The Secret To A Respected Brand

When you want your business to succeed, the brand is something that you are always going to have to focus on. As long as the brand works, everything is much more likely to fall into place just how you need it to. But how do you actually need to approach this? One of the main things that you probably want from your brand is for it to be greatly respected. As it happens, there are plenty of ways in which you can achieve this, and in this article we are going to take a look at some of the best of those.

Brand Values

One of the most important parts of this process is all about creating brand values that people really respect. If you can do this, you are going to find that they therefore respect the brand itself more too. What specific values to choose is entirely up to you, but you should make sure that they are at least the kinds of things that most reasonable people can agree on. You can even take a stand on a controversial issue if you are sure you have gauged it right, but that is of course much more risky.

Emotion

People are much more likely to really believe and trust your brand, and therefore respect it more, if there is an emotion attached to it that they can feel. All good brands must evoke some kind of an emotion in the viewer, or else it is not really doing its job. This is actually important for generating respect, as emotion shows that you are willing and keen to connect on a human level with people. Make sure you have a lot of emotion in your branding if you want this to take place, and people to trust you more.

Treatment Of Employees

If you are treating your employees as well as possible, then that is obviously going to make people respect your brand so much more. Nobody wants to see a business treating its employees poorly, after all. There is a lot that you need to think about here in order to make sure it works. For instance, you should pay people well, pay them fairly and on time and equally. You should also make sure you are providing a safe place to work – that will include carrying out a house clearance of sorts to avoid clutter in the workplace, keeping on top of health and safety procedures, and so on.

Beyond that, you also need to make sure that you have a culture which is one people want to work in. If you can do that, people are soon going to find out that you are a good employer to work for. The level to which that affects your branding cannot be overstated, and it is a really powerful thing to consider for that reason. Treat people as well as possible, and good things will come your way in so many ways.

Accessibility

People often forget about this part of branding, but it is a hugely important one. You need to make it so that your brand is highly accessible to people. What does this mean? Simply that they are able to easily grasp it and interact with it in a way that doesn’t talk down to them or denigrate them. That may seem obvious or unnecessary to mention, but there really are so many brands out there that fail to do this basic thing. If you can avoid being one of them, great respect is going to come your way from the general public.

Authority

Respected brands are generally going to be those which show a strong degree of authority. There are many ways to achieve that. In particular, you should make sure that you are able to hold forth on the industry you work within, so that people can see that you really do know what you are talking about. You might choose to keep a blog that details much of this, or you might even find that just showcasing a feeling of authority in the brand can work too. In any case, you will want to show some kind of authority if you want people to respect you and the brand you have created.

Respecting The Customer

Ultimately, if you want to have your brand be respected, you need to respect the customer in turn. It has to go both ways, otherwise it is not truly going to work out for you in this way. So what can you do to show respect to your customer? One of the most valuable things is to consider how people would generally like to be spoken to, and then make sure that your brand interacts with them in this way. If you can do that, people are going to feel the respect, and will respect the brand in turn so much more.

Being A Force For Good

Of course, good branding is mostly about what the company actually does, and not just how the brand appears. For that reason, you do need to focus on actual actions that are taking place in your business, and you need to make sure that these line up with the values that you are trying to promote as being essential aspects of your brand. Nothing is more important here than ensuring you are putting your business out there as a force for good.

What does that entail? Identify a few key issues that you would like to work on for the benefit of everyone, and then aim to do genuinely active and positive things for those areas. For instance, if you are concerned about climate change, put resources into fighting it and make sure you operate a zero-carbon company. These are the kinds of things people really care about, and essentially it’s all about putting your money where your mouth is. It is something that people are always going to massively respect.

Bold & Brave

Just as people tend to respect individuals who are bold and brave in their attitude, so too do they respect brands who appear the same way. The bolder your brand is in the world and in how it interacts with people, the more that people are going to feel an internal respect for it. You should think about this from the very start, making sure to not cross over the line into arrogance – which rarely works out in the way that some people seem to assume it will. If you can get that balance right, it’s really going to be powerful for gaining more respect from the world.

Funny

Remember that there is nothing wrong with a brand also being funny. In fact, it is recommended. A brand that completely lacks any sense of humour is not going to be one that people respect, unless it is the kind of business where seriousness is vital – such as in charity work. Merely having a funny presence on social media can often be one of the best things you can do for improving the perception of your brand, so make sure that you are really considering this deeply. You might just find it’s the best change you ever make to your brand.

Unique

No brand can last for long if it is not unique. When you initially design the brand, uniqueness is probably the main thing that you are going for, as you want it to stand out. This is invaluable, and you need to retain that as well as time goes on, which means taking a look at how you use the brand from time to time to ensure it is still one that appears unique. With that, people are going to find it so much easier to respect the brand as much as you want them to respect it.

Caring & Real

Finally, there are few things more important for a brand than being caring about real people – and being real. No brand can find lasting success without this, and yet it’s one of the most challenging things to try and make a reality. You need to make sure that everything you do for your brand image is caring about the real people who are your customers. At the same time, you should aim for authenticity and a real appearance that people are going to be able to relate to well enough. That is going to be so hugely important for your brand, and it’s something that you generally can’t afford to overlook.

As long as you manage to do all of that, you will find that your brand is considerably more respected by most people most of the time. While you might never get every single person on your side, you can usually get most people on your side this way, and it is something that you are going to want to think about for that reason. Make your brand one that people respect, and many great improvements and benefits are going to come your way as a result of that.