Introduction

If you're new to the business world, you might be wondering about all of these fancy terms for brand management. They sound complicated and like something other companies do. But nothing could be farther from the truth—whether you're a big corporation or just starting up, knowing your brand inside and out is what will get you through any tough times. So let's take a look at how to know your brand well enough to start building it up!

In this post, we'll present some key factors in building your brand by looking at which ones are most important for success in the long run. We'll also discuss how understanding these factors will help implement them into your marketing strategy so that people know exactly who they're buying from!

Brand Archetype

A brand archetype is a way of categorizing a brand based on the type of brand it is. There are 12 different types of brands, and each has its own unique set of strengths and weaknesses. Choosing the right archetype for your business will help determine what kind of message you want to convey, how you'll structure your company, what kinds of customers you attract, and more.

The first step in building any successful brand is choosing its archetype. This will dictate many things about the direction and identity of your business down the road, including:

• Your core values (e.g., if you're an innovator)

• Your target audience (e.g., if you're a rebel)

• Which products or services are most relevant to that audience (e.g., if they're explorers)

Brand Value Pyramid

The Brand Value Pyramid is a framework for understanding how an audience perceives a brand. Studies have shown that brands have four levels of value: functional, emotional, social, and ego (life-changing). As we consider how these relate to music, for example, let's take a look at each level in turn:

• Functional Value: This relates to the primary use case of the product or service. For example, if you're listening to music while doing some household chores around your house, what functions do those tasks need from your sound system? Is clear speech needed over background noise? Will it need powerful bass or treble? In this case, the functional value may be prioritized over other factors such as aesthetics or design — but this doesn't mean that it should be ignored entirely! An ugly radio with poor sound quality will not perform well when used on its functional level alone, nor will an attractive radio without any features beyond AM/FM frequency buttons (if even those).

• Emotional Value: This describes how people feel about using the product or service in question — which is where I would argue that emotions come into play most strongly when considering music itself (mainly if we're talking about mainstream pop songs). While some genres may rely more heavily on aesthetic appeal than others, all genres can evoke strong emotional responses through lyrics alone—and sometimes even through audio clips alone (think commercials).

  
  
  

Brand Messaging

Your brand messaging should be clear, consistent, and memorable.

• Consistency with brand archetype: Your brand archetype is your company's unique identity - the personality it projects to customers. Think about which archetypes you want to embody in your messaging and whether the tone of your copy fits those archetypes (e.g., if you're Amazon-like, does your copy scream "convenient" or "fun?") If not, take a look at some of the other archetypes that might work better for you based on your strengths as a company or audience type (switching from "friendly" to "innovative," for example).

• Consistency with value pyramid: Your value pyramid is the hierarchy of values your product/service/brand provides that support its overarching purpose and mission statement. It's essential to ensure these are all aligned since they inform how people think about what they're buying from you! Suppose there are any major discrepancies between what someone thinks they'll get when purchasing something from you versus what they receive after using it or interacting with another part of your business model (such as an ad). In that case, this could make consumers feel deceived by their interactions with said product/service/brand — which won't bode well for anyone involved!

Brand Strategy

The brand strategy is a long-term plan that helps you achieve your business goals. It enables you to create a unique identity, build a strong relationship with your customers and create a unique value proposition.

A well-defined brand strategy takes into account the following:

• What do you want to be known for?

• Who are your competitors?

• How can you differentiate yourself from these competitors?

SWOT Analysis

SWOT analysis is a great way to get a handle on the strengths and weaknesses of your brand, as well as the opportunities and threats you are likely to face. It helps you figure out how to use your strengths to address your weaknesses and how best to take advantage of opportunities while mitigating threats.

The SWOT matrix is an easy-to-use chart that allows you to analyze your organization's external environment (the "S") against internal factors (the "W" ):

Market Share

• Market share is the percentage of the total market that a particular brand or product has. To get it, you take the total number of sales of a product and divide it by the total number of sales of all products in its category. So if your garden hose company sells 50 million hoses this year, but there are 100 million garden hoses sold in total across all brands and manufacturers—you have a 50% market share (50 million divided by 100 million). Market share is important for measuring popularity: more people using your product means higher revenue for you (and more users mean satisfaction for them).

Mindset of Customer

• Customer mindset: A customer's mindset is what they think, feel, and like. It's also how they react to things and make decisions.

• Customer needs: What a customer needs can be the difference between keeping them happy or losing them forever.

• Customer wants: This is what your customers want that you may not be providing right now (or even know about).

Purchase Frequency

The purchase frequency of your customers is an important metric to track. It tells you how often people buy from you and how often they buy from your competitor and other products.

To calculate the purchase frequency for your product:

• Calculate the number of unique purchases in a given time period. For example, if there are ten purchases in January, 20 purchases in February, and 20 more purchases in March (for a total of 50), then the acquisition rate would be 5%.​

• Compare this rate to the overall market average or that of competitors by comparing percentages using formulas like A/B = C, where A is your acquisition rate (using formula 1), and B is the average market rate (or another competitors' rate).​

Conclusion

Branding is an ongoing process. You will never be finished building your brand, and you should never stop looking for ways to improve it. In order to do that, though, you need a good grasp of what your brand is in the first place.

A brand is much more than a logo, a name or an identity. It's about how people feel when they interact with your business. A brand is the sum of those interactions. And if you want to build a strong brand, you need to understand it from every angle.