Building Your Business Brand
Branding is more than a fancy logo or tagline. It's the comprehensive process of identifying your business strategically and embedding that identity in everything you do.
Discover the 3 Key Strategies
Business branding is the strategic process of defining who you are as a company — through a compelling narrative, genuine authenticity, and operational alignment. Nir Makovsky of NIRMAKO guides business owners and CEOs to build brands that resonate deeply with their target markets, applying strategic planning as the foundation for every brand identity.
What Is Business Branding?
Essentially, your branding covers every part of your business. It includes your sales process, your company culture, and your Mission and Vision statements.
In reality, the hardest part of building your brand is not about where you shout it from the rooftops. Instead, it is about determining how you want people to feel when they hear your name. In other words, it is about how you want to be perceived by your target market.
Think about two very famous shoe brands. The name Nike might leave you with a sense of tenacity, hard work, and athletic excellence (just do it!), while the name Converse will likely invoke a more counter-culture feeling. This isn't by accident.
Make no mistake, those companies spent massive amounts of time, effort, and money on their branding. In many ways, strategic planning serves as the foundation for any strong brand identity. Indeed, following strategic planning best practices is just as essential as the creative work. Furthermore, increasing your company's value starts with a clearly defined brand. Similarly, understanding the difference between sales growth and business growth begins with clear brand positioning.
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Now It Is Your Turn
First, decide who you want to be as a business and what differentiates you from your competitors. There are a million ways to do this, but it all starts with a little soul searching. Consequently, working with your leadership team to identify your strengths and weaknesses is a critical first step.
Moreover, every business's journey in discovering their brand identity will be different. However, once you do the work to decide who it is you are as a business and how you want your target to perceive you, there are some smart approaches to implementing your brand strategy. Here are the top three:
Have a Story
Your brand story is an informative narrative. It tells the tale of your business from creation to today. Specifically, it should include the value your brand brings to customers. It must also invoke connectivity, inspiration, and worthiness.
Don't confuse your standard elevator speech with your brand story. The former merely reflects what your business does, while the latter shares with your audience why your business matters.
For instance, think about Apple. We ALL know the story of Steve Jobs building the company in his garage. This narrative illustrates genius and innovation. As a result, it remains inseparable from the brand today. Consequently, developing a compelling story is a core component of effective business coaching.
Keep It Real
Interesting and engaging stories are great, but not at the expense of authenticity. In other words, successful branding is dependent upon genuineness and the appearance of transparency.
In short, don't project something that you are not. The increasingly savvy public will sniff out insincerity from a mile away. Accordingly, authenticity goes hand in hand with strong organizational leadership. Notably, learning how to sell better also begins with authentic positioning that your team can stand behind.
Nevertheless, even businesses who find themselves caught in negative publicity (think product recalls, customer service failures, leadership SNAFUs) have opportunities to reinforce their brand authenticity with candor, humility, and a vow to do better.
Walk the Walk
Admittedly, branding can be a bit of a double-edge sword for business owners and the companies they run.
For example, if you brand your business as compassionate and caring, then rethink that no-returns policy. It simply runs counter to the brand. Similarly, if your brand reflects innovation, then it might be time to stop issuing paper paychecks.
You get the idea. Ultimately, savvy business leaders recognize the importance of brand alignment. It applies to themselves, their leadership team, their HR, and everything the business touches. Therefore, a well-aligned business development strategy ensures your brand promise extends to every stakeholder interaction.
Additionally, exploring sales coaching techniques can help align your sales team with your brand values. Moreover, knowing how to drive revenue growth while staying true to your brand separates thriving businesses from the rest. In addition, the ability to build business resilience in uncertain times ensures your brand stays consistent under pressure.
Furthermore, business leaders who align brand with operations benefit most from structured peer accountability. The TAB Boardroom peer advisory meetings are where brand alignment becomes a measurable commitment — reviewed and reinforced monthly with fellow CEOs.
So as you begin the process of building your business brand or enhancing the one you already have, be sure to look inward, be sincere, and don't be shy to tell your story.
Frequently Asked Questions
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