Abhie Tee

Abhie Tee

Tools of branding

Understanding the vital tools to build a long

lasting brand image.

Abhie Tee

Abhie Tee

“If business is a canvas,

branding is the color set” - Abhie Tee

Abhie Tee

Index

Foreword

1. Kaizen.

2. Consistent Communication.

3. Signatures.

4. Artistic Visuals.

5. Stimulation.

6. Conclusion.

Abhie Tee

Foreword

After studying the small businesses at the marketplace I found there‟s a robust

growth in start-ups. On the other hand, among all the start-ups, 80% are winding up. Majority of them are just because of poor branding. It‟s important to learn

about branding before commencing the business. Branding should be considered as an essential element which plays a key role in maximizing the sales & reach. Many business owners don‟t even focus on branding because

they think it‟s not important. They don‟t even like to hire a branding consultant with an excuse “I don‟t want to spill money on unnecessary things”. In the long

run, poor branding actually going to cost you 10X more than the fee of consultancy.

The general interpretation of people towards branding is branding means designing a logo and engraving a tagline below it. This is why businesses are tumbling down. Branding is the way beyond that. In my previous eBook „Epitome of branding‟ I clearly explained everything about branding. In this eBook you‟ll learn the key tools which will help you in improving the brand image day-by-day. If you skim through any writings of management gurus, you‟ll find a complex terminology. All business owners may not have the grip over the modern management science. You‟ll find an easy terminology in this eBook. I‟ve written this after studying the practices of big players in the market.

It doesn‟t matter if you‟re a techie or an artist, if you‟re looking to start your own business this eBook will help you to work on building the brand image for your business. I‟m going to explain 5 key tools which are necessary to build and maintain a good brand image. Every tool should be observed and applied carefully. Your brand will grow only if you follow each and every step carefully. Patience, optimism, persistence are the requirements to brand a business. These tools may not get you instant results but these will help you in the long-run.

Abhie Tee

1. Kaizen

Kaizen is referred as „Continuous improvement‟ in Japanese terms. There should be

continuous learning and improvement. As I mentioned in my previous eBook „Epitome of branding‟, Branding doesn‟t only mean designing a glossy logo &

hanging a fancy tagline below that. There are a lot of processes involved in branding. Some of the major aspects are:

Communication channels Quality of the product/service Promotion strategies Unique selling proposition

It‟s necessary to check & improve the brand on a regular basis. Working on the brand every day will allow you to learn more about untapped segments. Check all the areas of business regularly which are directly & indirectly related to the brand like advertising material, quality of the product/service, distribution channels, receiving the consumer complaints, delivery lead time. Figure out the Key success factors of the company and learn more about them. It‟s important to learn more about each segment of the brand.

Go and study what‟s happening in the market, tune into the business news, read the success stories of brands in magazines, observe the moves of competitors who are in a superior position than you. Kaizen is all about constant & consistent improvement. Continuously analyze the system. Make some minor improvements regularly. You‟ll

have the grip over the brand only when you know each and every inch of your company. It‟s impossible to check what‟s happening in the company overnight.

Regular checking will allow you to detect the outdated and useless processes. Even if they‟re minor things, they need immediate attention. Things should be eliminated at the root level or else they‟re going to cost you more.

Abhie Tee

2. Consistent Communication

It doesn’t matter how great your product/service is, you can’t fetch enough

sales/subscriptions if you have a poor brand image. The brand image comes when

there is brand awareness. You should make the audience aware of your brand.

Communicating with the audience whenever you’re launching the product won’t

help you out. Consistent communication is an essential part in creating the brand

awareness. Communicating regularly will build the trust between you and your

audience. Show up regularly and communicate something like posting something on

Facebook. Always keep your radius pumped up with the messages. Communicating

consistently will fetch more audience and stretch the radius.

It’s very easy today to communicate with the people around the world by using

online platforms. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram will allow you to communicate with

the people who’re not just around you but also across the world. Communicating

regularly will root the brand into the subconscious minds of the audience. This will

create ‘Auto-Suggestion’. Auto-suggestion is the process of Subconscious mind

suggesting the primary mind automatically. Whenever the audience looks at your

posts or images, they will allow the content into subconscious mind unintentionally.

Popular modes of communication:

Facebook posts

Instagram Posts

Blogs

Newsletters to the personal emails

EBooks

Short videos

Always show your presence to the audience. How will people come to know about

what you’re offering if they don’t know you? Establishing the brand image starts with

establishing the communication.

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3. Signatures

A Unique brand image will be shaped by the signatures in the processes. Signatures

are how uniquely you deliver the product/service to the customer/client. It matters

from the point of packing to the point of delivery. Nowadays the competition is

getting tougher at the marketplace. Rivals are producing the products which are

similar to yours and placing them in the market with even lower prices. Sometimes

those products may perform better than yours. All you can do to dominate the rivals

is to maintain signatures. Price will be no longer an issue if you can place the product

uniquely. Signatures add value to the brand as well as to the product line. Signatures

add uniqueness. By doing things like using different wrappings, faster delivery, and

complimentary gifts will add signatures to the brand. If people are about to forget

the brand, the signatures will automatically remind them.

