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4 Steps for Building a Brand That Actually Has Meaning and Value

When you look around at the brands that grow quickly, efficiently, and sustainably, it’s generally the brands that have meaning and value behind them that do the best.

Are you building a meaningful brand? Or are you merely going through the motions and hoping you’ll reach customers? These are important questions that should be taken seriously.

What is a Meaningful Brand? 

Every company sells a product or service. Only certain companies have intrinsic value attached to these products and services. If you want your brand to be meaningful, you must do more than sell something – you must solve a practical need and enhance the customer’s life in some form or fashion.

Milani is a great example of a meaningful brand. While they sell cosmetics, they’re really selling the benefits that the cosmetics provide. The brand is all about empowering women to look their best, so they can feel their best.

While Milani sells tangible products like foundation, blush, concealer, lipstick and lip gloss, eye shadow, and nail polish, the brand is ultimately focused on how its customers feel. The objective is to help women confidently embrace who they are through vibrant and clean cosmetic products.

Milani is constantly betting on the fact that customers would rather buy vibrant cosmetics that boost and compliment beauty, rather than products that conceal and hide. It’s about giving customers freedom to thrive in their own skin.

Meaning can be found in any industry or niche – whether it’s cosmetics or computers – but it’s up to you to make sure your brand is digging beneath the surface and targeting what your customers want most. That’s how you develop a meaningful brand.

How to Build a Meaningful Brand

Building a meaningful brand takes a lot of time and strategy. It isn’t going to happen overnight, so buckle up and prepare for a journey.

Here are some important steps you can take:

  1. Understand Who You Are

If you aren’t intimately familiar with what your brand stands for, how can you expect your customers to resonate with it? The first step is to gain an articulate understanding of your brand’s identity and core values.

If your brand is your creation – meaning you’ve been there since the founding – it shouldn’t be too difficult to identify what your brand stands for. If the brand has been around for a while and you weren’t on the founding team, you might have to spend some extra time digging.

  1. Understand Who Your Audience Is

The next step is to develop an understanding of who your audience is. If you were to develop a target profile for your average customer, what likes and dislikes would they have? What are they looking for? What are their fears? The more specific, the better.

  1. Find Intersectional Points 

Too often, companies attempt to manipulate their brand to fit their audience, or the audience to fit their brand. In reality, you should be seeking out natural intersectional points between brand and audience and leveraging them in your branding.

  1. Aim for Consistency (With Flexibility)

The final point is to be consistent. In order to build trust with your audience and give them something to latch on to, you have to be consistent in the message you’re delivering. However, you also must leave room for flexibility. Brands evolve over time and you don’t want to become outdated. Stick to your core values and continually acclimate to your surroundings. 

Take Branding Seriously

It’s easy to feel like you have more pressing needs – such as sales or customer service – but few things matter more to the long-term health and vitality of your business than branding. It’s time to stop playing games and start taking branding seriously.

By attaching meaning to your brand, you can better engage your customers and get the sort of results you long to see.

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