What Goes into Developing a Brand?

Value the users and not the products:

To create brand that your consumers look up to, start thinking from their perspective as early as the product planning stage. All your strategies, resources and actions need to be directed toward providing the highest level of satisfaction for customers. Your messaging should center on people who use the products you are selling and never on the items themselves. The consumers are the heroes of the story, not the brand or the products. This way, the brand and users become one.

Be available wherever your consumers are:

Among the biggest stories in this year's BrandZ ranking of the world's top 100 valuable brands is Amazon's gain over Walmart. With a brand value of $45.7 billion, Amazon saw its value grow by 34%. What differentiated Amazon from Walmart and the rest of its competitors was accessibility at every touch point. The multi-channel company spread its reach to all the different ways customers consume media to build a bond between them and the brand.

Stay true to your word:

Building a brand takes a long time and the way your company behaves today contributes to building goodwill now and into the future. Through today's technology, actions are assessed immediately and the word spreads faster than ever. What you stand for as a company is a valuable component of a good reputation. SAP is rated in the BrandZ™ research as being particularly responsible as a company. But be careful of dressing up your offerings without backing them up by performance or you will create mistrust.

Keep a consistent voice in all interactions:

The best brand voices sound and feel like people, not like corporations or mission statements. They give personality to brands and make content easier to believe. Your brand's tone guides and filters what you say and how you say it. If it is at odds with your marketing, you won't be able to make an emotional connection with your customers.