To differentiate yourself from the sheep herd at the marketplace you must have your

own signatures. Signatures will have an indirect impact on the purchasing decisions

of the public. Even if the competitor is offering the same sort of product at the

cheaper price, people will prefer your product if you got signatures. People will feel

there’s something special in the product if it got signatures. Signatures boost the

sales & reach.

There are a lot of companies which are trying to compete. Signatures allows you to

dominate. Never make your goal to compete. Just dominate the market. Competitive

mindset will always make you track the moves of the competitor. If you choose to

dominate, you have to focus on what you have. Always remember, you need to step

ahead to compete with the competitor. You don’t even need to go into competitor’s

way if you want to dominate. Always try to go farther than the competitor rather

than going faster.

Plan to dominate rather than compete. This will make your brand exceptional.

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4. Artistic visuals.

Eyeballs go where good visuals lie. Eyeballs need to be grabbed for good branding. The purpose of branding is to grab the attention by coming into the limelight. If you can get the eyeballs on your brand, you can deploy the product without any second thought. All the big players invest heavily in creative agencies just to grab the attention by providing creative visuals. Promotions combined with creative visuals influence the subconscious mind of a viewer. A colourful billboard in a busy urban street will grab the attention. Visuals actually creates curiosity among the audience. Creative visuals also stand as a signature to the brand. A creative commercial conveys the audience that you‟re something special. A creative commercial gets 10X traffic

more than a regular commercial.

Today, everything is getting easier with the technology. There are a lot of creative applications like Photoshop, Picsart, Lightroom to create outstanding designs. It‟s all

about imagination and thinking power. To entertain the eyeballs you must understand the power of artistic visuals. Artistic visuals create ripples inside minds. A background action will be enabled in the mind at the moment you look at an artistic visuals. These actions actually impact the purchasing decisions. Product with artistic visuals generates the value along with the sales.

Wrapping up the product with cool visuals will keep the buyer super excited from the moment of throwing it into the basket at the store to the moment of unwrapping it at home. It‟s important to emphasize on the visuals as well as the product. When coming

to the website, it‟s important to keep the design glossy and colourful. A great page

layout encourages the surfer to explore more. Designing creative pictures for social media portfolio like Facebook covers, profile pictures, Twitter headers will get immediate engagement. Humans tend to trust first instinctive impression. If you can capture their first impression you‟re likely to get a positive response. When coming to communication, think and act like an artist. It doesn‟t matter what you do. You need

artistic instincts to build the brand image.

Abhie Tee

5. Stimulation

It‟s all about how you stimulate the eagerness in the audience. Arousing eagerness

works better than presenting the product/service in a routine way. Adding stimulating content like provoking statements, enchanting taglines makes a long lasting impact on the audience. Every company posts ads but it takes the art of stimulating the audience to dominate the market. Stimulating audience will allow you to reach 10X than usual communication. Audience with strongly implanted message helps in fetching more audience.

Stimulation requires Word of Mouth marketing. Word of mouth marketing is actively influencing and encouraging organic word of mouth discussion about a brand, resource, event or organization. Stimulating the right audience will lure more audience. This is an effective tool to expand the reach and sales. This process takes discovering the segmentation of audience and their psychographs. This process needs deliberate analysis of the targeting segments of the audience. Some of the segments are:

Personality- Introvert, Extravert, Motivated, Powerful. Lifestyle- Values, beliefs, traditions, customs. Social Class- Upper Class, Middle Class, Lower Class.

It‟s very important to determine the segment which is suitable for the product/service. Campaigns and promotions work only if the right segment is targeted. Targeting right audience will not only fetch clients but also increased organic reach. Organic reach is always better than paid reach. Always keep the brand natural and effective. Stimulating audience is a natural way to build a long-lasting brand image.

Almost every psychographic segment is active on social media. It‟s easier now to

target specific segment by using various campaigning tools on Facebook and Instagram. The main purpose of social media platforms is networking. It may be easier to target the segment by using social media but the process of creating stimulating content will take a lot of creativity and deliberate study on psychographs.

Abhie Tee

Conclusion

Above tools will work only if you apply with patience and persistence. You have to combine these 5 tools to see 10X results. Create consistent communication with signatures and stimulate the audience with artistic visuals. And finally, apply Kaizen! Branding is not a business tool to apply whenever it‟s

required. It‟s a daily ritual. Wherever you‟re and whatever

your business is, these 5 vital tools will help you in building a creative, long-lasting, and exceptional brand image. Thanks for reading my eBook. Visit my website www.ysjlifestyle.wordpress.com

Regards,

Abhie Tee.

Abhie Tee

Acknowledgements

First of all, I thank my great parents for being the backbone of my education

and other aspects of my life. They have done their best to provide me all the

resources I wanted.

It’s my pleasure to thank personal mastery guru Robin Sharma, Sales guru Grant

Cardone, Social media guru Gary Vaynerchuk for inspiring me every moment

with their books, articles, and videos.

I also thank my creative online partner Te Nichele, inspiring mentor DL Harrold,

image consultant Pablo Espinosa for being on my side.

I’m grateful for my best friend/ Brother Venkata Trinadh for teaching valuable

things every day.

I’m thankful to my partner Subhash for helping me in everything.

I’m in debt to all the people who’re regularly helping me to promote my page

on Instagram.

Abhie Tee