The Four P’s of Brand Development
Why is Your Brand so Important?
Your brand (for good or bad) creates a first impression that will endure. The way your customers see, hear, and feel about your business is all wrapped up in how they perceive your brand. Present a brand with a strong backbone, oozing with potential and influence, and that’s what people will take away. Follow the pack with a generic, vanilla brand presence, and you’ll be lucky to be remembered at all. So, it’s essential you get people to buy into your brand from the very beginning.
It’s More Than a Logo
Beyond a nice-looking graphic, your brand’s identity communicates your unique selling proposition (USP) and builds your authority. There are four crucial elements that you should consider when establishing your brand: people, process, products, and pricing. Each one of those P’s carries a critical value. Get any of those out of sync, and your brand message falls apart. You can maintain your four P’s balance by thinking about what type of person is most likely to benefit from your products or services. Once you’ve created those personas, you’ll be able to keep their needs front of mind and offer a robust brand platform.
Thinking it Through
A well-thought-out brand means creating a concise message that incorporates those four P’s along with a visual clue to what you offer and why you are the best. For example, most businesses claim to have excellent customer service, affordable pricing, and friendly staff, but it takes much more than that to establish a USP. In fact, those three things seldom make up a real USP because every business claims to have them. Instead, identify what makes your business truly unique by defining each element of your four P’s.
1. People
- What skills and ongoing education is needed to stay up to date?
- How long and/or what experience do you have in the industry?
- Is your team empowered to make customer-centric decisions?
- How quickly do you and your staff respond to customer requests?
2. Process
- How easy is it for clients to obtain information about your business?
- Do you make client onboarding an effortless event?
- How clear and concise are your customer documents (invoices, quotes, etc.)?
- Are you available even after the project/service is complete?
3. Products
- What features do your products/services offer that others don’t?
- What solutions does your company offer that others haven’t even thought of?
- Is your product or service more reliable/durable than your competitors?
- Can it be easily maintained throughout its lifetime?
4. Pricing
- Does your pricing reflect the value you offer?
- Is your pricing transparent and competitive?
- How is your pricing model different than others?
- Do you offer financing or a payment plan?
Get it Right the First Time
Once you’ve established your brand’s identity, you should consider how you’ll position it to attract your target customers. It can be worth getting branding advice in the earlier stages of planning your business. Could you use some help identifying your business’s four P’s? Need a little assistance creating your message and creating a visual representation? At Tingalls Graphic Design, we can help give your brand focus and purpose. Call us today for a free consultation on differentiating yourself from the competition and displaying your unique selling point in all your branding assets.
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