brand journey definition

The 5 Stages of the Brand Journey

Discover the brand journey stages and what they mean for your business.

Just like customer journeys, brands have travels of their own.

If your business depends on you, you don’t own a business – you have a job. And it’s the worst job in the world because you’re working for a lunatic! — Michael Gerber

If you’ve read Gerber’s classic business book, “E-Myth,” this idea will sound familiar. Sometimes the daily grind can take over, and you wonder why you started a business in the first place. You may ask yourself, “How can I get out of the weeds and start enjoying all this?”

The place I start is simple for all my small business clients: Figure out who you are and what you want to represent to others .

People need a reason to buy from you. They want to know who you are. Your personal growth as a business owner will go through stages. Your brand is going on the same journey.

Your company’s brand is you

Whether you own a franchise or you use your own name on the sign out front, the brand is still you. Your customers will come to form an opinion of who you are and the type of personality your brand takes on. If you are a franchisee, you can rely on some brand image based on the parent company’s efforts, but your customers will still have an opinion about your website, your location, your employees, etc. When it’s your shop, everything rides on your shoulders. As you get better at what you do, your image will grow and take on a momentum of its own. This is the brand journey, and whether you like it or not, you are along for the ride.

The 5 stages of brand journey

The five stages of the brand journey are interactions, consistency, authenticity, trust, and loyalty. They mirror stages of relationships between people. How does this journey begin? The same way it does for people. Think about some of your personal relationships and how you met. There might have been a warm handoff from another friend or a completely spontaneous encounter at a cocktail party. There are parallels between your customers and your business.

Interactions

Your first encounter with a favorite brand or your prospect’s first encounter with you is likely through an introduction. In-person it’s a handshake. In business, it’s likely an advertisement or a search. Each version can be awkward or pleasant, but it’s necessary. Once the first interaction is complete, the two parties form an initial opinion of each other, but it usually doesn’t end after a single occurrence. There will be more encounters and chances to form stronger bonds with each other.

Consistency

As you spend more time with a brand, your new neighbor, or an employee, you will start to notice the quality of these interactions. What you are subconsciously looking for is predictability. You want to identify if this relationship can be beneficial. If your prospects have a great first impression of your business, you have successfully stepped up to the next stage. Now they will be looking for a similar or better experience than the first. If you maintain consistency in your encounters, you develop authenticity.

Authenticity

Authenticity is an important milestone. You are a genuine person. The business is ethical. The quality is there; the intentions are honorable, you seek more opportunities to interact. You speak positively to others. Your business has reached a place where it will be difficult to lose customers to a competitor without good reason.

You can now rely on the person or the business to act in a predictable, reliable way, and you can focus your efforts on other areas of risk. This relationship is solid and dependable. There is much less to think about. Your business has become a known quantity and eliminated risk in the eyes of the customer. There is very little work involved in this relationship.

This is where others will defend you and your business. This point in the relationship is where love, friendship, and deep emotional bonds are made. You will hear phrases like “I will always buy [insert company name here].” People look forward to seeing you and seek out what you have to offer. They defend you online and in conversation with others. They are an unpaid sales team. This is the point in any relationship where you have gone beyond not having to work or think and have achieved a place where the interactions give back value and joy. The most famous brands have developed this kind of loyalty. Think Apple, Harley Davidson, and McDonald’s. If you are considered a regular at any of the businesses you frequent, that is brand loyalty.

A mountain path

Think of a brand journey like walking up a steep, narrow mountain path. The view gets better, the air is cleaner, and you feel accomplished. It’s slow and steady. It takes work. The same is true of your brand. Do you know what else is true? You can fall at any moment.

Don’t fall underwater

Each opportunity to build your brand, whether personal or professional, also brings opportunities to ruin it. You can fall much faster than you can climb. The journey also works in reverse. If you lose trust, you can lose authenticity, and eventually, you could build inauthenticity and distrust. If you allow your brand to fall too far underwater, you and your business will drown.

Stop and look forward

How will you know where your brand is on the journey? The answer is quite simple: Listen.

• NPS scores are a reliable method of identifying the brand journey
• Social proof on websites like Yelp and Google are also helpful
• Sometimes a simple “How are we doing?” can go a lot farther than an independent research report
• Analyze their complaints in detail. Break them down and try to understand the tone of voice, context, and outside forces.

The best marketing is a referral from a loyal customer. With all the other things we need to worry about in the world today, how nice is it to talk to someone you trust and have them say, “definitely go with [insert your business here]. We won’t shop anywhere else.”?

That’s worth more than any keyword search, commissioned sales team, or paid social campaign. It’s a validation that who you are and what you represent provides you with the chance to own a business and stop working a job for a lunatic.

Dana Curtis

Dana Curtis is the founder and CEO of Biztools, a strategic consulting firm that helps small businesses multiply revenue through improved customer experience and pivot to new markets.

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The 6 stages of brand development journey

• February 3, 2024
• Tags: B2B brand marketing , B2B marketing

This article was originally published in the  Elevate Your Marketing  newsletter and has been repurposed and republished here with the author’s permission. Here is the  link  to the original article. 

While the importance of a brand is well understood in the B2C space, not many business owners realize its value in the B2B world. But to build a sustainable business that wins in the long run, developing your company into a recognizable brand is a must for B2B organizations.

The importance of brand equity

In any niche, there is an equally good competitor out there who can offer similar products and services to yours. So how do you differentiate?

One of the ways to do that is branding – it helps to establish trust and credibility. The higher your brand equity, the better your chances of winning a deal against your competition.

Understanding the stages of a brand journey helps you devise your business and marketing plan to progress from one stage to the other. This requires not just number crunching and logical thinking, but your creative brain to work to understand the ‘emotional’ element behind branding.

Keeping these in mind, let us look at how branding plays its part in the B2B world through the 6 stages of the brand development journey.

The 6 stages of a brand journey

As you might already know, the 6 stages of the brand development journey are:

• Formulating a brand identity.
• Increasing brand awareness.
• Building brand credibility.
• Enabling brand engagement.
• Ensuring brand receptivity.
• Achieving brand resonance.

