. Complexity clouds your brand purpose and value. Visual elements like logos and color palettes do not define the problem the brand solves in the market. Remember, brands don’t just happen. You create a brand around solving a clearly defined problem. Brands help simplify people’s lives by solving problems that are clearly defined. So, good branding involves defining the problem your brand is trying to solve and clarifying it in the market for acceptance and support from the target audience.

Therefore, anyone can create a brand as long as they are clear about the problem they want to solve. And turn it into a brandable business idea based on its purpose and value in the market. Easier said than done in a creative economy where everyone is waking up every day with any business idea to claim their space as a brand in the forever shrinking market.

So, how can you position yourself as a noticeable brand in the saturated and shrinking marketplace? Simplicity is the name of the game in the creative economy. Be Simple and Practical. So many apps and programs bombard people about what to do and what not to do. Choosing what helps and what does not help has become a nightmare. Here are the five elements that will make you enjoy your journey in building your brand with no stress in establishing it as a good brand. That is relatable and supportive to your target audience.

Simple

 Being simple is a powerful branding principle. Have you ever asked yourself how many hours you spend trying to use a new app you hardly use to realize its ROI? Most tech apps have features people need to use, but at times most people end up only using the simple ones they find easy to finish the job with little stress. Simplicity is the name of the game. It does not waste time and limits hustles in the creative economy. That is why most creators like Steve Jobs believed in simple and refined design in business and life.

He swore by simple and light design. And lived a jean and T-shirt lifestyle that has influenced most other creators like Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook founder. You can also see and understand this by how popular his platform is with most people. It is simple and relatable to the most common and ordinary man from any background. Simplicity boosts adoption and builds loyalty. That results in being seen as a good brand.

Practical

Practicality is the main principle in solving people’s pain points in the market. A brand that is not as practical and easy to understand will find it hard to break into the market. Technology is evolving into more complex applications that most people find hard to apply in their business processes and operations. Continuous competition and disruptions are vying for the little piece of a fast-shrinking market with a confused and frustrated target market. So, whether as a tech creator, content creator, or service provider, the practicality of your brand is the best positioning strategy that will help your brand reflect good branding in the market. Being practical makes your branding and acquisition of customers seamless, for they would know beforehand what problem you can help them with and how it helps them without hustles.

Usable

Usability is the ease of use of anything, especially products, services, programs, and applications. Usability is one of the guiding principles that most tech creators put into practice when designing and creating any new program or tech application. That is why website designers always consider user-friendliness based on mobile friendliness. That ensures usability on a smartphone, with the idea that nearly everyone has a smartphone these days. It is the most used tech gadget for accessing knowledge and information online and the most simple and portable gadget for easy chatting. Usability has many connotations on the market. But for branding, it points to effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in the branding context of the product or service.

That is why success in a brand building involves a lot of studying your target audience. Including their education levels and qualifications to establish whether they would understand, appreciate and value your products and services in such a way that would make them see it as usable and user-friendly. Like whether your product is portable, fast, and efficient in doing the job. Does it improve the user’s lifestyle? If it does all the above, your brand is proving good branding in your industry and niche. The bottom line is to make any product or service of your brand as easy as possible for users to do what they need to do with it.

Affordable

Affordability is when a product or service is within its target’s audience budget. And its price is reasonable so that most people can afford it. Affordability does not have to mean compromising quality. However, to most customers, that is the most common sales language that hardly recognizes quality. Affordability expresses the value of goods relative to the purchasing power of individuals. So, for branding, your language in marketing should automatically change to value proposition, not just affordability. The value proposition should meet and exceed customers’ expectations, needs, and requirements.

 If a brand is affordable, its pricing is low enough for most people to buy it. As a brand, you need to be inclusive of all budgets. You need to maintain the goodness and greatness of your brand through fair pricing. Your products and services must be affordable and the same time, value for the money paid. Brand building is about quality and affordability. Affordability should never compromise the safety and security of your products and services. That is why brands like Apple insist on simple and light designs, unlike the other brands with heavy, cumbersome gadgets that are hardly portable and user-friendly. Be smart with your brand products and services to provide high value at the most affordable pricing to your target clientele.

Valuable

Brands of value are valuable to customers. Valuable brands create a solid customer base who can continue coming for the brand’s products and services. People perceive valuable brands as good branding. Brands that compromise value in their offering will never last in the volatile marketplace. It is better to create a high-value brand with a few high-quality clients than a massive clientele base with low-quality products and services that do not contribute to the longevity of your brand in the market. Here, we are speaking about brand building that attracts value through products and services of high value.

If your services are high value, it becomes easier to establish a valuable brand that can contribute to its industry and niche. And well-positioned in the market. Most brands that can easily be labeled as good and great enhance their value with ethical principles and standards. It does not matter whether you are freelancing, solopreneuring, or incorporating. You cannot overlook ethics for value provision in brand building and positioning. And that is good branding that will make your brand exist for a lifetime on the market.

How are you ensuring good branding in your brand-building efforts? Does your target market perceive your brand as a good brand in the market? If you are not quite sure of this, let me help you dissect your brand and see how you can improve how people can perceive it as good branding in your industry and niche.

Whether as a small business owner, you need good branding strategies for brand building in the market. Here is the instrument I use to gather information about your business for clarity in the problem you are trying to solve in your business venture.