Companies with a strong market position rely on branding. Branding is not just about recognition achieved through an aesthetically pleasing logo, a consistent visual identity and a marketing activities . Building a brand for a product or company is a continuous process of creating a specific image that fits in with consumer needs and desires. Where should we start? How do we create a brand that customers will not forget? 
The branding process - step one: identity
Every day, your potential customers make a multitude of purchasing decisions. Contrary to what you may think, most of them are not made after deep thought and analysis based on reason. Buyers reach for products impulsively and are most often guided by their emotions. This is because we often act in a hurry and therefore instinctively want to make our everyday life easier. It is then worth realising that associations, thoughts and emotions are key in the purchasing process - which is why branding will ensure your sales success. In the first instance, you need to start by establishing your brand identity. This involves detailing the characteristics that make up its ideal image. There are a number of elements that you cannot overlook. These are:
- Sender - define the outward appearance of the brand, answer a simple question: what do you see when you think of your product or company? Then think about personality being a key element as you develop your narrative - it will be a solid foundation in communicating with your audience and in creating an effective advertising message. Assign human characteristics to the brand;
- audience - at this point you need to think about which consumers will identify with your brand - this will be helped by the question: a reflection of which customer is my brand? It will also be important to look at your audience's self-image: what does the consumer think of themselves? How does he/she perceive himself/herself?
- relationship - a bond is formed between seller and buyer that often influences the final purchase decision and the choice of a particular brand. What should such a relationship look like for your product or company?
- Values - in order to create exceptional experiences for customers, a brand needs a set of selected values - it is these that audiences relate to. What principles and values will the brand be based on?
Creating a brand from scratch - step two: targeting
Do you know what the most serious mistake entrepreneurs make when it comes to branding? They create products suitable for everyone. Such a broad view of potential customers does not allow you to act effectively and makes you have many more competitors. So you have to choose a narrower target group and offer something more than companies in the same industry. As marketing practice shows, universal products, i.e. products for everyone, are simply boring from the point of view of consumers. They will not be willing to spend money on such goods and will choose a similar item from a brand that appeals to them more. Choosing a specific target group will allow you to stand out from the crowd and achieve better sales results. 
Building a product brand - step three: checking out the competition
Before you start creating a communication strategy, it is essential that you spend some time carefully analysing your competitors' activities. This will give you an idea of how strongly other companies have filled your niche and what, if anything, they have overlooked. It is also worth finding out what type of market you are operating in: homogeneous or heterogeneous? The former refers to products that are not too different from each other: they just have different packaging and manufacturer. The latter, on the other hand, refers to differentiated goods. The homogeneous market will certainly be more challenging, as we need to ensure that we stand out more strongly from the competition. Sometimes it is a good solution to step out of the safe comfort zone and reject obvious solutions. Ingenuity, originality and authenticity are qualities that are now highly valued by customers.
Creating a brand - step four: analysing market trends
Many entrepreneurs focus solely on working out the unique characteristics of a brand and identifying a target group. However, a very important aspect of brand building is also knowledge of current trends. If we want to create an effective marketing strategy, we should not only think ahead, but also discover the most important trends that influence the market and the behaviour of customers themselves. If we catch these growing trends, we can try to fit our product into them and increase our chances of success.
The branding process - step five: identifying customer needs
So-called consumer insight is an insight into the needs of a selected target group and the discovery of their key concerns. Try to understand why customers reach for a particular product. To do this, it is best to talk to consumers themselves. You can also follow your audience's comments on social media and online reviews - look at your competitors' portals.
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