Let us look at each of them in detail.

1. Formulating a brand identity

Brand identity refers to the subtle perception your target audience forms when they come across your company or product. In essence, it is brand identity that creates the first impression about your brand. So make sure your business’s ‘face’ is ‘well-groomed’ wherever your prospects see it.

Some of the questions you could ask yourself to formulate a brand identity are:

• What is the ‘why’ (purpose) of your business? Why do you exist?
• Whose life do you aim to change with your solutions?
• How do you plan to achieve the ‘change’?
• What is the expected outcome for your customers by using your products or services?

By finding answers to these questions, you should be able to design a brand identity that ‘defines’ your business.

2. Increasing brand awareness

The brand awareness stage is characterized by your prospects having a recall and recognition of your company without having to force it. While recognition is about the ability of a prospect to identify your business while he/she sees any content about it, recall is about him/her remembering it without a trigger in a specific context.

Following are a few reasons why brand awareness is important for B2B businesses:

• Most of the research in the B2B buying process happens even before the prospect becomes a lead. Hence, a top-of-the-mind recall of your brand helps to get your company on the prospect’s radar or evaluation list.
• Search engines tend to rank companies with a good brand above their counterparts.
• Having a good brand recall and recognition will help your SDRs (Sales Development Representatives) to open doors faster during their outreach.

Related: 10 metrics to measure B2B brand awareness and reach

3. Building brand credibility

Brand credibility is about evoking a positive feeling about your business whenever people hear about it. This requires your business to be more than ‘present’ in the channels your prospects actively hang out.

Brand credibility – in today’s digital world – is determined more by online reviews, customer testimonials, social media sentiments, etc. than any physical evidence. So your organization needs to have a ‘positive presence’ across all these online channels.

Broadly speaking, given below are some of the ways in which you can do this:

• Have a customer-centric approach in place to create not just happy but loyal customers. This can help a lot in ‘word of mouth marketing’.
• Actively participate in relevant communities with a mentality to help your target audience. This can be done across social media groups, closed communities (on platforms like Slack and Discord), online forums (such as Quora), etc.
• Make sure to respond to negative comments. How you take into consideration negative feedback and how you act upon it is critical to building a credible brand.
• Invest in employer branding. Talk about why your company is a great place to work. And practice what you preach.

4. Enabling brand engagement

Brand engagement is all about your business’s interaction with prospects and customers. You need to have an omnichannel approach to this to enable brand engagement with your customers where they want and when they want. From email to videos to social media to events and conferences, the touchpoints are plenty.

This stage can be read along with the previous stage. Here, things like the following need to be managed with utmost care:

• Online reputation management.
• Using a consistent brand voice across all channels.
• Predefined SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) and SLAs (Service Level Agreements) for interacting with customers and prospects.
• The right training mechanism to train customer and external-facing employees (such as social media managers, SDRs, account executives, community managers, etc) with the necessary skills.

It is when you implement brand engagement the right way that you will be able to build brand credibility that lasts for the long term.

5. Ensuring brand receptivity

Your business attains brand receptivity when you become the most popular among the crowd. This is the stage where your customers think about referring you to a peer as they enjoy and feel your products and services. At this stage, you have:

• Attained a certain level of self-sustenance when it comes to customer success.
• Created a ‘wow’ factor among a vast majority of your customers so that they will happily recommend you to their peers.
• Improved the chances of retention with a high barrier to entry for your competition to replace you among your customers.
• Sown the seeds for brand advocacy.

Reaching this stage is game-changing for any B2B business, especially those that have to renew contracts every year or within a shorter period (examples of such businesses include B2B SaaS companies, media websites, lead generation service providers, etc.). This is because retention becomes less of a challenge and the company can focus more on new business generation.

6. Achieving brand resonance

This is the most mature stage of a brand journey where your customers become your loyal fans. They start to identify themselves with your company’s brand. In B2B, this manifests in the following ways:

• Partnerships where a company is proud to be your partner.
• Mergers and acquisitions where both parties are happy to merge with each other’s ecosystem.
• Brand collaborations in the form of co-hosted webinars, panel discussions, event collaborations, joint press releases, etc.
• Offering recommendations using testimonials, case studies, customer story series, word-of-mouth marketing, etc.

It is important to note that there is always a thin line between the 6 stages of a brand’s journey. And often, one leads to the other (or one complements the other). So instead of looking at each of these stages in isolation, try to understand where your brand fits in as a whole, and what you need to do as a business to make the most of your branding efforts.

That wraps up how you can look at the 6 stages of a brand journey for B2B businesses. I could cover only so much in an article.

Skalegrow – B2B marketing agency

With marketing getting tougher and tougher, every wrong foot you make might hamper your growth. What you need is the right guidance and a helping hand. This is where  Skalegrow  can make a sea of difference.

Skalegrow helps IT, tech, SaaS, and embedded systems companies leverage new-age marketing tactics to grow their business. Check out the below intro video to learn more about what Skalegrow brings to the table:

Our services include content marketing, SEO, graphic design, video marketing, LinkedIn marketing, email marketing, performance marketing, and website management. Write to us at [email protected], or visit our  services page  for more details.

About the author

Naseef KPO is the Founder and CEO of Skalegrow. He comes with rich experience across multiple areas of B2B marketing including content marketing, demand generation, SEO, account-based marketing, marketing analytics, revenue attribution, marketing technology, etc. He writes thought-provoking and relevant articles on  The Skalegrow Blog  and his weekly LinkedIn newsletter  Elevate Your Marketing .

Prior to starting Skalegrow, Naseef led large marketing teams in multi-million dollar B2B organizations where he made significant contributions to the topline growth of the business. He has also appeared on numerous podcasts where he shared his thoughts on trending marketing topics such as the application of AI in marketing, startup marketing, ABM, and B2B content marketing, just to name a few. Being the founder of Skalegrow, he is currently focusing on helping its clients stay ahead of their competition by using innovative yet practical marketing tactics.

You can connect with Naseef KPO on  LinkedIn.

