This post is written by Lisa McElhone an American entrepreneur and highly dynamic business leader. Lisa McElhone has a proven track record creating innovative companies that leverage unique strategies to deliver out of the box solutions.
Lisa McElhone has successfully launched several high-profile business’s over the past two decades. Her responsibilities have included executive duties, as well as operational ones. Including; launching new products to market, financial operations, strategic partnerships, leadership roles, the implementation and upkeep of business budgets surrounding compliance and regulations.
Today, most people are aware of the impact branding companies has on the marketing front. If you’ve managed to stay blissfully unaware, however, now is the time to note how important branding is, especially in today’s market. Constant social media and internet exposure has made it more critical than ever that you manage the impact of your brand, whether you’re building a new brand, launching a new product, or relaunching a successful brand that’s actively doing business.
Understand Your Customer and Your Marketplace
In order to create an effective brand, start by understanding your target demographics. You need to know as much as possible about your target market in order to develop an effective marketing strategy that will help you keep up with those efforts. Depending on your brand, this may include knowing:
- The approximate age of your target buyer
- The position that buyer holds in their company, if relevant
- The income range your target has, or their budget for specific products
- The problems and challenges your buyer faces on a regular basis
- Your buyer’s geographic area
- The things that are most important to your buyer
Once you understand who your buyer is, you need to know where they are: that is, the platforms they’re using on a regular basis, the keywords they’re searching for, and where you’re most likely to be able to meet them to bring in new leads, convert them, and make them satisfied customers of your business. These represent your marketplace: the place you’ll go to maximize your marketing efforts.
Establish Your Messaging
When establishing or promoting your brand, it’s important to know who you are, as a business, so you can share that information with your buyers. Consider:
What is your mission statement? What is it that drives your business? Are you committed to a charity, to advancing technology, or to providing amazing service for your customers within the bounds of your industry? Create a clear mission statement that can help shape your brand, including your business goals and the value you’d like your brand to bring to the table.
Define your value proposition. What do you have to offer your customer? How does that impact the products you choose or the materials you use for those products? Define how your brand compares to the other brands in your industry. Consider:
- How is your brand better than others out there? What are you offering that your competitors aren’t?
- Where does your brand create value for consumers? That is, why should consumers choose to purchase your brand?
- What is your brand’s competitive advantage? What will help you stand out when the time comes for a consumer to make a product choice?
Define Your Vision
Your vision is a future-focused statement that paints a vivid picture of what the world will look like once you’ve accomplished your brand mission. Ideally, you want your company to offer something unique: some value that will improve its impact on your customers. When you clearly define your vision, you can help your customers see it too—and that makes them more likely to turn to your brand for their needs.
Set and Show Your Core Values
Your brand’s core values are the pillars of your company. They will help guide your organization’s choices, influence your workplace culture, and show your customers what sets you apart as a business. When you work to establish those pillars clearly, you have a set of guidelines that can help inform all your future choices. Define those clearly to help showcase them to your customers, too. Consider:
- What is important to your business?
- What is it that your business focuses on?
- What connection does your business have to the greater community and to your industry as a whole?
- How are you taking steps to show that you genuinely value those things? For example, if you value sustainability, are you working to create both a green platform and a sustainable workforce? If you value providing excellence for your customers, what steps are you taking to show it?
Successful brands aren’t just created out of great products and services. They are created with careful attention to the minds and hearts of your consumers. Your goal is to embed an emotional tie in your brand platform: something that your customers can connect to and feel comfortable with. The reality is, your customers will buy the brand they feel the most comfortable with, and they’re more likely to return to that brand for future purchases. It’s not always the brand with the most features or benefits. More often, it’s the brand that can develop an emotional connection to the customer. By setting that out clearly as you establish your brand voice and your purpose, you’ll find that it’s easier not only to draw in new customers, but to connect with your existing customers in new ways.
About Lisa McElhone:
After spending years launching many successful businesses in a variety of industries Lisa McElhone moved to Miami to help her explore her creative drive and find her passion. While there, she encountered a new-to-her phenomenon in the local nail salons: an amazing experience, not just for having her nails painted, but for socializing as well as visiting an amazing atmosphere. Those salons offered trendy music, plenty of people to talk to, and a welcoming environment as well as a deep dedication to cleanliness.
When she returned home to Philadelphia for a visit, on the other hand, Lisa found that there were not nearly so many opportunities for nail salons. Instead, she discovered that what was otherwise a highly acclaimed and glamorous resort failed to offer basic hygiene practices, leaving her with a skin infection and a new passion in life.
Lisa knew that if she wanted to the ideal nail salon experience she has come to love in Miami she would have to take matters into her own hands and that’s how Lacquer Lounge was born. Lacquer Lounge serves to promote clean and ethical beauty while providing a luxury experience for all of its guests.
Under the guidance of Medical Director Alyssa Piccillo, the salon focuses on safety and cleanliness as well as offering an incredibly relaxing experience for all of its guests. There, Lisa is able to give her creative passions an outlet while working as an entrepreneur, shaping the face of the business and maintaining its overall commitment to excellence.
