Brand Development
A brand is more than a logo. It’s more than a product, the company colors, a photography style, or web copy. A brand is the story of how a company or organization came to be and what it stands for. Unlike other stories, though, a brand's story needs to keep evolving in content and how it is communicated. Brand development is the process of creating that story and maintaining its relevance and CEA Marketing are experts at it.
CEA Marketing employs a straightforward methodology for brand creation and management. We build winning brands for our customers with five simple steps, each distinctly important for success. Companies that attentively research their target market, define their brand, create their assets, launch their brand, and manage their brand maximize their opportunity for success.
Research Your Target Market
The importance of using research instead of intuition to determine the size and composition of a company's target market can't be overstated. The care and effort put into this step in brand development minimizes the risk companies face and can determine not only the degree to which they are successful, but also whether they achieve success at all.
CEA Marketing discovers who our customer's target is, what they like/dislike, what their challenges are, and how a product or service can help them. We also research the competition already in the market, what they offer, and how they message. We help our customers properly determine how much space there is in the hearts, minds, and wallets of the public and the best way to get invited in.
Define Your Brand
CEA Marketing believes that a clear statement of mission, a vision, well-defined company values, precise positioning, core brand pillars, and key messaging provide crystal clarity for staff to understand the products and services a company or organization provides and how it fits into the hearts and lives of its target customer base. We take care and time guiding our customers through the process of self-discover and self-definition to create a solid, accepted foundation upon which all aspects of the brand will be built.
Launch the Brand
With the brand created it's time to take it out into the market. Use the brand assets to create brochures, product videos, digital advertising, and more, all with a consistent personality that resonates with the intended customers. Consistent branding inspires confidence and trust, key attributes when opening marketing and sales dialogues with new prospects.
Manage the Brand
Even the best developed brands need maintenance to stay relevant. The longest-lived brands in America update their brands including their logo and marks every seven to ten years. They measure which aspects of their brand message perform well and which don't. They determine what parts of their brand messages come across well and which get lost. They evaluate how the market has changed, how their business changed to adapt, and how the brand should be updated to reflect those changes. It's a continual process punctuated by regular refreshing of visual and messaging elements of their brand.
