Whether you are developing a business brand, personal brand, or both, it is imperative to understand what you stand for and who you are. Or else, you will fail to appeal the right following. In terms of huge business growth and branding lessons, there are a lot of people you can learn from besides just digital marketers with an immensely famous blog you wish to be learning from. It is also the prosperous entrepreneurs themselves i.e., those people who have established real companies from the ground up.
According to each successful entrepreneur, exponential progress is tough. For example, Elon Musk who is known as the first “Influencer CEO” in the world has boosted social media’s irreverent culture and strategic branding methods for sharing his transformational leadership manner and personal philosophies.
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Also, Paul Rand, who has been involved in the branding of well-known companies like UPS, Westinghouse, and IBM, stated that “The logo obtains meaning from the thing’s quality that it symbolizes, and not the other way around.”
The journey of successful entrepreneurs has been full of enlightening and challenging lessons. Pay attention and you will utilize these lessons for taking your company to another level. Entrepreneurs come from a diverse range of lifestyles as well as span every product type, industry, culture, and generation. However, what most of them have in common is the deep learning curve to success, along with plenty of lessons to learn along the way.
Here are the top 6 branding lessons to learn from the entrepreneurs and enhance the success rate of your business –
Innovation is the key –
Not everybody will make something out of nothing. At times, you have to only watch what has been produced and then make something new out of the same.
The popular quote by Microsoft’s founder Bill Gates says that “This age’s entrepreneur is the one who discovers where the world is leading towards and goes there first.”
It has proved to be one of the major branding lessons adopted by several millennials for entrepreneurial dominance. While we are usually viewed as the generation of innovation, looking to the future has turned out to be a source of business dullness among us.
As you can’t predict outcomes of what you produce or what it will be transformed into, you should make sure to do what you love and make things as creative as possible. If the millennials began thinking about innovation in the same way, they would look at it as less of the herculean task and will also get more indulged into entrepreneurial innovation. For example, rather than creating the World’s next Samsung, you should invest in producing the brilliant music application on the Samsung Galaxy?
As per Louis Tremblay, who is the CEO and President of another millennial entrepreneur says that his company is at the innovation’s forefront, and his company takes pride in leading the way of making EV charging more convenient and more accessible. Sometimes, making it simpler for people to utilize an already existent product is what we call innovation.
Stay transparent –
Fooling your customers is the biggest mistake you can make as an entrepreneur. In the connected economy, your ability to detect the truth is only a few clicks away. Never forget that your success story turns out to be some of the best marketing tools for a business. And it is because they are real. They are open to each and everyone out there. Not only this, but your customers will also willingly share positive changes they have made in their day-to-day lives by using your product/service that helped them in changing their lifestyle, confidence, focus, quality of life, and energy for the better.
The famous quote by Warren Buffet, CEO and Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, is enough to state the relevance of being transparent in today’s era, “It takes 20 years to build a reputation but only 5 minutes to destroy it. Keep that in mind to do things differently.”
In today’s social media world, customers wish to see the real thing. When it comes to learning one of the most important branding lessons, make sure to understand that there is nothing more motivating than the human story. And particularly in the health industry, people do not wish to see anything photoshopped as they are only interested in looking for what is honest and vulnerable. This is something people wish to interact about as well as other people wish to hear about as an encouragement for making a similar change in their own lives.
Always remember that it is not about ‘selling’ a service or product to the target audience but it is about accrediting them as well as then letting the service or product be there for them in the form of a feasible solution.
Go beyond your customer’s expectations –
Every business owner wants to delight and surprise his/her customers and that is why you should learn that a lot of your success as an entrepreneur depends upon the way you approach business. You should always look for tactics to assist the next person, to share what you know, to give back, and to motivate somebody else. And consequently, you will come across many good things on your way. Never underestimate the amount of growth you can derive for your business only being a good person.
There is no denying the fact that the success stories of customer service take place when somebody goes beyond expectations. A lot of successful entrepreneurs have opined that the times they have witnessed successful business growth were also the times when they were offering the most.
Steve Jobs, Co-founder of Apple company, said that “Get closer than ever to your customers. So close that you tell them what they need well before they realize it themselves.”
Lots of companies go the extra mile to deliver customers a delightful experience, mostly in the eCommerce industry. A big example is Amazon. It offers Prime benefits like free & fast delivery, online video & music streaming. Other than Prime, there are cashback & extra savings on purchases, eCommerce live chat support to provide instant service. Some call this the “marketing strategy”, however, it is not, but at the same time it is.
