The business relies primarily on two things to succeed: the product (or service) that it offers and the brand it projects as its own image. But when the two don’t quite meet and work together as they should, it means mixed messages to customers, which leads to worse sales. If you can’t seem to find the bridge between the brand and the product, here are a few relationship counselling tips that could help.
Bring it back to the customer
Ask yourself the most basic of questions, the question that you probably started the business with. What problem does your product solve for the customer? Who are they? What do they want from your product? These are the most easily communicated aspects of any product’s appeal. Figure out where your customer’s pain points and priorities are and use that as the sole central message of the brand.
If the package fits
Products have their own visual language that goes beyond the font, colors, or design scheme you use for your logo and branded material. First of all, find more information on the different kinds of bottles/tins/cans available and make sure that you’re using the option that fits what customers expect of the product. But make sure that you’re choosing branding that fits with the packaging, too. Choosing branded labels that clash with the color of the container itself it going to create something of a visual mess.
Market the product, not the business
When you’re deciding on the best use of your marketing budget, make sure that you’re leading with the product first and foremost, not the business. A lot of people want to “establish the brand” and grow from there. But you’re not going to build awareness with just a mission statement or some dedication to a value you consider important. Start with the product and sell its selling point first. Then, think about how said product or service then feeds into the overall brand and company mission. Market comes first, product comes second, company brand comes third.
Get people talking
Don’t be so concerned about how you’re going to brand your business and your products that you forget the power of other people’s’ opinions. You can tell people about your quality and your value all you want, but people have natural barriers they put up against what they perceive as clear marketing bias. Use influencer marketing, word-of-mouth, and give more people the opportunity to try or demonstrate the product to get past that perceived bias.
Keep it consistent
Above all else, keep your branding consistent across the whole business, including different products. This doesn’t mean that every product has to look identical but think of a few defining characteristics. For instance, all of Cadbury’s chocolate products have at least a splash of that same shade of purple that helps maintain a consistent identifier across the whole line.
At the end of the day, make sure your business is defined by what the product offers to the customer above all else. Everything else you want to communicate with the brand is secondary.