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Brand Journey: Having an Impactful, Comprehensive Brand

Overview of Brand Journeys

A brand journey represents the evolution of a brand, highlighting its growth and ability to stay relevant and engaging for its clientele. This journey enables brands to maintain their influence within fluctuating market conditions. It revolves around the way a brand expresses its foundational values, vision, and mission, fostering a deep and enduring connection with its audience. Understanding this journey is crucial for any business aiming to build a strong, enduring brand. It involves being dedicated to the brand’s core values and a consistent effort to uphold brand integrity.

Why Brand Messaging is Vital

Brand messaging is the cornerstone of how a company conveys its purpose statement and core values. It is the carefully crafted communication pattern that shares the brand’s values and key messages with clients, all while maintaining a consistent tone of voice. This aspect is crucial for establishing a strong and distinctive brand identity. Effective brand messaging not only sets a brand apart from competitors in its industry but also fosters stronger relationships and connections with clients. It clarifies the brand’s purpose, significance, and its potential to enhance customers’ lives, simplifying their ability to connect with and engage with the brand. Brand messaging is more than just words on paper; it ensures that a company’s core values are consistently demonstrated through its employees and services on a daily basis.

Brand Design

Brand design involves crafting the visual elements that define your brand’s identity, often serving as the initial point of contact between your brand and potential customers. This process aims to visually communicate the essence, mission, and values of a brand. Effective brand design translates the brand’s key messages and foundational values into visual components like logos, color schemes, typography, animations, symbols, and images. The significance of brand design lies in its ability to boost brand recognition and contribute to the creation of business value, providing a competitive edge within specific industries. It plays a crucial role in attracting potential customers and fostering loyalty by establishing trust. The brand design process encompasses understanding your target market, articulating your brand strategy, developing a distinctive identity, and integrating all these elements into brand touchpoints that reflect the brand’s core messages.

Small Giant’s Brand Journey Services

Small Giants specializes in guiding brands through this journey, offering services that help articulate their unique story, establish their visual identity, and strategize their engagement to not only meet but exceed their goals and expectations. Clients will be engaged in a structured conversation aimed at identifying essential brand elements, complemented by a differentiator workshop. Additionally, they will receive guidance on crafting a messaging style guide, along with support in developing core values and formulating a clear mission and vision statement. Small Giants focuses on establishing branding that creates a unique and cohesive image, aligning with your values and services.

For more information on how your company can benefit from our brand journey services, contact us today !

The branding journey - a visual guide to building your brand

Eilidh dunsire.

November 24, 2020

About the Author

Resident brand strategist, designer, creative solution finder & ice cream appreciator.

When you've got a great business idea, having a brand that lives up to your concept can be critical to it's success. Your brand is usually the first point of contact with your customers, so being able to communicate your vision is key a loyal following.

But how do you get a brand like that? And how do you know you will be communicating your vision to your customers effectively?

Getting your brand right can seem like a complicated process, but it doesn't have to be that way. Building a great brand is about asking the right questions at the start, and following through with the process from discovery and understanding, to building and maintaining your brand.

Here are the steps from idea to brand success, the straight forward way:

• Idea conception
• Brand naming
• Understand & define your brand
• Visual design
• Design Implementation
• Live & maintain

So, here's a break down of each step:

1. Idea conception

You have a great business idea, here you may want to work with a business advisor or start-up space to get valuable advice on idea validation, business planning, registering your company and carrying out initial market research etc.

If your solution is digital, you should start looking at how it will work by thinking about prototypes and Minimal Viable Product development.

For physical products and solutions you should start researching and developing your product.

Who can help? Business Advisors, Start-up Incubators.

2. Brand naming

With idea validation and research under your belt, both into your solution and the market you'll be operating in, you're in a good position to name your brand.

We have a Brand naming workbook that can help you develop a great name, and check that it is available ( Naming PDF here ). There are also naming agencies who can help you with this step.

Who can help? Creative Agencies, Naming Agencies.

3. Understand & define your brand

By this point, you probably have a lot of ideas formed about what your brand stands for and what it should look like. Turning your thoughts and ideas into actionable concepts is the next step. This is the strategy driving your brand - understanding the core foundation of what you are building (and why you are building it) gives your brand purpose. With an understanding of what drives your brand, you are able to build a consistent and powerful voice for it.

Who can help? Creative Agencies, Brand Designers / Brand Strategists.

4. Visual design

Branding is often associated with the visual design and the logo of the brand exclusively, but the visual design is just a small part of your brand as a big picture ( see branding as an iceberg ). Branding is built up by the experience you create with your product or service, and the way you deliver it as well as it's visual design.

The visual design (brand identity) part of your branding is more likely to align with your values if it is created after you understand what your brand stands for and who your customers are (i.e. the strategy in step 3).

Here, all of the knowledge on what your brand stands for at its core is used to create a fitting identity that will appeal to, and connect with your customers.

Who can help? Creative Agencies, Brand Designers.

5. Design implementation

Once you have established your brand identity, all of the other visuals such as your website, socials, physical location, product and packaging can be designed. This step is often done in tandem with the identity design.

You may need a brand designer or graphic designer, website designer and marketing specialists here.

Who can help? Creative Agencies, Brand / Graphic / Web Designers, Marketing Specialists.

Once your brand is live, you should continue to look back at your brand values and your initial vision, to make sure you are staying true to your original promise to your customers. Brand consistency is something that customers look for, so it's important to make sure you are supplying a reliable product and experience.

Maintain consistency in your core values, but don't get stuck in your ways! Over time, your brand can, and should, evolve to grow with your company flexibly.

The most important people here are you and your team. Make sure everyone understands the brand values and actively works to promote the brand experience your customers have come to know and love.

Who can help? Your team and Creative Agencies, Designers, Marketers and Strategists.

Watch this article:

I hope this article helped simplify the branding journey into digestible steps. For more in depth information about getting started with your branding (from who to hire, to the different aspects of the brand design), see this article: 4 things to know before beginning your branding journey .

Looking for more resources? Get the brand naming workbook on our resources page .

Nela Dunato Art & Design

Branding is a journey, not a one-off project.

