5 Tips To Make Your Brand Unforgettable
by Jessica Kane
Approximately 75% of all consumer and retail products introduced to consumers fail each year, according to Harvard Business Review. While most fail because of a lack of financing and poor planning, many brands flounder because they can’t secure a foothold in the competitive marketplace. Consumers have endless product choices available, so you must create something they want and then make your brand memorable.
Use the following 5 tips to make your brand unforgettable:
Use An Identifiable Name or Trademark
Some brands simply imply what their products can do. They state the benefits within their trade name. For example, P&G’s Tide brand suggests clean clothes. Pampers implies that millions of babies will be treated with the utmost care.
According to KnowThis.com, strong trade names can enhance the recognition of your brand, build brand loyalty, and help with the introduction and positioning of your product in the marketplace.
Similarly, a trademark is equally important in establishing your brand and making it memorable. Symbols, logos, expressions or designs that customers can relate to your brand often improve consumer recollection. Even small children recognize the McDonald’s arches from their car seats.
Trade names can represent prestige or uniqueness, which can help make your brand unforgettable. For a trade name to work well though, it must be backed with superior customer service and high product quality.
Create A Character or Slogan
You can use an animal, spokesperson or even something completely made-up to represent your brand. The primary purpose of a brand is to communicate with consumers.
Brand characters entertain and provide a softer sales approach for your target audience. Some of the most memorable brand characters are the Pillsbury Doughboy, Tony the Tiger, Ronald McDonald, Mr. Clean, the Keebler Elves and Flo of Progressive Insurance. Most of them show the product in use rather than it being presented to people with product features and/or ineffectual jargon.
Slogans are catchphrases, short memorable statements, or mottos that help make brands recognizable and unforgettable. Most companies who use characters for their brands also use slogans. Some examples include “Just Do It” by Nike, “We Try Harder” by Avis and “They’re Magically Delicious” by Lucky Charms.
Slogans can change over time as markets change and companies choose to highlight different features and benefits of whatever they sell. Most slogans are short so consumers can remember them, and some companies cite their slogans in jingles. All told, slogans can be used effectively across many types of media.
Keep Your Message Consistent
Depending on the types of products or services companies sell, the types of advertising they use for their brands vary. For example, when high tech companies or homebuilders introduce products to middlemen, they often use tradeshows because of the vast amount of information needed for buyers to make informed decisions about their products. However, advertising alone does not make a brand memorable. Content does.
Content includes all of the benefits, features, slogans and messages you can communicate to consumers. But to make your content memorable, it must maintain consistency across your entire advertising mix. This repetitive mixture of words, images and videos are what build awareness and make your offerings more memorable.
Use Effective Merchandising
Even with a preponderance of advertising, your brand can get lost in a sea of products at the store level. That’s why merchandising is crucial.
Merchandising strategies include banners, displays on shelves, point-of-purchase displays, creative package designs, shapes and color schemes.
Merchandising is best defined as the attractive display of products to help increase sales in a retail setting, according to Management Study Guide. To use merchandising effectively, you must attract consumers with banners and store signs, and then get them to purchase whatever you sell. Merchandising is a highly effective way of making consumers remember and/or purchase your products or services using their visual senses.
Establish An Online Presence
The main reason to get your products online is because everyone else does it. You don’t want to miss out on an opportunity to build awareness by not having a website. Even if you primarily attract customers from your business cards or direct mail pieces, an online website is a great way to build credibility and for consumers to learn more about your company and the products or services you offer.
Today, many manufacturers, including Campbell’s and Nabisco, put coupons on their websites for consumers to use at grocery stores. Contests and giveaways are effective ways to generate interest and build awareness online, and a solid social media presence is helpful to generate attention from consumers.
By including your trade name, slogan and content online, a synergistic effect will enhance your print advertising.
Jessica Kane is a professional writer who has an interest in graphic design, marketing, and printing. She currently writes for 777 Sign, her go to place for banner signs, custom flags and custom signs printing.
