Building Brands: An Insider Guide
The Trade Digital Print team have been helping our professional clients in advertising, design and marketing to build their customers brands over the last 20 years. And over that time we’ve learnt a thing or two about how brands take shape and grow with their customers, campaign after campaign.
So we’ve become much more than a supplier: our industry customers look to us to bring more to the table. And we’re happy to do that: to partner with them in delivering their client promises – relieving some of the pressure along the way with great service and delivering to deadline.
And in our 20 years in the business, we’ve picked up a few tips about brand building. Firstly: we understand it can be a complicated business, a process unique to each individual brand. But there are a few things that are common to all – the qualities that consumers like to buy into are universal. It’s bringing them out in the best, most effective way that can be the tricky part.
With that in mind, we’ve put together a short guide to what we think are the most important things to remember when it comes to building a brand – stick close to these fundamental elements and you can’t go far wrong!
It’s not all about you…
Bragging or talking about the business, product or service all of the time is the easiest thing in the world to do – but’s it’s also a big no no. You put yourself in danger of coming across as arrogant when you want to come across as in touch with the customer’s needs. Think about how your product or service solves a problem or meets a need and communicate that instead.
Keep it Slick
Easier said than done when you’re juggling lots of priorities – but that’s what your good at. And we can help with that too! Customers want to see professionalism, and that means investing in the best possible ideas, photography and creative the budget will allow. We’ll take care of the rest – making sure art work is printed to the highest possible quality. We’ll event dot the ‘I’s’ and cross the ‘T’s – our pre-press check is all part of the service!
Keep up to Date
Your next campaign is only as good as your skill, knowledge of the marketplace, understanding of the consumer and creative flair. In a dynamic, fast-paced market where nothing stays still for long, that means keeping an eye on what’s coming up next – what are the trends and how do they impact on your clients’ business? This kind of forward thinking is essential to keeping brands fresh.
Invest in Change
Us consumers are a fickle bunch. We like what we like and we like to change it up now and again. So keeping abreast of new technology and techniques isn’t just about looking good – it’s about delivering a better experience for the consumer. So, once you’ve got your client’s brand established, you’ll need to keep on eye on the future and how it can be even better. Listening to customer feedback and keeping an eye on the competition are both essential.
Get good. Then get even better.
Positioning yourself and your team or agency as the expert on brand building immediately sets you apart. And if you’re the kind of brand guru we think you are, that’s something that you thrive on any way. So use it to your advantage. It’s the key to doing great work for your clients that other clients notice and raises your profile in the process – it’s a win/win situation!
Be Confident
Confidence is such an appealing quality. So building it into your clients’ brands is essential. The trick is to come across as confident without a hint of arrogance – which can be the death knell for any brand. All the best brands are confident and have humility and humour. Baking in these qualities wherever possible creates a personable, friendly brand that people want to engage with.
Have Integrity
This is something we insist on with our clients and we can see how it’s an essential part of any successful business relationship. For us, as a brand, it’s a fundamental quality that doesn’t just feature in our brand guidelines – it’s a quality we aim to live and breathe and bring to life every day in our relationships with our partners and clients. In this way, we aim to ensure our customers see us as trustworthy, reliable and dependable. It’s our way of building the Trade Digital Print brand beyond any advertising or promotional activity. And we’re finding that it’s a highly rewarding approach.
Is there anything we’ve missed? We’d love to hear your nuggets of wisdom on building great brands – or, if you’ve got a brand campaign in the works and want advice on how best to put it in print, give the Trade Digital Print team a call. We’re the industry’s digital printing partner of choice.