Published by Nela Dunato on November 20, 2020 in Branding , Thoughts

Branding can be overwhelming for business owners, regardless of how much experience you have. The more you learn, the more you realize there is a whole lot more to learn and do.

As if that wasn’t enough, there are different “schools of thought”, which are more or less appropriate for corporations, personalities, or small businesses, so you’re always required to weigh how relevant something is for your particular business model, approach, and worldview. (I explained some of the differences in my article Human Centered Branding: Filling the Gap between Personal & Corporate Branding .)

Even though it’s hard, it’s possible to create a great brand for your business. You just need to be patient and persistent.

What does it mean to have a brand?

Some people might think that having professional headshots, a logo, a website, a business card, and social media presence equals having a brand, while not having either or all of those things means you don’t have one. This is not true.

Here’s how I define the term “brand” in one short sentence:

A brand is a collection of impressions the audience has about an organization, a product, or a person.

We can see from this definition that our brand relies on what other people think and how they feel about us , not just what we want them to think and feel. We can affect their impressions, but we can’t entirely control them. These impressions may be positive, negative, or neutral, and all of them make up our brand.

So who or what has a brand?

If there are people outside of your immediate social circle that you’ve never met, but they’ve heard of you and have formed an opinion about you, you have some kind of a brand—even if you don’t have a website yet.

If you do have a website that no one ever visits because you didn’t tell people about it, you don’t have a brand. If no one is talking about you to their community, you don’t have a brand, regardless of what brand strategy documents you’ve written and what graphics you’ve designed.

Having a brand requires communication

Your brand needs to be witnessed by people outside of your organization, preferably by your target audience .

Networking, word of mouth, and social media communication are all powerful engines that drive branding. Pick one or all three, invest time into building relationships with people you want to help, and sooner or later you’ll find yourself surrounded by people who are saying great things about your work without you having to pay for the privilege.

The role your headshots, logo, social media channels, website, and business card have is to look professional and welcoming when those people start sending potential clients your way. Your image and your reputation need to line up and tell a coherent story that your audience will believe in.

It’s all about the story, really. What story is your brand telling, and who is listening?

Developing a brand is a never-ending process

Anyone who’s tried to create a brand on their own knows this. A brand is never “perfect”—it’s on a trajectory towards perfection, but it will never reach that point. Of course, being closer to that perceived “perfection” is better than being far away from it, that’s why we even bother doing this work, fully aware that we’re in it for the long haul.

Imagine a business owner that’s starting a new company and wants to do everything “right”, so they hire a brand designer (like myself) to create their brand identity . We go through the entire design process, and at the end of it we come out with a logo that carries meaning , a detailed brand identity guidelines document , and some additional graphics they need. After that they go about their work, and keep anything branding-related on autopilot.

They don’t examine how their core values fit into the current marketplace, so they’re not able to make a statement at this challenging time when people want to buy from and support brands with a purpose .

They don’t refine their unique value proposition , so their offers are indiscernible from their immediate competitors.

They don’t create original content with a distinct point of view, so their reach is limited to word-of-mouth. This misses out on the opportunity to develop a strong brand voice, and places the outcome of the first impression into the hands of people who are not trained to be their brand ambassadors.

They don’t identify the traits of their most valuable clients , so they don’t adjust their marketing and sales process in order to attract more of them.

Years after investing the initial effort into their brand, it has not evolved at all. They’re just another business offering the same kinds of services that other similar companies offer, for basically whoever is willing to pay their fees.

Do the right things in the right order

I prefer working with consultants who have been in business for a while (or at least have plenty of experience as employees of other companies), because they know the answers to all the important questions that I need to ask them. Knowing this information, I’m able to advise them to make the right choices, which results in a robust and long-lasting brand identity.

Typically new business owners, especially those who are transitioning into a new field, make assumptions that are not based on real-world experience with clients. Life will put those assumptions to the test, and many of them will break apart.

A few years down the road when biz owners figure this out, it will be time to realign their brand, completely rewrite their website copy, and possibly even update some design elements so that they better match who they really are as a professional, instead of who they thought they would be.

When is the right time to work on a brand?

In my talks and workshops I share this graphic:

As I’ve explained in my article Rebranding 101: Why & how to update your existing brand , the moment you’re starting a business from scratch may not be the best time to invest a lot of money in branding.

The reason for this is that during the early stages of your career, you might find yourself pivoting often. Changing your mind on what kind of services you offer, which clients you want to serve, whether to focus most of your efforts online or in person… Each pivot might disrupt the assumptions you’ve been working under, so you’ll be forced to adapt your branding as well.

Wait until things have settled, and you have enough information to plan for the next 3–5 years. Then focus on defining a brand that will meet your present needs and grow with your business.

In the meantime, there is a lot you can do completely on your own for very little money. My book “The Human Centered Brand” and the free bonuses that come with it can guide you through that.

Developing the brand in the right order

The Human Centered Brand Discovery Pyramid, a graphical representation of the brand strategy framework I’ve developed, has 5 levels:

I’ll give a brief overview of how those elements are related to the process of evolving as a business owner. If you’re interested in learning more, I’ve explained the elements in more detail in my article: Struggling with your brand strategy? Start here.

The first level of core values describes who you are as a human being, on a very deep level. This is related to, but not limited to your career. If you’ve done a lot of personal growth work, you probably have this level covered. You know what your priorities are, and how your business fits into those priorities. People who are not clear on their values and priorities may end up on the wrong career path, and no amount of marketing or branding can fix that.

The second level, your unique value proposition relates to the practical way your business delivers value to its clients. If your offers are not sufficiently unique, it will be difficult to set yourself apart in a saturated marketplace. Experienced business owners have usually figured this out through testing, collecting and analyzing feedback, and continually refining their offers.

The third level of brand voice is developed by frequently communicating with your audience. If you don’t communicate with people regularly, you won’t have a chance to refine your brand voice qualities and come up with a point of view that helps you stand out. Authentic brand voice is not something you can make up on the spot and be done with it. It can take years of writing or speaking to get comfortable with it.

