Building a strong Brand is not easy and there isn’t a gold formula for it. 

There are, however, some fundamental goals you need to achieve to prepare your way towards developing a strong Brand.

What is a strong Brand?

Firstly, what do we mean by saying a Brand is a “strong Brand”? It’s a Brand that has established a deep emotional connection with people – a Brand that is loved & loyally supported by a considerable number of people (both employees & consumers). 

Creating a deep emotional connection entails the accomplishment of healthy relationship traits between the Brand and people, such as:

Once a fundamental emotional connection has been established, it will create opportunities for the Brand to reduce barriers of selling to new and existing consumers. 

Benefits of a strong Brand

Having a strong Brand will allow you to sell much faster and much easier to new people (new consumers) as well as up-sell and cross-sell to existing consumers. 

This sounds amazing in the short-term -> a loyal audience means more profit.

But it sounds even greater in the long-term -> a loyal audience means sustainable profit + growth + impact.

A strong Brand will create: sustainable profit, sustainable growth, and transformative impact

The Brand’s sustainable profit will allow it to grow incrementally and sustainably over time. Which will in turn allow it to offer the transformative impact it promised it would from the beginning.

As a Brand, what you promise to people and what you actually deliver to them must be aligned. 

The alignment of your Brand promise is incredibly important for the Brand’s success

If you already have our illustrated book The Brand Guide, have a look at the chapters Brand Purpose and Products/Services to better understand Brand Purpose and Brand Promise, you can also download a digital version here.

Now that we know what a strong Brand is – and why you’ll kick ass if you develop one! – let’s have a look at the primary essential elements you must have in order to create one.

Before we move on, keep in mind what we mentioned at the beginning: there is no gold formula for a strong Brand. So keep an open mind, be creative with it and you might as well try to have some fun.

1. Strong product

Having a strong product is the very first step. Your product has to deliver and even surpass expectations. This is the only way to not only win new consumers but, most importantly, win the loyalty of existing consumers. 

Your product is how you execute your Brand Purpose, so it needs to be aligned with everything you promise your audience.

If you often talk about being consumer-focused and honest, but your product is lacking one or more attributes it promised it would have, then there is a misalignment. 

For example, you come across a Brand that makes burgers and they advertise these amazing photos of perfect burgers with a thick juicy patty and abundant ingredients and sauces, but when you buy one it’s a small sad burger with a paper thin patty and a couple of sauce drops. 

You are obviously going to be disappointed because you expected to receive what you were promised, and more than that you are going to lose your trust not only in the product, but in the Brand itself. Creating loyalty is now out of the question.

If you want to create a strong Brand, you need to be very careful of the quality of your product and what expectations you create through what you promise.

2. Employee loyalty

Achieving employee loyalty is a challenge that not many Brands, owners, managers and leaders are willing to undertake. It requires an incredible investment from leaders, both emotionally and in resources. 

However, employee loyalty is necessary if you want to build a strong Brand. 

Why? Well, if your employees don’t believe in your product or your Brand, why would consumers believe in it? 

Employees are your Brand’s agents. You need people who will work for more than just a salary. They are the first people who need to become the Brand’s advocates because you need people who will fight for your Brand. 

The “problem” is that you can’t pressure employees into becoming loyal. It has to be genuine and progressively developed over time.

Loyalty is earned, not bought

Benefits of loyal employees

The benefits of loyal employees are not often talked about, probably because there are not so many loyal employees out there. 

Loyalty in teams is neglected, simply because it is incredibly difficult to achieve

Although there are numerous benefits that cause a ripple effect to all 3 Pillars: The Brand, the Company Culture and Consumer Culture, we will identify the most straight-forward ones:

• Higher emotional health & well-being
• Enhanced productivity & efficiency
• Increased motivation -> Increased creativity
• Free promotion – Unconditionally become an advocate of the Brand and promote it to other people 
• Lower employee turnover – people will stay in the company longer
• Open to changes 
• More forgiving to management mishaps – and vice versa

People that work with the Brand are going to become a defining factor of whether you will develop a strong Brand or not. 

When employees are also consumers, it is a great indication that your Brand is strong

How to achieve Employee loyalty

The first step to create employee loyalty is to respect & care. You need to genuinely respect and care about the people who work with you. There is a universal misconception that the lower the position an employee holds, the less power (and therefore respect) they have. 

This is not the case, especially in this digital era of information transparency where people can openly express their experiences online. Defamation (bad reputation) is one of the biggest risks a Brand can have. So it is not only immoral to judge employees’ value purely based on their position, it is also at great risk to the Brand’s reputation. 

Some ways to achieve employee loyalty include nurturing your relationship with them by:

• Leading by example (one of the most important values needed to create integrity and respect)
• Taking the time and energy to really get to know each team member individually
• Creating strong training programs that are interactive and tailored to your Brand
• Establishing team building activities (that people actually enjoy and benefit from!)
• Developing reciprocal relationships (based on justice and a sense of equal give and take)
• Creating reward systems that are achievable and beneficial to team members

These are just a few examples that can be adjusted in unique and creative ways to your Brand. Take the time to research and brainstorm the best ways suited to your Brand and team to strengthen the relationship between employees and the Brand.

3. Consumer loyalty

In order to achieve sustainable success, you need to conquer consumer loyalty for both the Brand itself and its products.

Companies often underestimate consumers and try to mislead them to increase short-term profits. This method does work in the short-term, but it destroys the Brand in the long-term and it eliminates the possibility of achieving consumer loyalty. 

Consumers are a part of your Brand

Being consumer-centered is important because at the end it’s all about them. What you promise and offer must provide value both in the short and long-term for people to build strong relationships with the products and, ultimately, the Brand.

Instead of considering consumers as sales numbers, acknowledge them as who they really are: unique individuals with the desire to emotionally connect. 

Benefits of loyal consumers

We can probably dedicate a whole book to the benefits of loyal consumers, but for the sake of simplicity the main ones include:

• More sales – More willing to purchase new products
• More sales – Up-selling & cross-selling opportunities
• Less likely to switch to a competitor
• Free promotion – Unconditionally become an advocate of the Brand and promote it to other people 
• More forgiving to the Brand’s mishaps

How to achieve Consumer loyalty

When achieving consumer loyalty, the same basic principles apply as with achieving employee loyalty: based on respect and caring. 

Take the time to really understand people, what their needs and wants are, what their dreams and aspirations are, what they struggle with. Don’t get lost in the never-ending greediness of constantly hunting more sales and more profits. 

Don’t be a predator to consumers, be a provider and a friend to people. 

Be someone they can trust and support and you will in turn achieve abundance in sales and profits for a long time.

Some ways to achieve consumer loyalty include nurturing your relationship with them by:

• Leading by example (one of the most important values needed to create integrity and respect)
• Taking the time and energy to really get to know consumers as people and not sales numbers
• Focusing on consumers’ needs & wants
• Creating value that will be irresistible
• Developing reciprocal relationships (based on justice and a sense of equal give and take)
• Align your Brand, product and processes with what consumers want & need

Want to deeply understand consumers? It’s not that difficult, after all, you’re a consumer too

These are just a few examples that can be adjusted in unique and creative ways to your Brand. Take the time to research and brainstorm the best ways suited to your Brand and team to strengthen the relationship between consumers and the Brand.