Five Aspects for Building a Sustainable Brand in a Digital Economy

Success in brand building is not an overnight achievement. Most entrepreneurs in the creative industry have come to realize that things do not just happen. Every successful story has a heartfelt and inspiring story behind it. So, from that understanding, it is clear that it takes a long-term approach mindset to turn any entrepreneurial story into glory. And that is always shaped by the entrepreneurial mindset of the personal brand behind the creator and builder of the brand.

And with our nosy tendencies to sniff what is good and what is empowering in most of the stories we search and research, it is inspiring to know that any brand-building process and journey has traceable steps to make it happen online and offline. The steps you take should not be in disintegration of the purpose and value of your business venture but a streamlined process for solid brand building.

Brand Building Reflections

When we started this story of having some brand-building sense and drive, no matter how small your business is, we thought it was a crazy idea, especially as a marketing strategy for any side hustle or passion-based entrepreneurial business projects.  Here are the brands making it happen and have grasped the essence and meaning of brand building. You can pause and sniff at these inspiring and empowering stories of having the sense and sensibility of brand building from humble beginnings.

There is the Beyond the Marketing Stall story and Nanawax fashion brand, and how they all reflect that inspiring brand-building mindset needed for reducing chaos in the creator economy. In entrepreneurship, a brand-building mindset helps you see the big picture of every step in your brand-building process and journey.

Once you adopt the the entrepreneurial mindset of brand building, the whole picture puzzle becomes like a walk in the park with some spicy adventure towards success and fulfillment in everything you do in the market, as explored in these interconnected aspects for solid brand building. Here are the steps and aspects they have all reflected and weaved for infusion into their brand-building stories that most businesses struggle with in the journey to success for building empires. So, let's dive in.  

Concept

In the present-day digital economy, conceptualization of your business idea with a deep understanding of the context of what you will offer and how you will do it is imperative. Conceptualization of the business idea helps in having clarity of the business model. And a big step in making it stand out in the crowded market. 

Business ideas might be the same, But the power of building it into a brand depends on the conceptualization of the business idea. Conceptualization is the big picture that makes it presentable and viable in the market. Gone are the days of researching what other people are doing.

The twist for the sweet spot is to conceptualize what you want to do and how to contribute to the rotting market. And that calls for a creative and innovative approach to your business venture. Entrepreneurship is not like writing an examination for a prescribed traditional syllabus where answers should be the same based on the memorandum despite being an international curriculum where learners should present their answers the way they understand the subject relating to the world around them for practical application of the knowledge and information.

The good thing about being an entrepreneur is the power to conceptualize your business idea into a business model that will provide value to the world. The most fulfilling part is that ability as a unique human being to focus on the value creation process for designing the solutions designing the solutions with clarity of their benefit and value in the market. Those are the first steps you need to take to build not just a hustle, stall, or store but a global brand with a solid digital presence. That promotes your brand-building process and journey.

Resourcefulness

In the digital economy, being resourceful is valuable and can take you far in your entrepreneurial journey. It will empower you to build not just a business, but a global brand of influence and authority. You can imagine a situation where one has a laptop and connectivity to the internet but hardly thinks of using it for their growth and development except for games and entertainment.

In entrepreneurship, being resourceful is having the imagination and creativity to optimize what you have and create value, no matter how small the value is. Lack of being resourceful in the creative economy can retard entrepreneurial dreams. A lack of resourcefulness is a dream killer. Reflect again on the Nanawax fashion brand story and its powerful inspiration of starting small by optimizing what she had for value creation.

That is why most successful entrepreneurs are resourceful and use their imagination to create visionary and visual possibilities when starting. If you listen to most YouTubers who are now noticeable, they always show you how they started recording with a simple smartphone.

You can also reflect and think of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who started his empire in a garage, and Mark Zuckerberg, who created his first tech initiatives in a college dormitory room. And Nanawax Fashion founder Nanawax Fashion founder who began by selling rags with people mocking her and naysaying her business would never make it as a brand. But her mindset in brand building is what made her to be what she rose to be in the fashion industry. How inspiring and empowering.

