Branding has quickly become the most important piece of building a company that thrives. It’s what makes your product important, special, and memorable in the eyes of your customers. Here are the top three ingredients needed to build a strong brand:

Knowing Your Audience

The most successful brands have a very strong understanding of their target market’s demographics, communication methods, and main interests.  Knowing these key things are critical for a few reasons: it provides direction for marketing campaigns, it creates a tone for the overall identity of the brand, and it helps create a connections between a business and its audience. (And don’t even bother trying to ignore the concept of a target market; in the end it will just be counterproductive at marketing your product, and dilute your brand as a result.)

Having a Unique Attribute

A good example of a company with a strong brand identity is Apple. Their unique attributes can be summed up in once sentence: They are an innovative industry leader providing minimalistic, esthetically appealing devices.

Think about what your company does better than anyone else. It doesn’t need to be revolutionary, it just needs to separate you from your competitors. And yes, it is possible to have a single unique attribute, as long as that attribute is amazing. Plus, chances are that you will continue to uncover unique attributes as your company grows!

Being Consistent

Nearly every industry is being saturated with competition, and inconsistency is a quick and easy reason for your customers to take their business somewhere else. Make sure this doesn’t happen to you by delivering on your promise time after time, creating repeat customers who will help you get new customers! Over the years your business will expand, change, and grow but it’s important not to lose sight of the value you promised to your customers when you began.