Your Brand Magic is in the Details

While defining what makes your brand unique is the foundations stone of your brand, there are much smaller things you can be doing in your business that help your audience be excited to spread the message for you. No need to chase the unicorn when even the smallest details can make you stand out from the crowd.

Here are some ideas about what makes people brag about your unique brand:

A business friend of mine added brand playlists to her branding process so that her customers literally know what their brand sounds like to others.

I included video trailers for my branding projects so my clients could experience their brand as a video + sound.

In the case of my web projects, I don’t expect my clients to come ready with the content and instead I help them write it with content prompts & advice.

You can offer different services that create a different solution. Or a different combination of services for different needs. Think about not competing by price but rather by making the offer work better for the customer. If the offer sounds like something they need, they will less likely say no to the price.

For example, Jonas Paul Eyewear has a great solution for their blue light glasses. They know that it’s hard to shop for glasses – especially for kids and teens. The solution is to provide a low-cost, no commitment try-on package where parents can see how the glasses look and can return those that the kids don’t like.

You could include a video walk-through or a detailed description of how to use your product or service. Once your customers are “on their own” with what you’ve provided for them, they will have questions that they might not have thought of before.

Another great way to engage your customers after their purchase is to create an online community where they can stay in touch and ask for assistance when needed.

Like the Facebook community that Instant Pot created to support their customers with user-generated recipes and tips.

So many people are shopping online these days and they don’t have a way to really experience a product or service before purchase. When you provide pretty packaging it helps to create a mood and experience for your brand, which absolutely creates loyalty.

Like the brand VineBox, their wines come in tall sleek tubes and come with a wine glass. They provide a unique approach to how their customers are used to purchasing wine. Customers can sample wine by the glass rather than having to purchase a bottle of wine they’ve never tasted.

Grove Collective, a company that provides nontoxic, effective, sustainable, and cruelty-free household and beauty products. Every time they ship a box to their customers’ homes, there’s an empowering handwritten message on the box. That feels good.

For example, I give clients a welcome gift (Starbucks gift card – with the hopes that their name will be spelled correctly). You could provide credit/reward for referrals and even give part of your income to a charity you believe in.

Showing your past customers or clients that you value their support even weeks/months after their interaction with you re-establishes trust and reminds them why they liked working with you/shopping from you in the first place.

The thing is that “unique” is in the eye of the beholder. People buy from those brands who they feel will solve their problem. The brands who can communicate this to their customers in the most effective way are the most successful. This is whether they are offering a product or service that has never been done before (unlikely) or they’re offering something that thousands of other brands do.

We all want to feel that we are doing something good in the world and making our dollars create the best impact.

Take Ben & Jerry’s flavor Empowermint, a flavor released in North Carolina in 2016. With every purchase of this flavor ice cream, a donation is made to benefit the North Carolina NAACP, an organization dedicated to ensuring the political, educational, social and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and discrimination.

The thing is that “unique” is in the eye of the beholder. People buy from those brands who they feel will solve their problem. The brands who can communicate this to their customers in the most effective way are the most successful. This is whether they are offering a product or service that has never been done before (unlikely) or they’re offering something that thousands of other brands do.

I hope that this gives you courage, knowing that your task is to effectively communicate what you help your customers with, rather than doing something incredibly unique and unicorn-like.