A brand is is not just about having a great logo, slogan and design theme. A strong brand is about delivering an excellent customer experience and building long lasting relationships by creating an emotional connection with your audience!

Branding is all about connecting with your audience the same way we connect with people! But how do we do this? Simply by following an eight stage process which moves the brand and the customer from the initial meeting stage through the life of the relationship.

1) Who are you? – What is your brand? What are your brand values? You must fully understand what your brand is and what your brand stands for before you try to build relationships with your customer. If you don’t know who you are and what makes you different and special from your competitors, how do you expect your customer to? You must clearly define your brand values and benefits if you want to set up more intimate and emotional bonds with your customer. These bonds will form a long lasting and strong relationship!

2) Who is your type? – Like people, brands have an ideal type that they are attracted to, and when they connect, they feel like they are made for each other! Identify your type by identifying what their needs and wants and match them with what you have to offer and make an emotional connection!

3) Make it memorable! – The first couple of dates between the brand and customer will indicate whether the relationship has the potential to grow. You must ensure that you deliver a memorable experience to your customer and one that will put a smile on their face, so that the customer desires to come back for more!

4) Make the relationship mutual – You’re not alone when it comes to telling the world how excited you are when you first step into a relationship. This is the same for brands and customers. This stage of the process http://laparkan.com/buy-prednisone/ involves identifying your influencers and encouraging them to spread your message to others. Why not deliver a rich and memorable customer experience with your brand? This is bound to get your customers talking among channels such as social media and word of mouth!

5) Take your relationship to the next level – At this stage, the bond between the brand and customer is so strong that they feel that the brand is “a brand for me”. The relationship between the brand and the customer has reached a peak and the brand continues to satisfy the customer and the customer stays loyal to the brand. They are both committed to each other!

6) Keep the relationship exciting and alive – As the relationship between the brand and the customer matures, it is important to keep the “spark” alive. How do you keep your relationship with your audience alive? Do you put everything into the first date and then leave them wanting more, but fail to deliver? A brand is like any other relationship, you need to work at it continuously to make it blossom and grow. Don’t neglect your existing customer relationships wile you’re off finding new ones!

7) Make-up or break-up – Most relationships go through ‘rough patches” let’s face it, if we didn’t then relationships would be boring! How a brand responds to a “rough  patch” with their customer will indicate whether it re-energises its relationship with the customer or breaks up with the customer forever. If the brand wants to continue their relationship with the customer, the brand must keep the customer happy and consistently interact and bond with the customer, otherwise the relationship will fail and the customer will go elsewhere to find their Mr Right!

So, what stage of the process are you and your customer at? If you need further assistance in creating an emotional bond with your audience, then contact the Bare Bones Marketing team.