Consumers like to associate with unique and popular brands. Therefore, to win the minds of present-day hyper-informed consumers, one must build a very strong brand. Brand differentiation ensures your brand is distinct in an environment of clustered brands.
How can you have a unique brand, without brand differentiation strategy? The answer is obvious!
Today’s leading brands are not playing it softly; efforts are always at top gear to be differentiated. One might wonder what the likes of MTN, Glo, Airtel, Etisalat still do with different unique selling plans and selling point. The answer: Consistent brand differentiation is the only way to stand tall. They understand that their overall business success lies within the differential strength of their brands.
Brand differentiation allows your customers to uniquely relate with a combination of factors, ranging from the physical attributes of your products and services, to your brand story, great customer experience, emotional response, brand triggers etc. These could also help your brand to laser-focus on a desired segment of the market.
Here are five differentiation tactics you could leverage to build a strongly unique brand:
1.Develop and maintain a compelling brand story
A compelling brand story can help you crush your competition. Your customers are not immune to the effects of the plethora of advertising and brand positioning messages choking our digital space for good reasons. So, if you want your brand story to be uniquely effective and linger on in the hearts of your existing and prospective customers, it must consistently and creatively speak about your brand DNA.
2. Emotional response.
According to Dr T.P Chia, “Emotion is more powerful that reason. Emotion is the driving force behind reasoning and thinking.” What emotions get triggered at every customer touchpoint with your products and services? We do have a great experience with a brand that activates a core emotional response (make us feel joyful, loved, younger, make us feel part of class), then that will play into building loyalty. When you’re truly engaged with a brand and its values then you become an advocate, amplifying the message through words of clicks, and mouth.
In a report in Harvard Business Review, “Customers who feel a genuine emotional connection with a particular brand generate intense value for that brand. Those who are ‘fully connected’ emotionally are 52% more valuable to brands than customers who are ‘highly satisfied. “
Source: Harvard Business Review
So, drive your customers to reach the desired emotionally bonded state where they feel they can buy only your brand in your industry.
3. Customer experience
Customers experience goes a long way in standing out your brand in the pool. This can manifest in numerous ways such as your brand’s physical presence, exceptional customer service, ease of use of your website, styles around the packaging of your product, approach to your service delivery. According to Harris Interactive, 2011 Customers Experience Improvement Study, 73 out 100 of consumers love a brand because of great customer service.
Consistently superior customer experience and exceeding expectations can differentiate your brand.
4. Be the expert
If your brand is the best at something in your industry, you can differentiate by focusing on your expertise. To borrow a word of wisdom from Marty Nuemeier, the three most important words in differentiating your brand: Focus! Focus!! and Focus!!!
5. Concentrate on a segmented market
It is easier to make a good lasting impression in the mind of a well-served few consumer groups than a large unsatisfied. Every customer is different and must be treated based on their needs. Your focused market can make a whole point of difference to your brand differentiation.
How is your brand different from your competitors?
If you need a systematic assessment of your brand to develop effective business strategies, contact us: STREAM Insight Ltd. info@streaminsightonline.com, +234-803-576-2835, +234 805 334 1812