Four ways to build your brand image

Marketing is a field brimming with strategies to build and improve your brand image. But, in truth, it is all about four steps you should implement: a value preposition, buyer personas, a brand colour and promotional products.
Create a good value proposition
A value proposition is at the core of any marketing strategy. It states how your product/service solves customer’s problems, it explains specific benefits of your product/service and, finally, it includes a so-called unique differentiation, a statement in what way you are different from competitors. You have to have a clear picture of the value proposition in your head in order to market your business. In addition, a clear value proposition should find its place on the home page of your website.
Bear in mind that a value proposition is not a slogan, nor a catch phrase. It actually consists of a headline, a sub-headline, a paragraph of text and a visual. The headline should be, as in any text, an attention grabber, so, in one sentence, write the ultimate benefit of your company. Elaborate this benefit in a sub-headline using 2-3 sentences maximum. In a paragraph, list key features of your brand. Finally, choose an image, or a video representing your company and reinforcing the text.

Build buyer personas
Depending on the value proposition, you build buyer personas i.e. identify different types of target audience. It is a misconception that a brand has only one type of buyer persona. Your target audience consists of a large number of people divided into groups. For example, if you are selling hand-made purses, your buyer personas include men, women, teens, children… Each of this group of people has specific needs and interests. You should have different products/services catering to all four groups. In other words, you do not want to sell a Hello Kitty purse to teens.
The question is: How does one research buyer personas? The first thing you should do is to interview your regular customers. Ask them what they like/do not like about your product/service and how you can improve your business. Interview them in an exchange for a gift card to reward them. On the basis of specific products/services you are selling, create a more detailed questionnaire, similar to the interview and based on its results for your website.

Identify your brand colour (s)
It is important to bear in mind that you cannot pinpoint your brand colour unless you have identified the value proposition and buyer personas first. Why? It all boils down to the two basic categories of colours: warm colours and cold colours. Warm colours are usually associated with energy, while cold colours are synonyms with calmness and security. Every colour evokes different feelings in customers.  Depending on your brand, you will choose the colour. Take into consideration which colours popular companies choose for their brands. These are red, blue, yellow and black/grey. 95% of them use only one, or two colours. Your brand colour (s) should feature on your logo and website, in the design of the office/store and on promotional products.
Find effective promotional products
Promotional products are affordable marketing strategy with only one aim: brand recognition. First of all, promotional products allow you to play around with your creativity, which can help you stand out among your competitors. Secondly, promotional products offer you a mass outreach at a low cost. One pencil with your logo on can travel around the country and that you are not even aware of it. Do not limit your brand to brochures and business cards. For example, branded umbrellas are unique as well as practical (everyone needs an umbrella). It is important to find products complementing your brand. If you are selling hand-made purses, choose custom-printed decorative pillows for which you can organize a giveaway on social media.
Success lies in courage. Be different, be unique and communicate this to your customers. As Elif Shafak once said: “Do not go with the flow. Be the flow”.