Strategies for Launching a New Brand

AT A GLANCE

Launching a new brand is always an exciting milestone in every business. It is a moment of pride filled with positive anticipation of new growth opportunities. However, a brand launch is also stressful, filled with critical moving parts that include research, meticulous planning, a structured organisation, strategic execution, and pre-produced assets aimed at your target audience on a precisely choreographed timeline.

Whether launching a new business, introducing a new product or service, or undergoing a rebrand, you need a thorough plan to make a powerful first impression.

Here's how to get it right.

Know Your Customer

It pays to know what your target audience wants. Identifying how consumers think and act and their motivations, interests, and challenges can help you develop a valuable solution.

Start by analyzing demographic and geographic characteristics, then delve into understanding your target audience's needs, desires, and challenges. Ask questions. What problems does your product solve? What aspirations do they have that your brand can fulfil? How can you reach your audience effectively?

Polls, consumer surveys, focused group discussions, and social listening are great ways to gain insights. You can collect data directly from potential customers about their preferences and behaviours. You can engage small groups and discuss your product or marketing strategies. You can also study competitors to identify their target markets and strategies, helping you find gaps or opportunities in the market.

Here is a sample target market segmentation cheatsheet you can use to help you know your customers more.

What is the ideal age range?
Does your product appeals more to a specific gender?
What is their income bracket?
What do your customers do?

Demographic

Geographic

What city are they from?
What is the population?
How can you reach your audience?

Behavioural

What are their buying habits?
What occasion do they tend to buy more?
Where do they purchase?
What channels are they mostly in?

Psychographics

What do they believe in?
What are their values?
What is their lifestyle?
What activities do they like to do?
What are their interests?

Define Your Brand

Having a distinct and authentic brand identity will help drive your business's memorability and credibility. A brand identity describes what is important to the company and your audience and why you offer the products and services you do. Firmly defining your brand identity will help you stand out from your competition and forge an emotional connection with your audience.

Defining your brand includes identifying the following:

Brand purpose

Brand purpose is your company's reason for being, giving you a brand identity that can emotionally connect with your customers. By embracing a clearly defined brand purpose, businesses can foster loyalty among their customers and attract new customers who share their values.

For example, Nike's brand purpose is to move the world forward through the power of sport. Worldwide, they are levelling the playing field, doing their part to protect our collective playground, and expanding access to sports for everyone.

Brand promise

While brand purpose answers the "why", brand promise is the value or experience a customer can expect at every brand touchpoint. The brand promise is what your brand stands for and is why customers choose you over your competitors.

Nike's brand promise is to bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete globally.

Brand values

Brand values refer to the beliefs that guide the brand's actions. They reflect what is important to the company and are intertwined with all communication and decision-making

Nike's core values are innovation, inspiration, inclusivity and sustainability.

Brand personality

Brand personality is how your brand is personified. It is how your company expresses itself through a combination of character traits. Defining your brand personality will help make the brand more human, improving the emotional bond with your customers.

Nike is an athlete who is strong, fit, positive, energetic and determined. They "Just Do It."

Verbal identity

Your verbal identity is how your brand sounds to your customers. It infuses your brand's personality in messaging and includes your brand story and tone, which creates a consistent voice across all communication channels.

Nike's verbal identity revolves around motivation, performance, and empowerment. Their use of empowering language in their campaigns ("Just Do It") encourages consumers to associate Nike with personal success and athletic excellence.

Visual identity
Visual identity is a collection of elements that includes your logo, colour palette, typography, imagery, and overall design aesthetic. These elements help differentiate your brand visually.

To help you create a consistent and compelling brand message across all marketing channels, you can use the Brand Essence Wheel as a strategic tool to define and articulate the core identity of your brand. Here are some templates you can use.

Conduct a competitor analysis

Understanding your competition will provide insight into what your brand will be competing against. A clear picture of the market landscape will help you make informed decisions for your launch and future growth.

You'll need to evaluate each competitor's strengths and weaknesses by looking at their quality, price, promotion, distribution, financial health, brand story, reputation, and even how they manage their fulfilment and customer service. Knowing your competition will help you improve your brand, product, or service.

Here’s a simple process to study your competitors.

Identity your competitors

Who are your direct competitors, indirect competitors, and emerging ones? Direct competitors are businesses offering the same products or services to the same target audience. Indirect competitors are companies that provide different solutions to a pain point your brand is solving. Emerging competitors are new entrants with innovative business models that could disrupt the market.

Gather information

Collect data on your competitors through various sources. You can review their websites for product offerings, pricing, and unique selling propositions (USPs). You can analyse their social media presence, including engagement rates, follower counts, and content strategies. Review reviews on platforms like Google or industry-specific sites to gauge customer sentiment.

Conduct SWOT

Conduct each competitor's SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats). Evaluate what they do well and where they fall short. Assess the features and quality of their products compared to yours. Investigate online reviews and ratings to understand how customers perceive them. Analyse their marketing tactics, including advertising channels, messaging, and promotional strategies. Look at market gaps and review external factors that could impact your business.

Benchmark performance metrics

Compare key performance indicators (KPIs) such as market share, available sales data, and engagement metrics. Using tools like Google Analytics or SEMrush, you can assess social engagement rates and website traffic.

Develop a brand launch communications plan

A brand launch communication plan is a strategic framework for effectively conveying the brand's message consistently to your target audience. It includes a well-planned calendar with carefully worded messaging and creative assets around each milestone.

By providing consistent messaging and experiences across channels, your brand can reinforce its identity and critical messages, enhancing recall and recognition.

Here are some templates you can use to craft your brand launch communications plan.

Establishing an online presence

A robust online presence increases a brand's visibility, making it easier for your potential customers to find and engage with it. When consumers can easily access information about your brand, they are more likely to perceive it as credible and trustworthy. A consistent digital footprint across platforms helps establish a reliable reputation, which is essential for fostering consumer trust.

At Straits Creative, we assist brands in crafting identities that authentically reflect their values and resonate with their target audiences. We focus on translating this identity into meaningful consumer connections, fostering lasting relationships. Having worked with many clients on their branding and rebranding, we have valuable insights on effectively navigating this process and avoiding common pitfalls. As we work together to establish your brand in the market, we will help you uncover the inherent joy within your brand, placing that joy at the heart of your customer relationships.

Get in touch with us today. tisha@straitscreative.com

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