Branding your brand. A brand is a message based upon a promise and expectations of the product/service and overall company. The message is developed and distributed via various channels for consumers to receive and react. As consumers encounter, experience the product/service and develop a relationship they begin to influence the brand. Not every relationship will be positive as not believing the message in the initial encounter (think Taco Bell Drive Thru Diet Menu) or not being satisfied when interacting and experiencing leads to negative feelings which affects their overall brand image. Before creating the brand message, the buyer persona and consider how your target market will perceive and accept your brand, it is critical to brand your brand. Branding your brand is identifying the visible aspects and the collection of qualities along with physical and social characteristics which is the brand personality. The brand personality generates the emotional association with the consumer that helps to create the brand persona. The brand persona is the public face of the product/service that you place in the mind of consumers by taking the emotional attachment and seeking consumer engagement and attachment.
A brand persona humanizes the brand to allow for the engagement and attachment by answering:
1. Who you are
2. What you represent
3. What makes you better than anyone else
4. What will brand mean to the target/consumer
5. What the target/consumer experience will feel like
Once the brand persona is created the buyer persona is created around this information and the brand is introduced to the marketplace. The consumer engagement and attachment are what matches the brand persona to the buyer persona so long as the brand identity (name, logo, marketing & advertising materials) reinforces the buyer persona. You can have a well received and trusted message but if the identity does not meet the expectations, the brand image is shattered and that targeted prospect has moved on.
Consumers treat a brand the way that the brand treats them. Creating a brand persona that is based upon your own interaction and experience with the product/service provides an understanding of how your target may interact, perceive and accept your offering. Think of a brand that you are loyal to and how they treat you. What characteristics do they match with your own personality that makes you like them which leads to trust and purchase? We purchase from who we like and we like them for a reason. Create that reason with your brand persona and distribute to the channels where your target is.
How have you interacted with your product/service to develop your brand persona?
Looking for some professional advice on how to interact with your product/service to create the brand personality and persona? Let us know and we’ll quote you so you are not left scratching your head as to why your brand-to-target went awry.
photo credit artzy.viva
