The 4 Pillars to Building a Brand
From enterprises to startups – these are the foundations for creating a loyal customer base
No matter how much money your company may invest, hire expensive talent, or bombard the internet with paid ads and expensive commercials, a brand is never just created overnight. A brand is the culmination of every touchpoint your customer has with your product, service, or interaction. A brand is a promise, a reputation, that takes a history of customer experience to attach to.
At Powered Labs, we’ve helped identify 4 guiding principles that work synergistically to build a lasting brand.
Explain what your brand means. (And be honest)
What if you have a hard time explaining what your company does in a few words, then you likely have a brand alignment issue. No matter how complex your business, service, or product is, there should be a way to explain it simply. More importantly, why does your company exist? What unique problem does it solve? Why would someone hire your company instead of the competition? If you cannot answer these questions, you may need to wonder indeed if your company even needs to exist in the first place.
Simon Sinek’s famous allegory of the golden circle applies perfectly to how a brand is. On the outer circle, it explains what a company does. The middle circle explains how a company does it. The core of the circle should address the crux of our discussion here: why does the company do it? 
Brands that have longevity and have stood the test of time always understood and were able to explain their “why”.
Can you?
Create a unifying manifesto
Everyone knows the “what,” some know the “how”, but very few know the “why” at the center of Sinek’s elusive golden circle. If you’ve been pondering your “why,” and have begun to feel nervous, remember that we are there for you – and will help you through this.
Creating a brand manifesto can help facilitate this existential anxiety by fleshing out your organization’s beliefs and purpose for existing. Why did you start your business in the first place? Please don’t tell us that it was only to make a bunch of money – not only will that fail to differentiate you from competitors but will also make you shallow and forgettable.
Your brand manifesto should contain a clear, driving philosophy that can help you and your team align every message, every campaign, and every interaction you have with a customer.
If your organization can pull this off successfully, it will create an emotional connection with your customers, and in turn, will create unwavering brand loyalty.
Always Grow. Don’t be Stagnant.
In the age of digital media, brands have been able to take the center stage on a shoestring budget compared to before. In the past, only big brands and companies could afford traditional media – the 30 second Superbowl commercial, or another prized television spot. Startups could never dream of national brand recognition through guerrilla marketing and tiny ad spends.
Those days are now over. Social media advertising and influencer marketing have opened the stage for smaller companies to get in front of their target audiences and deliver the right message at the right time. The virality of the Internet and the democratizing of content production has given people with a purpose a platform to become household names. With that has come shorter attention spans, greater competition, and increasing need to innovate and be unique within the marketplace, offer the best products or the best service or the best price, or quickly be passed up.
For that reason, no matter how established your enterprise is, or how loyal you may think your customers are, you can never rely on the days of former glory to hold your brand up. Think about big retailers such as Toys R Us or Blockbuster who failed to innovate themselves and were forced to the brink of extinction and beyond by failing to adapt.
Go or Grow – your audience is changing, aging, changing their minds, and if you fail to follow suit, be prepared to be forgotten.
Focus on customer service
Just like real life, people won’t remember what you said, or what you did. But what will always resound with them is how you made them feel.
For that reason, practicing excellent customer service at every touchpoint you have with your audience is an integral aspect of building and maintaining a brand. Every interaction should be consistent, regardless of the platform. Your tone and messaging should be the same whether a customer calls your sales department or receives a reply from your company’s Facebook Messenger.
At Powered Labs, we provide an array of consulting and brand development services to position your enterprise-level organization for success. Our goal is to help leverage our skills to help businesses flourish and grow, overcome obstacles, and unleash new possibilities for future growth.
To discuss creating a lasting brand legacy, contact us today.
Drop us a line at sales@www.poweredlabs.com