Today a strong brand image is essential to sticking out among countless competitors. There are simply too many businesses for each and every need one may have. The ones that don’t stick out get left behind. Fortunately, there are some clear ways to separate the good brands from the bad. While there are dozens of ways to do so, here are two particularly relevant distinguishers.
The first mark of a good brand is brand consistency. This is a very intuitive element of developing a brand, but is often overlooked. 90% of businesses have at least partially inconsistent brandings. Obvious inconsistency could be a brand looking child-friendly on social media while being very adult in practice. Subtle inconsistency could be different fonts, values, and messages across mediums.
More often than not, inconsistency is noticed while consistency is overlooked. It’s not going to be the most appreciated element of a brand, but people notice when it’s not there. On the other hand, the second mark of a good brand, hyper-personalization, is very noticeable. Hyper-personalization is an extension of targeting, focusing on individuals over larger groups of people.
An example of a brand which does this particularly well is Netflix. Netflix on the most basic level has a catalog of content which it offers to its users. What makes the brand significant is how tailored this selection is, with algorithm-driven recommendations and pages. Nowadays social media sites and streaming services have become masters of personalization.
Although that’s not to say that other brands cannot incorporate hyper-personalization. Starbucks, for example, uses their app to appeal to their customers and personalize. The important thing that hyper-personalization does is create loyalty and feelings of significance. People want to feel special, and hyper-specialization makes customers feel like they are.
These two elements together will certainly increase the reception of consumers to any brand. Again, they’re just two of many possible elements worth examining. At the same time though, they can make a real difference in revenue. Any business building a solid brand should be consistent and specialized to their customers.