The fourth level, ideal client , can be somewhat confusing for new business owners, and the one where we’re most prone to assuming things that are not true. If we focus on the wrong type of clientele, we may realize that the people we’re trying to attract do not really understand our offers and aren’t prepared to pay the fees we charge.

I’ll share my own experience. When I started freelancing in 2013, I called my ideal clients “creative business owners”, because they’re the people I love to hang out with (including writers, painters, jewelry and fashion designers, and makers in general). Over the years of working with various people and organizations, I’ve realized that my actual dream clients were consultants—creative or otherwise. I’ve found that on average consultants had more business experience, clearer and more refined offers, were better organized, more punctual, easier to communicate with, and they charged more for their services so they understood the value of my work. My assumptions on who would be a great fit for my design services were wrong, and I was able to correct them only through vigilance and willingness to change.

The fifth level of brand identity design is the pinnacle of the branding process: it’s the frosting on top of a layered cake. It’s quite disappointing to be served a piece of utterly tasteless cake that looked gorgeous on the outside. Sadly, many brands are like that: they give a flashy first impression, but the overall customer experience leaves us dissatisfied.

The opposite is a cake that tastes delicious, but looks quite plain on the serving plate. Many businesses go through this “awkward brownie” phase because they’re either too busy to deal with the aesthetics, or don’t understand the impact it has on their sales. Ideally, your business should be the equivalent of a cake that both looks and tastes delicious. The interior substance comes first, and the decoration is added as a finishing touch .

Wrapping your mind around all that can be overwhelming.

There are so many theoretical and practical pieces to branding that it is impossible to figure it all at once, and do it right. I want you to know that you don’t have to do it all at once .

Really. You don’t.

I didn’t do it all at once for my own business ( exhibit A , exhibit B ), nor for any of my other projects.

In fact, this very article that you are reading now is clarifying something important that I forgot to clarify in all my years of writing about this. I realized that this point of view was missing from my message, and I’m correcting that now. 7 years into this business, and I’m still correcting and clarifying things. Did I mention that it never ends?

My clients don’t do it all at once, either.

You’d think that someone with a budget to hire a branding professional has it easy, right? Well… easy is not the word I’d use. Sure, a lot of weight is lifted off my clients’ shoulders when we work together, and I’m able to guide them through a forest of information that would be difficult for lay people to navigate. But I can only do so much.

Business owners are the real decision makers. I can ask questions and make suggestions, but they’re the ones who need to take action. If a client refuses to take action because “it’s not a priority” and they’re “too busy”, I can’t push things forward faster than they’re ready.

A big part of my job is patiently waiting until people are ready.

Be patient with yourself.

Seeing other businesses with terrific brands can make us envious and self-critical. Why can’t I do this? Why is it taking so much time? Why am I constantly running behind my peers?

I used to promote my free Human Centered Brand Workbook under the name “Revamp Your Brand In One Day” . I believe that one day of focused research and planning can give visible results. But that one day is just a start, it’s not enough to create a good brand on its own.

Don’t expect instant results.

Everyone gets excited when we embark on a new branding project. I’m thrilled by the opportunity to create something new, and my clients are intrigued by my creative process and anxious to see what will come out of it.

Once I deliver the graphics and my client starts using them, the excitement lasts for a bit longer as they get compliments from their clients and colleagues. After that it dissipates, and we’re back to business as usual. The graphics are no longer new. Their brand strategy document is sitting on their hard drive, and no one ever opens it.

If the client doesn’t immediately get a slew of new buyers, they might start thinking that their brand isn’t working . Aren’t we supposed to get more sales now? Don’t we look all professional and distinct from our competitors now? Aren’t inquiries supposed to start rolling in?

Branding, marketing, and sales work in tandem.

If you get all three right, you can expect great results. Focusing only on one of them is unstable, like trying to sit on a one-legged stool.

Ideally, you were selling your offers through word of mouth, even before you started working on your branding and marketing. Getting your offer in front of people who have a need for your services is a way to acquire paying clients, and also to get valuable information you can use to improve your offers further.

As you get your brand assets in order, your sales process can become even more effective:

• You know how to explain the value of your offer in a compelling way.
• You vet your prospects better, because you know how to recognize your most valued clients.
• Your sales communications (web pages, proposals, emails) leave a better impression, because of more effective language and professional graphics.

Branding has an even bigger impact on marketing:

• Your messaging is more on point, because you know exactly who you’re talking to, and what they care about the most.
• Your website, social media graphics, and brochures look professional and appealing, so everyone that sees them finds you more trustworthy.
• People remember your company more easily, because the colors, typography, photos, and your logo remind them they’ve seen your content or ads before.
• Your clear point of view differentiates your content and ads from your competitors, so people pay attention to them.

These are just some examples of how making a small amount of progress in several areas cumulatively adds up to results you can measure .

I never promise my clients that branding will solve all their business problems, and I hope that most of them are well aware of that. But it is a way to get better results out of your sales and marketing.

How long will the whole thing take?

As I’ve mentioned, it depends mostly on how ready you are to move forward.

If you know what you want to achieve and have enough experience to make realistic plans about the future of your business, the entire process can take around 3–6 months. This includes:

• Defining a brand strategy for your business.
• Designing the brand identity (logo, brand identity guidelines, and business documentation).
• Creating content for your new website (text, photography, video).
• Designing and developing your new website.
• Designing additional graphics for web and print.

If you’re still unclear, or your budget can’t cover all these things at once, this process can be stretched out to a year, or even several years.

Websites are especially prone to change, since technology and trends change often. What looked fresh and current a few years ago, might look outdated now.

If you’re curious why it takes that long, I explained my brand strategy, logo design and brand identity process so you can see all the work that goes into it.

Take a deep breath, and then focus on the next step.

It’s good to know what lies ahead and plan for it, but there’s no point in postponing everything until you can do it all perfectly.

Many of us have renovated an apartment at some point in our lives (either our own, or rented). Renovation is inconvenient and messy, and it costs a lot of money for contracting fees, construction materials, and new furniture. Sometimes your budget doesn’t allow for renovating more than one room at once. But at least when you fix up that room, you’ll be enjoying it every day going forward. Even if things are not perfect, you’ll still be happier that you’ve done some of the work.

