How to Exude the Essence of Your Brand

You may hear the word “brand” and think that it doesn’t apply to you. After all, you run a business. And the branding thing? It’s not in your wheelhouse. So, you just go about running your business, and not pay it any attention.

Unfortunately, this is a big mistake. Why? Your brand is the essence of your business. You’ll want to ask yourself a few tough questions to get to its heart, and so you can exude its essence:

• Does your company’s product or service have a strong point of difference?

• Can you summarize your brand into one word or statement?

• Do you build every level of the organization around the brand?

If not, you’ll want to start incorporating a few components of a successful brand. Here are a few ways to get started:

1. Conduct a brand audit.

Even if you already have a solid brand, conducting a brand audit is always a good idea. Conducting periodic analysis of your brand helps you to position your company in the best way possible. And it also sheds light onto whether your product or service may become outdated. With all of the technological advances, keeping up with the latest is always a smart move.

2. Survey your customers.

Find out what’s on your customer’s mind. You’ll want make sure that your brand is aligned with your company’s strategy, and this involves your customer’s opinions. The good news? Customers who are surveyed are more likely to buy more products, even if they are unhappy with you at the time of the survey. Your customers will appreciate that you care enough to ask. You can use tools like SurveyMonkey.com to create free questionnaires.

3. Make everyone a brand ambassador.

The strongest businesses have employees who proudly promote the brand. Make sure that everyone in your company supports not only the brand itself, but the values of the brand too. This makes it easier for any and all branding efforts to naturally be taken to that next level.

4. Stand for something

Does your business make decisions based on whether it supports the brand? When your business stands for something, decisions become easier. And it’s easier to make an impact.

All decision making processes require business owners to wear their branding hats. And no, this doesn’t only mean decisions that involve marketing. It means all decisions.

For example, the company, For Global Change, wanted to choose a hosting company that shared their same values. They did their homework, and learned that iPage hosting is completely powered by wind energy. For Global Change is a business that has a commitment to being green, and they wanted to exude the essence of their brand with their choice of a hosting provider. We think they made the right choice, don’t you?

What are some ways that you exude the essence of your brand? Please comment below.