Making Branding More Meaningful: Why Personalisation Matters

A company’s choice of branding can have a far-reaching impact on everything from its market positioning and customer base to its growth and bottom line. Far from being a surface-level, cosmetic component that’s tacked on as an afterthought, branding should be at the very core of what a business is and what it stands for.

Over the years, the importance of branding has only grown – and what defines a ‘successful’ brand has changed, too. It’s no longer about simply coming up with a logo that’s in keeping with industry norms and conventions: it’s about building a brand that echoes who you are as a business and appeals directly to your target audience.

In short, a successful brand in 2024 is one that’s personalised. If you want your business to stand out and reach the right people, you’ve got to tailor your branding to suit. In this article, we’re going to take a closer look at how you can do exactly that – and we’ll also explain the benefits of clearly defining your brand personality.

Why is brand personality so important?

The phrase ‘brand personality’ is often thrown around just for the sake of it. But it’s more than just a buzzword: it can have a transformative impact on the way your business performs. Here’s a rundown of some of the key benefits.

• If you want to stand out and put your business on the map, you’ve got to do something genuinely different. Defining and implementing your brand personality will help you showcase what makes your business unique, drawing customers in.
• By humanising your business and connecting with your customers on a deeper level, you’ll build trust and loyalty, helping you retain and grow your customer base. Retaining customers is every bit as important as attracting new ones, so building loyalty through brand personalisation is all-important.
• So many of our purchases are based on emotions, at least in part. We don’t make all of our buying decisions based solely on logic and reason – we let our emotions guide us. By personalising your brand, you’ll foster an emotional connection with your target audience, subtly persuading them to choose your products or services.

How do you ‘personalise’ a brand?

Personalisation is pretty important then. But how do you go about ‘personalising’ and humanising your brand? Here are five steps you can take to make sure you’re on the right path.

Know your audience

This is the biggie. In order to crystallise your brand personality, you’ve got to understand who your audience is. What makes them tick? This is a part of the branding process that’s so often overlooked or misunderstood by businesses; often, brands think they know who their audience is but don’t have any tangible insights or data to back their ideas up.

Our advice? Leave your preconceptions at the door and ‘relearn’ your audience from scratch by conducting a thorough analysis of your key demographics. Who is buying your products and interacting with your social media accounts – and are they the people you’ve been trying to target? Once you have cold, hard data on your audience, you can then reposition your brand to close that gap and make sure you’re targeting the right people.

Embrace your quirks

It’s normal to be weird. We’re all different from one another, and this applies to businesses too. The only problem is that many businesses don’t want to admit it – they’d rather play it safe to make sure they come across in a ‘professional’ way.

If you want to give your brand personality, you’ll need to actually do that. The consumers of today see right through corporate speak and clichés, so be yourself and channel your personality directly into your brand.

Communicate what makes you different

Every business has a story, so don’t be afraid to shout about yours. It’s one thing to tell prospective customers that you’re different from the competition, but they won’t know that unless you tell them why you’re different. Sharing the full story of your business and the journey you’ve been on with it will not only help you attract new customers, but build a lasting connection with them.

Keep things consistent

Don’t try to hedge your bets by attempting to create branding that appeals to everyone. It doesn’t need to – all that matters is that your branding speaks to your target audience. If you try to play it safe and appeal to everyone, you’ll risk creating a brand that nobody remembers.

Be daring

It’s OK to express your opinion and share your views as a business, provided they’re related to the industry you’re in. Sharing your political views on social media might not go down too well, but writing blogs and creating social media content that expresses your views on industry-specific subjects is a great way to humanise your brand and demonstrate your expertise.

Speak to the team at Brave

Is it time you gave your company’s branding a rethink? Whether you’re just starting out or are looking to take your business to new heights, Brave is here to help. As a customer experience agency with more than 20 years of experience, we can work closely with you to design and roll out branding that speaks to your customers and draws them in. Keen to find out more? Get in touch with us today.