My home office is around 80% done after my big renovation project last year. I had a wall torn down, got new flooring installed, and bought new furniture. I’m still missing a big ceiling LED panel and a few more shelves. There are boxes on the floor of my storage area, and I’m not happy about that. Nevertheless, it looks amazing compared to what it used to look like. It has taken many steps to get here, and it will take a few more to finish it, but I’m feeling good about it.

It takes time to get it near-perfect.

No one likes to hear this, but it’s the truth: good work can’t be rushed .

Sometimes you need to search for information to make the right decisions. Sometimes you need to save up money. Sometimes you need focus on strategic homework, while serving your clients at the same time, and the day only has so many hours.

Every gorgeous and wholesome brand you see out there took years to become that way. They have also struggled, stumbled along and learned from their mistakes. We each have our own path to travel to reach that unique place of near-perfection.

Want to go on this journey with me?

Over the years I’ve led many clients down this path. Some of them sprinted through my design process, while others took their time.

If you feel ready to take the first step towards creating a remarkable brand for your consulting business, check out my brand strategy and identity design services , and get in touch. I’d love to get to know you and help you reach your right people.

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2 responses to “Branding is a journey, not a one-off project”

So true! Not just about branding but about websites in general. They’re always a work in progress. And profiles! I’m forever updating mine. Perhaps it all comes down to our fixation with ‘arriving’ and crossing things off our list? We are constantly evolving our businesses and so our brands have to evolve to match. Loads to think about in your article as always Nela :)

Oh absolutely, websites are never done :) I’m tweaking mine almost every day! Always rewriting important pages when I figure out something new. And the profiles, it’s so hard to keep up with everything we’ve put out there over the years!

It’s great to feel accomplished for a day. Crossing of a task that was weighing over your head is so satisfying, and we need to celebrate those big steps! But eventually, the time will come to revisit that task again, armed with new insights :)

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The customer journey — definition, stages, and benefits

Businesses need to understand their customers to increase engagement, sales, and retention. But building an understanding with your customers isn’t easy.

The customer journey is the road a person takes to convert, but this journey isn’t always obvious to business owners. Understanding every step of that journey is key to business success. After reading this article, you’ll understand the customer journey better and how to use it to improve the customer experience while achieving your business goals.

This post will discuss:

• What a customer journey is

Customer journey stages

Benefits of knowing the customer journey.

• What a customer journey map is

How to create a customer journey map

Use the customer journey map to optimize the customer experience, what is a customer journey.

The customer journey is a series of steps — starting with brand awareness before a person is even a customer — that leads to a purchase and eventual customer loyalty. Businesses use the customer journey to better understand their customers’ experience, with the goal of optimizing that experience at every touchpoint.

Giving customers a positive customer experience is important for getting customers to trust a business, so optimizing the customer journey has never mattered more. By mastering the customer journey, you can design customer experiences that will lead to better customer relationships, loyalty, and long-term retention .

Customer journey vs. the buyer journey

The stages of the customer’s journey are different from the stages of the buyer’s journey. The buyer’s journey follows the customer experience from initial awareness of a brand to buying a product. The customer journey extends beyond the purchase and follows how customers interact with your product and how they share it with others.

Every lead goes through several stages to become a loyal customer. The better this experience is for customers at each stage, the more likely your leads are to stick around.

Ensure that your marketing, sales, and customer service teams optimize for these five stages of the customer journey:

1. Awareness

In the awareness phase, your target audience is just becoming aware of your brand and products. They need information or a solution to a problem, so they search for that information via social media and search engines.

For example, if someone searches on Google for pens for left-handed people, their customer journey begins when they’re first aware of your brand’s left-handed pen.

At this stage, potential customers learn about your business via web content, social media, influencers, and even their friends and family. However, this isn’t the time for hard sells. Customers are simply gathering information at this stage, so you should focus first on answering their questions and building trust.

2. Consideration

In the consideration phase, customers begin to consider your brand as a solution to their problem. They’re comparing your products to other businesses and alternative solutions, so you need to give these shoppers a reason to stick around.

Consideration-stage customers want to see product features that lean heavily toward solving problems and content that doesn’t necessarily push a sale. At this stage, businesses need to position their solution as a better alternative. For example, a nutrition coaching app might create content explaining the differences between using the app and working with an in-person nutritionist — while subtly promoting the benefits of choosing the app.

3. Purchase

The purchase stage is also called the decision stage because at this stage customers are ready to make a buying decision. Keep in mind that their decision might be to go with a competing solution, so purchase-stage buyers won’t always convert to your brand.

As a business, it’s your job to persuade shoppers at this stage to buy from you. Provide information on pricing, share comparison guides to showcase why you’re the superior option, and set up abandoned cart email sequences.

4. Retention

The customer journey doesn’t end once a shopper makes their first purchase. Once you’ve converted a customer, you need to focus on keeping them around and driving repeat business. Sourcing new customers is often more expensive than retaining existing clients, so this strategy can help you cut down on marketing costs and increase profits.

The key to the retention stage is to maintain positive, engaging relationships between your brand and its customers. Try strategies like regular email outreach, coupons and sales, or exclusive communities to encourage customer loyalty.

5. Advocacy

In the advocacy stage, customers are so delighted with your products and services that they spread the word to their friends and family. This goes a step beyond retention because the customer is actively encouraging other people to make purchases.

Customer journeys don’t have a distinct end because brands should always aim to please even their most loyal customers. In the advocacy stage of the customer journey, you can offer referral bonuses, loyalty programs, and special deals for your most active customers to encourage further advocacy.

Being aware of the customer journey helps shed more light on your target audience’s expectations and needs. In fact, 80% of companies compete primarily on customer experience. This means optimizing the customer journey will not only encourage your current customers to remain loyal but will also make you more competitive in acquiring new business.

