The strength of your brand predicts your company success at every stage in the growth cycle.
Before we get into that, let’s define a brand as the promise you make to your customers, and how you deliver on that promise.
You communicate the promise through your company values, the core brand statement, the brand personality, and the iconography you choose to represent the promise.
Delivering on that promise requires you to tailor your customer service and delivery models to meet the representations you’ve chosen.
How your brand strength predicts success
- Trust shortcut – the explicit promise made by your brand saves potential customers’ time. You’ve shown them what to expect. If you deliver on that expectation, it creates trust.
- Differentiation – every market position requires your company to be somehow different from others in the space. Your brand communicates that differentiation.
- Shareholder value – a strong brand increases the value of your company. On the NYSE and NASDAQ, intangible assets account for 50% or more of the market capitalization of listed companies. What is the largest intangible asset? Your brand.
- Customer loyalty – the expectation you’ve created resonates with your customers. They will buy more of your products because they trust the brand, recommend the brand to their friends, and are also more likely to overlook minor setbacks. This creates an overall higher lifetime value
- Decreased price pressure – a brand loyalist will pay more for a brand they believe in.
These are just a few of the ways in which a strong brand predicts success.
The phases of your brand and company
The very first sentence in this article claims brand is a predictor at every stage in the growth cycle. Let’s consider some of those truths.
- In the startup phase, a strong brand presence creates awareness and excitement about the current product or service and future offerings. This awareness and excitement drives not only purchase of the initial minimally viable product, but can also result in higher levels of investment, accelerating the path to revenue.
- During the growth phase, a strong brand eases expansion into new markets, whether geographic or product expansions. A strong brand during this phase acts as a recruiting tool, making it easier to acquire both leadership and functional talent to meet the needs of the more complex, growing company.
- When maturity approaches, a strong brand influences market share, and the improved customer lifetime value allows for this phase to last longer than competitors with weaker brands.
- Renewal can be made easier by leveraging the strength of an existing brand. Customers who believe in the promises made by the brand are more likely to continue their loyalty as the company pivots into new models, products or markets.
- Decline can be pushed far into the future by a strong brand, with some brands seemingly creating infinite customer goodwill.
Here’s the great thing – it’s never too early to create a great brand, nor too late to assess and strengthen your existing brand, and SharpShell Digital’s team brings a proprietary methodology to that purpose. We’ve been involved in more than a hundred branding or rebranding projects across industries, company sizes, and growth phases.
Let’s build together.
Ready to create a brand that reflects who you are as a company and builds value? Schedule your free consultation with SharpShell Digital today.