It’s no secret that many businesses fight for their corner of the market, which directly implies that they hope to take parts of the market away from others. Supermarkets may seem friendly in their marketing or social media bantering, but the truth is that if they could subsume the market share of their competing brands, they would in a heartbeat.
This doesn’t happen in a vacuum, of course. It takes time, energy, and enthusiasm to scale and grow your business to the point where you can go against the heavy hitters. Part of that effort means being identifiable, seen as necessary, and accepted as inevitable.
Most people, for example, admit and accept that Coca-Cola is a necessary beverage to have on the market, and no one expects that company to fail anytime soon. Part of this comes from establishing a recognizable, trusted, complete, and effective brand identity that has been slowly cemented over the years.
So, in order to compete, you have to know who you are, what you stand for, and the unique identity you have to offer. But how can you achieve this in an overstuffed market? In this post, we’ll discuss how to get started:
Build Your Visual Identity
Most people understand that Pepsi and Coca-Cola offer similar products for the most part, but it’s very easy to distinguish between both branding styles, both product designs, and even both attitudes toward curating their beverages. Coca-Cola is red, expressive, and considered “classical,” Pepsi is modern, sleek, and standing tall among stiff competition.
Visual identity is essential, which is why it’s so good to talk through your options with creative design professionals able to think through all the approaches to take. This includes what identity best suits your brand, how to get the most out of it, and how to be consistent across marketing channels.
Curate Your Brand Story
What is your brand known for? Where does it come from, and how does its local culture shape it? What priorities and niche market is it targeting? What does it do differently from its competitors? Who launched the enterprise?
Curating a brand story (that should be authentic, of course), is a celebration of your progress and also an invitation for others to be part of it. There’s a reason why certain clothing or fragrance brands try to sell you a lifestyle, it’s so that when you use or wear their products, you feel as though you’re part of the story of sharp style, fashionable mystery, and above all, competence.
Humanize Your Brand
In an era of AI-led aesthetics and operational formatting, super slick television advertisements, social media banners and TikTok jokes, nothing compares to being authentic and showing your human approach. Celebrating the figureheads of your brand, standing behind your enterprise with confidence, and offering a human face to refer to can go a long way in helping your brand seem interesting and iconic.
Say what you will about figures like Elon Musk, he is perhaps the one person most people could refer to when speaking of people who work in the rocket industry, for better or worse. Humanizing your brand, then, is almost always a good approach to take, even for serious enterprises like legal outfits.
With this advice, you’re sure to establish your own identity, even in an overstuffed market.
