How to Build and Maintain a Resilient Brand

Businesses worldwide have had to look into their business models and adopt new technologies to stay afloat during the COVID-19 crisis. While the tail-tale signs of how-to are evident, the question is whether brands have the resilience to make it through this period and beyond. 

Executives from big corporates are candidly announcing the intentions of building back a new fortress of their brand, but how remains the big question.

Building a brand is more than advertising; a lot is expected from brands intending to achieve growth and transformation.

Businesses need to identify the critical components of a resilient brand that will see them through this period and beyond.

So how can one build a resilient brand, a brand that will not only earn an excellent reputation but will stand the test of time? 

Here are some five tips that may guarantee the building of a resilient brand and will go a long way to ensure your brand withstands the test of time.

Your Brand Promise must align with Your Brand Experience

What does your brand promise your customers? A brand promise speaks to your customer, either explicitly or implicitly, about what to expect from your products or services. It tunes their expectations of the quality of your products/services. 

Within a short span, your brand should deliver to the customer through every touchpoint and interaction. A resilient brand does not just say what it will do; it keeps the promise.

In a nutshell, if you promise to provide the best customer service, then it must be the best, period. If you stick to your promises, then you’ll gain trust, and customers will forgive you when something goes wrong.

In case You Make a Mistake, Own Up and Deal with It.

Every business owner will agree that they make mistakes like a normal human being. Failure or making mistakes does not mark the beginning to an end; it makes you take a step back and think through the error. If you realize you’ve made a mistake, acknowledging that it has happened is a step in the right direction.

Wrap your face around it, see where you got it wrong, correct it and ensure it doesn’t happen again. A resilient brand will go through the typical lifecycle of challenges and successes. The one thing that will make your brand stand out is surviving through the ups and downs and coming out at the top. 

Pay Attention to Your Customers

With the advent of technology, consumers can follow through with how their favourite brands perform. The internet is now a reputable force in increasing transparency and the reach of products or services. Your customers are your greatest asset, and listening to their sentiments about your product or service is vital.

There’s an old saying that resonates well even today as ever: The Customer is King. Therefore, a resilient brand will do some prodding to reveal what its customers think. Take that initiative to lay proper groundwork to get customers talking.

It would mean asking questions, talking about the products that appeal to them and pointing them to examples and displays. Brands can occasionally post new items on their social media pages and ask their follower’s opinions.

Be open to your customers’ criticisms; it will allow you to look at your product or service from a third-eye angle. In short, when offering a product or service, you should think about how it will solve customer problems.

Pay Attention to Your Employees

Your employees will play an integral part in your business’s success. This is because they interact with your customers on a day to day and understand their needs. For you to deliver your brand promise, you need your employees to believe in the brand.

A disgruntled customer can be a problem, but an employee sabotaging your brand is a real headache. The voice of your employee is a crucial ingredient, so keep them motivated. 

Learn to understand what your employees are going through and how best you can help tackle their issues. The moment employees share their concerns freely, it shows their will to contribute towards organizational growth.

This goes a long way in reshaping and strengthening the company values. Think of your employees as your cheerleaders—they will make achieving your vision easier. 

Be Patient

Brand success doesn’t happen overnight; it takes time. And for a brand to achieve tangible brand recognition boils down to how patient and committed you are when it comes to success. Think about the success stories of big brands that you know. Take Microsoft, for example, which took 11 years to become successful, and Apple took 20 years. 

These big brands put in a lot of work while patiently seeing it move along the growth curve. 

Patient means that you’ll continue trusting the process through thick and thin. Every business success story has some elements of enthusiasm and patience behind it. The question would be whether or not one has the strong will to wait through the brand lifecycle.

Conclusion

Returning to reassess your brand presents an opportunity to develop a strong identity and ensure the business remains relevant. Having that brand identity goes beyond representing what you offer as a brand and shows how resilient it would be during difficult times.

Developing and cultivating a resilient brand is similar to relentlessly practising to learn a new skill. Think of resilience as not sticking around for 30 years but as a forward-moving and evolutionary character.