What does ‘your brand’ actually mean?
Your brand is every way that you present your business to the world, from your logo to the words on your website, to every piece of communication you make. Whether it’s via events and exhibitions, PR, social media, presentations or in physical premises, it’s your brand that delivers who you are, what you do and why you exist clearly and coherently, compelling people to engage with you.
Why is brand identity important?
Investing in the creation of a strong brand is important for any business because it ensures that you present yourself with total consistency. Not only does this help potential customers to get to know, like and trust your business, it also helps to make your business look and sound more professional, which in turn gives you the opportunity to command better prices for your products or services.
How can you use your brand to create stand out to your target customers?
Understanding who your audience is and what makes them tick is at the heart of any brand strategy. Everything you do should be done with your audience in mind. If you’re not trying to reach, engage and move them to act, then it’s likely your efforts and budgets are going to be somewhat wasted.
Your brand should help you to better understand your audience as well as uncovering what is truly unique about your business. You might not have a unique product (very few of us do), but the things that set us apart from our competitors are usually found in how we do what we do, or the reason we are here. Our products may be similar to our competitors, but the way we got here rarely is, and that’s where the magic lies.
What key steps should you consider on how to build your brand?
It’s important to put the right foundations into place when you start building your brand. Your mission, vision and values should underpin everything and keep your business plans on a clear path for several years. With your foundations in place, you can then tackle the other important aspects which include understanding your audiences, defining your brand personality and tone of voice, and creating a series of brand messages.
Together, all these elements make up your brand story.
As well as helping you communicate well about your business, your story should also guide the visual aspects of your brand. From your logo to your website and any materials you use for events or marketing – everything you create should visually tell the story of your brand.
How do you approach a brand refresh?
If you want to refresh your brand, you need to be able to thoroughly interrogate your existing brand to highlight where improvements or updates are needed. It’s often useful to work with a brand consultant (for your brand story and strategy) and a brand designer (for your visual branding) to do this. We can all get a little too close to our own brands but working with brand experts means you benefit from an outside perspective and have someone to ask you the right questions and help you make the right decisions for the next phase of your business.
How do you best represent your brand at an exhibition or event?
Think about what materials you can create to deliver everything you want event visitors to know about your business. Make sure stands, banners and maybe also staff clothing feature strong visual branding to catch the eyes of passers-by and entice them in to find out more.
Think also about what you could give people stopping by to make sure they remember you after the event. Business cards, brochures or maybe a QR code that takes them to a specially designed landing page keep your brand top of mind and give you the opportunity to remain engaged with your visitors even after the event has finished. If it’s appropriate for your business, then giving away a piece of well-considered merchandise that people will truly value or a branded bag can help recall too.
Last, but by no means least, think about the experience people will have when they visit you at an event – it’s simple, but snacks, sweets or branded bottles of water often help people’s comfort on the day and create good will.
Whatever you choose to do, make sure everything is consistently branded and the quality of individual items reflects your brand.
How does brand identity differ to brand equity?
Brand identity is the way you present your business to the world to differentiate it from other businesses in your sector. Brand equity is the way that others perceive your brand and its value. Brands with strong brand equity have good awareness in the minds of their customers and are viewed positively because of the quality of their products and customers’ experiences of them.
How can we help?
Now you have your brand story, you need
an amazing exhibition stand or event activation to present that brand to your target audience. Tecna UK’s innovative T3 system offers the perfect solution to reach these consumers or customers with that message. It can be used to create pop-ups, props and sets, interactive features, and signage for all types of experiential and corporate events as well as roadshows, conferences, and product launches. In fact, it can create virtually any structure you can imagine including photo booths, event features, conference sets, pop-up shops or displays - the possibilities are endless! And because it is reusable and reconfigurable you can add a sustainability element to your story as well!
T3 is both reusable and reconfigurable. Use it time and again for any exhibition, display, event, conference, or retail purpose. Reconfigure your T3 framework; rearrange it into an entirely new design if you want – keep the framework, just swap the graphics. If you’re thinking about your brand and how to bring it to life for live events, contact the Tecna UK team for more information on how we can help you create your own masterpiece.
More about Lidia Rumley, and The Brand Storyteller’s services
People connect with people. Lidia’s main aim is to help you identify and develop an authentic and compelling brand story that not only conveys what your business does, but more importantly weaves in your passion, purpose and personality in a way that makes your business memorable to others. The moment you see the essence of your brand captured with complete clarity is the moment you'll remember - with joy - why you do what you do.
Contact her to find out more.
Looking to make your next event post strategy a success? Take a look at our
ultimate guide to exhibiting.