More specifically, acknowledging the customer journey can help you:

• Understand customer behavior. Classifying every action your customers take will help you figure out why they do what they do. When you understand a shopper’s “why,” you’re better positioned to support their needs.
• Identify touchpoints to reach the customer. Many businesses invest in multichannel marketing, but not all of these touchpoints are valuable. By focusing on the customer journey, you’ll learn which of these channels are the most effective for generating sales. This helps businesses save time and money by focusing on only the most effective channels.
• Analyze the stumbling blocks in products or services. If leads frequently bail before buying, that could be a sign that something is wrong with your product or buying experience. Being conscious of the customer journey can help you fix issues with your products or services before they become a more expensive problem.
• Support your marketing efforts. Marketing requires a deep familiarity with your target audience. Documenting the customer journey makes it easier for your marketing team to meet shoppers’ expectations and solve their pain points.
• Increase customer engagement. Seeing the customer journey helps your business target the most relevant audience for your product or service. Plus, it improves the customer experience and increases engagement. In fact, 29.6% of customers will refuse to embrace branded digital channels if they have a poor experience, so increasing positive customer touchpoints has never been more important.
• Achieve more conversions. Mapping your customers’ journey can help you increase conversions by tailoring and personalizing your approach and messages to give your audience exactly what they want.
• Generate more ROI. You need to see a tangible return on your marketing efforts. Fortunately, investing in the customer journey improves ROI across the board. For example, brands with a good customer experience can increase revenue by 2–7% .
• Improve customer satisfaction and loyalty. Today, 94% of customers say a positive experience motivates them to make future purchases. Optimizing the customer journey helps you meet shopper expectations, which increases satisfaction and loyalty.

What is a customer journey map?

A customer journey map is a visual representation of every step your customer takes from being a lead to eventually becoming an advocate for your brand. The goal of customer journey mapping is to simplify the complex process of how customers interact with your brand at every stage of their journey.

Businesses shouldn’t use a rigid, one-size-fits-all customer journey map. Instead, they should plan flexible, individual types of customer journeys — whether they’re based on a certain demographic or on individual customer personas. To design the most effective customer journey map, your brand needs to understand a customer’s:

• Actions. Learn which actions your customer takes at every stage. Look for common patterns. For example, you might see that consideration-stage shoppers commonly look for reviews.
• Motivations. Customer intent matters. A person’s motivations change at every stage of the customer journey, and your map needs to account for that. Include visual representation of the shopper’s motivations at each stage. At the awareness stage, their motivation might be to gather information to solve their problem. At the purchase stage, it might be to get the lowest price possible.
• Questions. Brands can take customers’ common questions at every stage of the customer journey and reverse-engineer them into useful content. For example, shoppers at the consideration stage might ask, “What’s the difference between a DIY car wash and hiring a professional detailer?” You can offer content that answers their question while subtly promoting your car detailing business.
• Pain points. Everybody has a problem that they’re trying to solve, whether by just gathering intel or by purchasing products. Recognizing your leads’ pain points will help you craft proactive, helpful marketing campaigns that solve their biggest problems.

Customer journey touchpoints

Every stage of the customer journey should also include touchpoints. Customer touchpoints are the series of interactions with your brand — such as an ad on Facebook, an email, or a website chatbot — that occur at the various stages of the customer journey across multiple channels. A customer’s actions, motivations, questions, and pain points will differ at each stage and at each touchpoint.

For example, a customer searching for a fishing rod and reading posts about how they’re made will have very different motivations and questions from when later comparing specs and trying to stay within budget. Likewise, that same customer will have different pain points when calling customer service after buying a particular rod.

It might sound like more work, but mapping the entire customer journey helps businesses create a better customer experience throughout the entire lifecycle of a customer’s interaction with your brand.

Before jumping into the steps of how to create the customer journey map, first be clear that your customer journey map needs to illustrate the following:

• Customer journey stages. Ensure that your customer journey map includes every stage of the customer journey. Don’t just focus on the stages approaching the purchase — focus on the retention and advocacy stages as well.
• Touchpoints. Log the most common touchpoints customers have at every stage. For example, awareness-stage touchpoints might include your blog, social media, or search engines. Consideration-stage touchpoints could include reviews or demo videos on YouTube. You don’t need to list all potential touchpoints. Only list the most common or relevant touchpoints at each stage.
• The full customer experience. Customers’ actions, motivations, questions, and pain points will change at every stage — and every touchpoint — during the customer journey. Ensure your customer journey map touches on the full experience for each touchpoint.
• Your brand’s solutions. Finally, the customer journey map needs to include a branded solution for each stage and touchpoint. This doesn’t necessarily mean paid products. For example, awareness-stage buyers aren’t ready to make a purchase, so your brand’s solution at this stage might be a piece of gated content. With these necessary elements in mind, creating an effective customer journey map is a simple three-step process.

1. Create buyer personas

A buyer persona is a fictitious representation of your target audience. It’s a helpful internal tool that businesses use to better understand their audience’s background, assumptions, pain points, and needs. Each persona differs in terms of actions, motivations, questions, and pain points, which is why businesses need to create buyer personas before they map the customer journey.

To create a buyer persona, you will need to:

• Gather and analyze customer data. Collect information on your customers through analytics, surveys, and market research.
• Segment customers into specific buying groups. Categorize customers into buying groups based on shared characteristics — such as demographics or location. This will give you multiple customer segments to choose from.
• Build the personas. Select the segment you want to target and build a persona for that segment. At a minimum, the buyer persona needs to define the customers’ basic traits, such as their personal background, as well as their motivations and pain points.

For example, ClearVoice created a buyer persona called “John The Marketing Manager.” The in-depth persona details the target customer’s pain points, pet peeves, and potential reactions to help ClearVoice marketers create more customer-focused experiences.

2. List the touchpoints at each customer journey stage

Now that you’ve created your buyer personas, you need to sketch out each of the five stages of the customer journey and then list all of the potential touchpoints each buyer persona has with your brand at every one of these five stages. This includes listing the most common marketing channels where customers can interact with you. Remember, touchpoints differ by stage, so it’s critical to list which touchpoints happen at every stage so you can optimize your approach for every buyer persona.

