A company’s brand is their promise to their marketplace. You have a brand, whether or not you choose to control it. Your customers have perceptions of the products and services you offer. Branding strategy is about how you can control those perceptions–how you create and maintain an image—shaped by establishing a timeless promise, consistently communicating the promise, and without failure, fulfilling the promise.

Articulating your brand
Every brand has both concrete and abstract attributes. The unique combination of these attributes distinguish your brand from your competition’s.

Concrete attributes include:

• The products and/or services you offer (financial planning, professional services, wedding cakes, apples, etc.)
• The audience to which the services are offered (families, individuals, brides and grooms, independent grocery stores, etc.)
• Where or how you offer your services (a specific geographic location, multiple locations, web-based, etc.)
• The education, professional certifications, and backgrounds of your employees and the company
• Fees and business models

These attributes, though critical to your brand, can evolve with your business.

Abstract attributes can include:

• Personality
• Approach
• Knowledge
• Customer service
• Values including responsiveness and trustworthiness
• Efficiency
• Ways of doing business
• Specialties

Abstract attributes give a brand depth and help it be about more than just goods and services you offer. Often defining your competitive edge, abstract attributes should remain steadfast, even as the business evolves.

Though all industries are different, the same fundamental rules apply when developing effective branding strategy. Your unique combination of brand attributes help shape your promise to your marketplace. Building customer awareness and controlling customer perceptions is crucial to helping the brand be more valuable to its audience, which in turn, positively impacts credibility, visibility and profitability.