By Chauncey Oliver
Adding value to your brand or business can be a daunting task. Especially for a small business that is just beginning. Essentially, you have a good(s) and services that you want to provide to customers, but what exactly makes people choose your good or service over others? What is the factor about your brand that makes it more valuable than other brands in the same field as yours?
This article will highlight why adding value to your brand is important, and also explain different ways you can add brand value.
Why Brand Value Is Important
Brand value is extremely important! Think about how you look at a company such as Apple and their products, then think about a company like Motorola. You may value one company way more than the other, and you don’t want to be the latter.
Focus on adding value to your brand because people will only care about your brand if you can add value to them in some form. Some brands are valued because it’s a necessity and others are valued because it provides a luxury. Find what makes your business valuable to your customers and potential customers.
Build Relationships
Having and maintaining positive relationships in business is priceless. These relationships that you build one day can serve as catalysts for other future endeavors.
For example, let’s say you’re wanting to get your business out there as a barber. You’re just starting out and you’re looking to build a reputation, but you have no value to your brand or company. So, you decide to cut a couple people’s hair for free. You do a good job and your customers are pleased with the results, so they decide to bring a couple of friends with them for a haircut. By you valuing someone and building that initial relationship, you were able to maybe double or triple your customer base and start to build rapport.
Another example is if you’re a brand representative. You have a clothing company release party at a venue, and you bring a lot of customers in which is valuable to the venue personnel. The venue personnel may return the favor by giving you free drinks for bringing them so much business. Or even better, the venue owner may agree to let you sell your clothing in the club if you continue to build that working relationship. An initial investment of bringing value to someone may pay you back in an amazing way.
*Disclaimer* Don’t do things to expect anything in return; be genuine in building these relationships.
Find Something to Give Away
Be of service to people. Being able to provide a skill or product for people can be invaluable for not only your customers, but for your brand as well. Think about that for a second. What is one way that you can provide value to someone that you can afford to give away for free or at a low cost? It’s being done with businesses all around the world whether it’s a free eBook on top of a purchase or perhaps a beginner’s course on blogging if you’re looking into blogging. From a customer’s standpoint, once it’s realized that a business provides valuable information or a great product, the brand value will go up.
Stay on Top of Customer Needs/Reward Loyalty
When was the last time you truly thought about what your customers want and desire? Have you done a poll to see what they’d like to see? Getting feedback from customers and acting on that feedback will mean a lot because people will know you really care. When a company begins to neglect the wants and needs of the customer, that’s when the business begins to crumble. It’s important to remember to serve your customers because they are the driving force that enable your company to continue.
Rewarding brand loyalty is another way to give back as an incentive and add brand value. You see this a lot with food and beverage businesses with a punch card. For example, for every smoothie you get at Jamba Juice, they’ll punch your card until the 10th smoothie and you get a free one. These tactics promote brand loyalty while building brand value.