Brand image today is the hot seat of debate. What used to be a simple interpretation of logo, colors, and style is now an analysis of much more. Today, it’s an association of business interaction - impressions made by your product, website, employees, or other similar factors that affect the experience your customers have.

Modern businesses focus heavily on product and service, and rightly so. The tradeoff for this, is that most other expenses, such as for branding, is considered a luxury expense to be focused on eventually, or in the worst case, unnecessary fluff that adds zero tangible value to the product or service in question.

However, brand image matters. In fact, it may matter more than ever for any business today. With the ability to speak your mind on the internet being as easy as unwrapping a candy bar, no business wants bad recognition.

A few reasons why brand image might matter:

With the ease of creating a business and the various niches that can be fulfilled, the business offering alone may not be enough to stay in the mind of your consumer.

So how does one start building a positive brand image?

The Vision and The Mission

Begin simple - The Vision and Mission.

While it may sound cliché to start with something as basic as a Vision and Mission, there is a reason for doing so.

Consistency is key. Defining these values and having them consistent makes everything easier as you progress in setting up your business’s image. This allows any creative activity into your brand to follow a defined framework, eliminating any possibility of variation down the line. Lining up these values is core to your company, even before your brand comes into the picture. (link)

For example, it may benefit to have these values defined for your employees, as it gives them an idea of what they’re working for beyond a simple paycheck. According to a piece done by McKinsey researchers, purpose-driven brands drive twice the brand-value generation as opposed to those purely in profit generation. This may have the bonus result in motivated and informed employees who may or may not interact with your consumers in the future.

The Identity

Much like your everyday person, a good brand needs a personality - voice, tone, characteristics. All of these are absolutely necessary and key to creating a relatable brand that can not only help brands stay in your consumers’ minds, but also to relate to them.

A common practice in recent years to help identify and create a brand identity is to consider Carl Jung’s 12 archetypes. These contain such archetypes as:

There is a good chance that you’ve seen (and been charmed by) one of these archetypes, and for good reason. These archetypes were initially created to understand and plumb the depths of the human psyche and so by their very nature, are relatable and memorable.

Audience Research

Traditional marketers also tout the idea of market research, as it’s an invaluable tool to those in the know.

Crafting personalized marketing requires the business to know the audience exactly as they come, and this is no different for a brand. Consider rebranding initiatives for major brands done over the last 10 years - a significant portion of them were due to outdated marketing approaches to audiences that couldn’t relate to the brand anymore.

To this end, it may be wise to research demographic and psychographic data on your potential audiences and create buyer personas, fictional representations of your consumers, to help understand them better.

Social listening tools are another approach to audience research. Consider your product/service and the industry it’s in, as well as the popularization of social media and digital marketing. What answers are you able to find by observing the social media landscape?

A strong, clear brand image doesn’t happen overnight. It’s important to understand that while you can do a lot to influence perception, your brand image is ultimately in the hands of your consumers.

That being said, it’s up to you to understand exactly how you can affect these perceptions.

A solid foundation of your brand core values - your vision, your mission, is key for the operative aspect of your business. Such things as the approach your employees take, as well as your company culture is affected by your mission and vision, and is therefore of utmost importance to be as consistent as you can.

Identity is also paramount. It’s hard to interact with a robotic personality or an artificial face made up of pixels on a screen. To ensure your brand’s relative memorability and human side, consider a guiding framework such as Jung’s archetypes to help forge a brand that lingers in the mind, evoking connections that go beyond a simple transaction, and inspiring loyalty not unlike that of a trusted friend.

Finally, research. Although it may seem daunting to enter into that world of neo-academia, it’s easier than one may think. Consider starting off with simple buyer personas, and moving onto social listening tools for the zeitgeist of your industry.

A brand image is hard to achieve, but with time and a consistent approach, you can mold audiences to see your brand the way you do.