Big ideas are never conceived and conceptualized in luxurious Five Star Hotel lobbies. Entrepreneurial resourcefulness happens in humble spaces for clarity and the reality of the business concept. The humbler the starting is, the more focused you can be in making it into a big story.  Every successful story has humble beginnings. However, the brand-building mindset will make it big in the market. So, be resourceful and think about brand building. And the rest will follow suit.

Strategy

Once you have envisioned the business model from the conceptualization and the resources you might need, you must define how to achieve long-term success through a solid plan. In digital marketing for brand building, strategy is more than planning, as is generally understood in traditional business setups. In the creator economy, it is comprehensive and a blueprint of the big picture of your approach, tactics, and business model.

At times, strategy and system can sound more or less the same. However, in entrepreneurship, strategy is the practical application of the systems to fulfill the whole system of your business venture. Strategy is the tactical alignment of systems with business goals and objectives by establishing how best to do it through a streamlined system with appropriate resources. And you must align all these with the the vision and mission guided by the purpose and value of your business venture.

 And clearly defined, the strategy will boost agility and focus on achieving goals for long-term success in the market. That way, fulfilling the long-term process of brand building. Remember, brand building is not an overnight sensational success. It is a marathon that calls for careful conceptualization, resourcefulness, and strategy that fits the systems for the business model and process.

System

Most people have come to relate systems with technology. Here, we are not speaking systems but system. In brand building, a system refers to everything you put together to maximize the productivity and profitability of your business venture. That means establishing an integrated whole system for effectiveness and efficiency in business processes and operations.

In our previous blog post systems building was closely related to digital marketing and automation systems for streamlining operations and processes. Yet, practically in a layman’s language and practical application in business, a system is the integrated whole of your business processes and operations that anyone can easily take over and carry on.

It is about developing a coordinated way of thinking and doing things without confusion and conflict. I recently came to the understanding that a few weeks ago, when I was busy with my sewing project. I realized that the moment I tackle each process one at a time, like turning down the hems of the tops and finishing. Then, the second process of turning them down again for sewing now it simplifies the whole process.  

That way, it becomes easier and more systematized for optimizing productivity and enjoyment of the task. A simple example could be a writer or copywriter who develops a system like Monday is researching for their articles, Tuesday is for writing the articles and editing. And then Wednesday could be proofreading and altering any ideas that are not aligned and relevant. Then, formatting and laying the graphics. Then, final publishing.

So, for solid brand building in entrepreneurship, a system is establishing yourself in all the steps and routines. That makes you do your tasks without wasting time for optimizing productivity and achieving goals. That reminds me of the Monday.com advert idea of establishing a system to promote smooth workflow management.  

Process

The process, as a noun in business, suggests a long-term progressive procedure to accomplish a specific goal. As a verb in our entrepreneurial context for brand building, it suggests defining and refining the purpose and value of your business venture for achieving goals and objectives. However, this blog post will explore it as a noun, meaning a long-term series of business tasks or activities performed systematically toward accomplishing goals.    

A disintegrated process will result in poor management and communication systems. An integrated and well-managed process does not have hiccups and pauses but is continuous for progress and productivity in what you will be doing.

A process mindset makes finishing tasks easier. Without defined processes, work becomes difficult to finish and manage errors. It helps entrepreneurs and creators keep on relevant tasks without rushing and being rushed or distracted, especially in marketing, where the long-term mindset should set in for solid brand building.

Surprisingly, in real life and business situations, mastering the meaning of the process approach in doing any task or activity can increase speed in finishing tasks. Here, our drive is for you to understand brand building as a process that should be interlinked to all the above concepts for you to see it as a well-coordinated process you can implement and manage for solid brand building. And you need to understand it as long term for sustainable brand building in the market.