Executive Voice
How To Build A Personal Brand with Marketing guru Herman Kariuki

Branding involves creating a unique selling point to differentiate a company’s products or services from its competitors. Each company tries to make a positive perception and grab customer attention. Building a brand is essential because it helps marketers convince indifferent buyers to try a product. If most first-time customers experience high satisfaction levels, they associate the company with quality items. As a result, such individuals turn into return customers, and their positive reviews attract more prospects. Experienced business owners understand that maximizing the quality of a product is not enough because return customers need to identify your product with ease. Logos, jingles, and slogans are standard branding techniques that various business owners use to shape how the public views their company. Herman Kariuki, one of the most successful marketing gurus, recommends startups and digital Marketers to observe the following steps when building a personal brand.
The critical steps in the branding process
- Know your target audience
Most businesses target a specific gender, age group, location, income level, and other demographic classifications. Identifying the right audience is vital in marketing because companies cannot sell some products to some individuals. For instance, it is inappropriate to target children when advertising alcohol, cigarettes, and other sensitive products. Sellers that focus on the most appropriate clientele tend to close more sales and compete effectively.
It is essential to analyze available sales data before running any form of a marketing campaign. If such data does not exist, you might choose to collect or use third parties to carry out online surveys. The statistics contain crucial information regarding customers’ shopping habits and their demographics. Details about customer behavior can help you understand if your product might appeal to specific groups. Further, it might also show if the sales are seasonal and the time of the day when more customers purchase the item.
If some established firms offer a similar product/service in your area, it is wise to learn how they run marketing campaigns. Understanding your competitors can help you identify their weaknesses and come up with strategies to attract the audience. After thorough analysis, engage people who fit your target profile and let them say what they need and aspects that existing firms fail to address. With such information, you can create a detailed outline of items that your brand should have.
- Identify your firm’s unique selling position.
Your competitor might have a wide range of marketing strategies that might prevent start-ups and medium-sized businesses from growing. Some might focus on product quality, while others might prefer attracting customers using affordable pricing. Whichever the case, you need to identify shortcomings in their products or customer base so that you can come up with ways to counter their market domination. Use the details to create a unique selling proposition that highlights your brand’s features and how it meets customer needs.
- Create your firm’s personality
Your company needs to have a personality just like a human because it connects your customers to your mission. The public should be able to associate your brand with aspects you intend to achieve. For instance, bottled water might be connected with dehydration or thirstiness. If such a brand uses descriptive words that show the importance of water in human bodies, more customers might use the product to stay hydrated.
- Create a slogan and an appropriate logo
Logos help customers, even the ones who are unable to read, identify a brand with ease. An effective logo should be well crafted to convey the unique perspective of the brand. The key aspects to consider during its design includes iconography, font, and color. Your designer might recommend that you stick to a specific color or font to enable your clients to spot your products from a distance. On the other hand, the slogan complements your goods or services by stating why they are unique. The phrase should be short, concise, and catchy to attract people’s attention.
To wrap up
Branding is a critical undertaking because it can help you grow your business by making your services or goods appeal to customers. Most business owners that tend to win more prospective customers are the ones who create their brands before running marketing campaigns. Therefore, branding can help organizations build their clientele base and thrive because their unique perspectives lead to repeat customers.
