10 Things You Need to Do to Make a Lasting Good Impression
It’s not enough to make a good impression. A memorable brand also needs to make a lasting impression.
Brands and their logos are everywhere: on the computer device you’re using right now, on the drinking cup in your hand, on the clothes you’re wearing. A logo is the “face” of your business.
A brand is the promise of what consumers can expect from your products and services. It communicates your identity and your values, so it needs to be unique, authentic, and memorable.
Creating a memorable brand is no easy task. How do you make it stand out amid such intense competition and in so many marketing channels? How do you make a lasting impression?
1. Design the Right Logo
As the face of your brand, your logo needs to convey its very essence. There’s no set formula for a good logo. Some of the best logos (e.g., Google) are simple and use sans serif fonts, while others, like Starbucks, use both type and graphics to create unique visual brand representations. It takes lot of brainstorming, research, and revisions to create a winning logo. Don’t skip this step.
2. Be Unique
Your brand can’t stand out from the crowd if it’s not original, but its originality must make sense within the context of your brand.
Numerous elements can add to a brand’s originality—strange and catchy brand names, clever taglines, atypical products, intriguing color palettes, outspoken corporate values. However, the elements must complement each other and precisely express the brand and its promise to customers.
Unique Mission Statements
To be unique a brand, a compelling mission statement is needed. The following are examples of mission statements that enhance their brands’ uniqueness.
- TED: Spread ideas.
- Walmart: We save people money so they can live better.
- Nike: Bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world. *If you have a body, you are an athlete.
3. Engage Your Audience
Everything you do for your brand will be in vain if you fail to connect with your audience. First, you need to identify and understand your buyer personas—who they are, what they want, what they fear, where they are, how they shop, etc. Then you’re ready to engage them through a variety of channels following these best practices:
- Answer their questions.
- Reply to all messages and feedback: positive and negative.
- Entertain them with your brand’s story.
- Appeal to everyday, universal interests, concerns and emotions.
4. Boost Emotional Appeal
Speaking of emotions—everybody has them. Emotions affect how memories are created, stored and triggered, as well as help define expectations.
The emotional appeal of a brand is behind many purchase decisions, often unbeknownst to the consumers making those choices. Sparking a genuine connection and an emotional bond with your audience is an effective way of making a lasting impression that will influence how consumers interact with your brand in the future.
5. Humanize Your Brand
A human touch can go a long way in reaching and engaging your audience by prompting good, memorable brand impressions.
To humanize your brand, speak to your customers with a likable, relatable human voice rather than through impersonal, scripted press releases. When developing content, remember that you’re writing for human beings, not search engines.
6. Use the Five Senses
Today’s sophisticated consumers care about customer experience. They may not fully understand how a brand influences their experience, but they know how it makes them feel. One way to enhance customer experience is to engage consumers’ five senses.
Smells are excellent at bringing up memories. Sounds can deeply affect our mood. Touch enables us to connect to objects. Taste can surprise and delight us. Sight can stimulate cravings and overrule all other senses. Using the five senses to engage consumers helps them have a positive, memorable experience with your brand.
7. Be Consistent
To create a memorable brand, you need a consistent brand message that consumers can trust. Your brand should be true to its identity, audience, values, and ideals. It should be consistent over time and over all platforms. Inconsistencies leave consumers wondering who you are and what they can expect from you. When in doubt, they will choose another brand.
8. Establish Your Authority
The most successful brands are authorities in their industries. Consumers go to these brands to research products and services as well as make purchase decisions.
The best way to set your brand as an authority is through fresh, relevant, informative, and educational content. Consumers desire valuable content as much as they need and want products and services. Valuable content is invaluable.
9. Tell Your Brand Story
Who doesn’t like a good story? Storytelling is a compelling way of making a brand more memorable, which is why story branding is trending in the marketing world.
Once upon a time, you had to come up with a great line for your campaign. Now you must come up with a great story. This is not a story that you write and your audience reads; this is a story that consumers experience and feel. It’s a story that stems from what they believe about your brand and how it makes them feel.
Brand stories are a medley of facts, feelings, ideas, opinions. A strong brand story is true. It has vision, purpose, values. It highlights your products, people, actions, and reputation. It’s also authentic, unique, and memorable.
10. Take a Stand
Harmless opinions may be harmless, but they’re also useless. A memorable brand has a personality and an opinion (That doesn’t mean it needs to be offensive unless it fits your brand). Without a position, a brand is bland and forgettable.
The Bottom Line
Even in this era of heightened political correctness, the old adages still apply: bad press is better than no press, and there’s no such thing as bad publicity. Granted, good publicity is better than bad publicity, but nothing is worse than being forgettable. Give people a reason to remember you.
