By Raksha Mahabeer (The Beat), co-founder of Summertime
Wow! How fast 2017 is flying! I’ve been quiet for a while, busy in my SummerTime happy place planning and crafting a great year ahead. Now that the plan is in place, let’s get back to the business of branding and sharing some insights around how to do it well. In my previous blog posts, we covered the topics of establishing and creating your brand. Now let’s move into how to make the most of the brand you’ve created.
No one can promote a brand by being invisible! Even the most comprehensive marketing plan has little value without a good brand that delivers on ‘the promise’ I have referred to in my previous blogs. But, how do you take your brand and send it out into the world, ensuring it turns into a planned investment rather than a hopeful risk?
Take Tasha’s Café chain in South Africa for example: they have a great brand… Natasha Sideris saw a gap in the market and developed the key concept/brand - that memorable moments are made with beautiful meals, engagingly delivered in an exquisite environment – coupling it with a consistent message and the experience people have at Tasha’s. That’s how she has succeeded with the fulfilment of ‘the promise’
Plan it
A good marketing plan powers your business. Being certain of how you plan to reach customers and persuade them to buy what you sell is the blueprint you’ll follow to achieve increased engagement. Which in turn will result in an increase in revenue. While goals, objectives, defining your market situation and budget are important, developing the communications strategies will be the heart and soul of your success.
Plot it
The media that will carry your brand is a crucial element. Make it your business to find out which media your target audience turns to for information. Clearly, social and mobile are the frontrunners in terms of focus, so shifting resources to these important areas in order to remain competitive is a priority. Decide where you want to be seen, how regularly you want to update people and create a content calendar so that you know exactly what to do when.
Execute it
Whether you’ve got a full team of dedicated marketing professionals or you’re an entrepreneur trying to market yourself, your end goal is the same: increase the visibility and reputation of your brand to attract more customers.
Every business is unique, so it’s impossible to develop one marketing strategy that can work for any business. It is important for the marketing team to have well defined roles, to ensure a comprehensive outcome.
How you choose to distribute or adopt these roles is up to you. Consider your resource pool, your budget, and your immediate goals; these should point you in the right direction. Whether you hire multiple people to cover each individual role, or have to tackle them yourself, having these roles covered sufficiently will certainly accelerate a forward path.
In an ever-changing environment the ability to plan, execute and evaluate your success through tracking and measuring on a regular basis, is tantamount to you marketing success. Spending time doing this will take your business from good to great.
Raksha Mahabeer, or ‘The Beat’ as she is known, is a proudly South African entrepreneur, she co-owns SummerTime, a vibrant creative studio specialising in design, branding and marketing. She is a connector, a communicator, a purpose-driven, inspired inspirer! She prides herself in partnering with SMEs in establishing new brands with a view to create jobs in South Africa and the African continent. Believing in business actualisation through conscious creativity, Raksha is a marketing and brand strategy expert with a keen strategic, creative and business mind focused on assisting SMEs in their endeavour to formulate effective marketing strategies that highlight tangible value and meet real human needs. On a personal level, she describes herself as a finger-tapping, drum-beating, music-making, cloud-watching, pixie-prancing, tree-hugging, fire-walking, soul-dancing, Yoda-quoting, oneness-embracing, effervescent, hippie-at-heart!
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