Business Bullets - Marketing

Utilising multi-channel communication strategies is vital to all brands in the current business arena. Whether your business is a fashion brand or a restaurant offering a prestigious dining experience, the way you choose to target your customers and the way you present yourself can be detrimental to your success. With public perception holding control, your priority lies in ensuring communications encourage strong personal relationships to flourish.

A brand is not just another name for a business or institute, or the way to describe a product manufactured under a particular name, it's an emotion and a promise. To be a brand you must hold a personality and an identity, provoking feeling and sentiment in your customers. Increasing recognition and building a personal online presence are the two key elements crucial to making your brand promise tangible.

Not only is brand awareness built through print adverts and social media, but through multi-touch point campaigns and cross-media publishing. Whether it's traditional marketing strategies such as direct emailing and product launch events or the introduction of new technologies and platforms, including the likes of blogs and viral video campaigns, the strategies your business employs says a lot about you. In order to be the best in your field you need to be in regular contact with your customers so that you are in the forefront of their minds when they are ready to buy.

For a brand to maximise its success they must create a full-frontal, transparent identity and with modern day multi-channel connections, secrecy is no longer an option. This does not mean consumers are asking you to be flawless, in fact they are asking you to be the opposite; they are asking you to be human. They don't want to hear how you have nothing to hide but instead want you to pro-actively prove that you don't. It all lies in the evidence supporting those lofty mission statements, guaranteeing your brand is having a positive contribution to the lives of your end user.

Positive 'human brands' are those which embody honesty, humour, flexibility and dare we say it, character. With consumers having no choice but to be contacted by brands at every turn and every click it is vital that the information they read, filter and absorb about your business is coherent across all communication platforms. Online where the digital savvy consumers expect immediate, open and raw content, the trustworthy rapport needs to be built on an even stronger foundation than that of a face-to-face experience, especially in our hyper-demanding consumerist culture.

So, if there's one single thing you do today, make sure you introduce a transparent and varied communication strategy to your business to not only watch your customer base grow but revel in the effects of a stronger brand influence. It's your brand fingerprint, make it a recognisable one.