Brands do not make a company –
Paul Rand’s brilliant and genius piece, the NeXT logo exemplified all his rules of the design and proved the fact that simplicity is not the goal but a by-product of modest expectations and a good idea. However, in terms of learning effective lessons on branding, you also get to know that the brand did not make the company. In 1986, when Steve Jobs met Paul Rand, the latter’s first rule of the design was playing out dramatically in the former’s mind while giving an interview a few years later.
Jobs’ company was forced to entirely abandon the hardware business which, as per his biographers, crushed his soul. And hence, the refreshing logo created by Rand became the synonym with a founder’s fall as well as the underpowered, overpriced computers’ failure he tried for selling to universities across the world. No doubt, Apple purchased NeXT, as well as its software, became the heart of each iPhone, Mac, Apple Watch, and iPad, however, the company failed in itself.
The logo, archived at MoMA, was striking and beautiful. But, in the end, it was useless. That is maybe the most important and third takeaway for an entrepreneur i.e., do not expect the brand design for making your product or company better. Sure, it is inevitable to put serious thought into brand’s public image. However, in case your business fails, it won’t matter and in case it does succeed, you can utilize billions of dollars for perfecting it down to the last pixel.
Do not go after the famous vote –
Critics might question his messaging tactic, however, Elon Musk is a risk-taker that boasts the net-worth of over $20 billion. He has dismissed digs at his traditional work style, saying to the New York Times, “In case you have anybody who can do it better than me, kindly let me know.” He did not turn out to be the most efficient leader in tech through being well-liked. When it comes to learning lessons on branding from him, always remember that while the majority of CEOs consult legal counsel before they share messages with the audience, Elon fires off the salvos with almost no regard to legal, financial, or political consequences to his firms.
Yes, most of Musk’s projects will still take years for completion, he has not publicized the potential of his companies for disrupting almost every global program and major industry in existence. Through investing in sustainable technology organizations, intensely pushing innovation as well as leveraging all and any platforms for spreading his philosophy, he has transformed himself into one of the most distinguished innovation and business leaders over the past decade.
Although, NASA’s staff might be worrying because of his allegedly under-delivering and overpromising, however tabloid fodder, at last, brings space exploration’s scope to its forefront as well as invites its supporters to share and engage information and ideas. Other CEOs would perform well for revisiting their brand-messaging tactics because as per the demonstration by Musk, the hyper-interactive executive’s era is going to stay for a long time.
Pay immense attention to the quality of your content –
Needless to say, if you wish to market something efficiently then you need to do it correctly. Your list of lessons from entrepreneurs must also contain the fact that a lot of brands hope to reach plenty of audiences on the web with average content. What takes place is that they invest too little energy or money in the quality of production and rather save the budget to put advertising money behind uninspired content. One should invest more in the front-end as well as ensure the fact that the content is the most effective representation of your business.
Neil Patel, Co-founder of Crazy Egg & Kissmetrics, also an expert in the digital marketing industry, once said that “You can choose to put in the time and work required to create great content and build a prosperous brand. Or you can choose to take the easy path and write poor content – a path that ultimately will get you nowhere. It will only result in a waste of time, energy, and resources.”
Your content is usually the first thing people look at. And in case what they view is unimpressive, they will assume your service, team, product, and company are also average. Regarding the same, working with influencers is a proven successful marketing tactic for raising the content bar. Besides all other advantages of influencer marketing such as more targeting the audiences and reaching bigger, influencers help you a lot in creating better content. One of the major reasons why it feels more authentic and genuine is because several influences are creative. There is a huge advantage in having their help in telling the story of your brand.
Conclusion –
One of the most relevant lessons from entrepreneurs emphasizes the fact that branding is a significant business procedure for every company and individual. Your brand describes who you are as well as how you wish the audience to recognize you. The above-mentioned lessons for the millennials through those entrepreneurs’ lens who have experienced inspiring success will guide them towards the right path. All these personalities are not only inspiring but also teach important lessons that you can use for changing the trend and changing them quickly.
- Building a successful name for any start-up is not just ‘luck by chance’. As you have to go through uneasiness, creativity, and discomfort to begin with an idea as well as build it regularly.
- The journey of every entrepreneur is riddled with the start-up lessons that are unique to their challenges and struggles.
- Learning to be an entrepreneur and how to run the business has taught useful lessons to company owners. This is how much an entrepreneur’s journey of life can affect you.
- Exponential growth is the product of over only a few good hires or the viral marketing campaign.
Business growth which takes place at a lightning speed is generally a lot more than only the result of the movement. There should be something about your business to trigger a powerful emotional response in customers. So that they tell everybody about the same. These 6 branding lessons will assist you to learn from brilliant entrepreneurs. And gain evergreen perceptions in terms of growing your start-up.