Every customer’s experience is different, but these touchpoints most commonly line up with each stage of the customer journey:

• Awareness. Advertising, social media, company blog, referrals from friends and family, how-to videos, streaming ads, and brand activation events.
• Consideration. Email, sales calls, SMS, landing pages, and reviews.
• Purchase. Live chat, chatbots, cart abandonment emails, retargeting ads, and product print inserts.
• Retention. Thank you emails, product walkthroughs, sales follow-ups, and online communities.
• Advocacy. Surveys, loyalty programs, and in-person events.

Leave no stone unturned. Logging the most relevant touchpoints at each stage eliminates blind spots and ensures your brand is there for its customers, wherever they choose to connect with you.

3. Map the customer experience at each touchpoint

Now that you’ve defined each touchpoint at every stage of the customer journey, it’s time to detail the exact experience you need to create for each touchpoint. Every touchpoint needs to consider the customer’s:

• Actions. Describe how the customer got to this touchpoint and what they’re going to do now that they’re here.
• Motivations. Specify how the customer feels at this moment. Are they frustrated, confused, curious, or excited? Explain why they feel this way.
• Questions. Every customer has questions. Anticipate the questions someone at this stage and touchpoint would have — and how your brand can answer those questions.
• Pain points. Define the problem the customer has — and how you can solve that problem at this stage. For example, imagine you sell women’s dress shoes. You’re focusing on the buyer persona of a 36-year-old Canadian woman who works in human resources. Her touchpoints might include clicking on your Facebook ad, exploring your online shop, but then abandoning her cart. After receiving a coupon from you, she finally buys. Later, she decides to exchange the shoes for a different color. After the exchange, she leaves a review. Note how she acts at each of these touchpoints and detail her likely pain points, motivations, and questions, for each scenario. Note on the map where you intend to respond to the customer’s motivations and pain points with your brand’s solutions. If you can create custom-tailored solutions for every stage of the funnel, that’s even better.

A positive customer experience is the direct result of offering customers personalized, relevant, or meaningful content and other brand interactions. By mapping your customers’ motivations and pain points with your brand’s solutions, you’ll find opportunities to improve the customer experience. When you truly address their deepest needs, you’ll increase engagement and generate more positive reviews.

Follow these strategies to improve the customer experience with your customer journey map:

• Prioritize objectives. Identify the stages of the customer journey where your brand has the strongest presence and take advantage of those points. For example, if leads at the consideration stage frequently subscribe to your YouTube channel, that gives you more opportunities to connect with loyal followers.
• Use an omnichannel approach to engage customers. Omnichannel marketing allows businesses to gather information and create a more holistic view of the customer journey. This allows you to personalize the customer experience on another level entirely. Use an omnichannel analytics solution that allows you to capture and analyze the true cross-channel experience.
• Personalize interactions at every stage. The goal of mapping the customer journey is to create more personalized, helpful experiences for your audience at every stage and touchpoint. For example, with the right data you can personalize the retail shopping experience and customer’s website experience.
• Cultivate a mutually trusting relationship. When consumer trust is low, brands have to work even harder to earn their customers’ trust. Back up your marketing promises with good customer service, personalized incentives, and loyalty programs.

Getting started with customer journeys

Customer journeys are complicated in an omnichannel environment, but mapping these journeys can help businesses better understand their customers. Customer journey maps help you deliver the exact experience your customers expect from your business while increasing engagement and sales.

When you’re ready to get started, trace the interactions your customers have at each stage of their journey with your brand. Adobe Customer Journey Analytics — a service built on Adobe Experience Platform — can break down, filter, and query years’ worth of data and combine it from every channel into a single interface. Real-time, omnichannel analysis and visualization let companies make better decisions with a holistic view of their business and the context behind every customer action.

Learn more about Customer Journey Analytics by watching the overview video .

https://business.adobe.com/blog/perspectives/introducing-adobes-customer-journey-maturity-model

https://business.adobe.com/blog/how-to/create-customer-journey-maps

https://business.adobe.com/blog/basics/what-is-customer-journey-map

What’s the Point of a Personal Brand?

by Harrison Monarth

Summary .   

We often confuse our reputation as our personal brand. But that’s not true. Everyone has a reputation. The first impressions you make, the relationships you form with managers and peers, and how you communicate — all of these things impact how others see you.  Your personal brand, on the other hand, is much more intentional. It is how you want people to see you.

• To start building your personal brand, figure out what drives you. What motivates you to get up in the morning and go to work? What skills are you curious about but have yet to build? What subjects pique your interest?
• Next, align your values to your organization’s goals. Say your organization regularly brings the most cutting-edge new products to market and values leaders who challenge the status quo and think outside the box. How do your current strengths align with the company’s goals? You see yourself as a creative person, who loves solving complex problems. Given that, you may decide on “innovator” as your key personal brand attribute.
• Just like in the commercial world, a brand has no value unless people are aware of it. To increase your visibility, create a stakeholder map. It could be a simple list of people you want to know or people who can help you progress at the organization or an intricate document that highlights how others might be able to advocate for you.
• Finally, reach out to the people you want to connect with. When you meet them, use the opportunity to highlight your skills and interests and how those competencies might benefit them and their work.

One of new my coaching clients, Mike, a young manager in the finance industry with a prestigious MBA, was turned down for a promotion. When he asked his supervisor about the decision, his boss replied, “Because nobody knows you.”

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What Is Brand Awareness?

How brand awareness works, special considerations regarding brand awareness, other ways to create brand awareness, what is an example of good brand awareness, why does brand awareness matter, how can i increase brand awareness, the bottom line.

• Marketing Essentials

What Is Brand Awareness? Definition, How It Works, and Strategies

Investopedia / Hilary Allison

Brand awareness is a marketing term for the degree to which consumers recognize a product by its name. Ideally, consumers' awareness of the brand not only means recognition but also includes positive perceptions of the product versus the competition.

Studies have found that consumers naturally pay more attention to products with higher brand awareness, influencing how well they recognize and remember these brands. Entrepreneurs can build brand awareness by creating thought leadership content, volunteering, and building a strong network.

Key Takeaways

• Brand awareness refers to the familiarity of consumers with a particular product or service.
• A brand awareness campaign seeks to familiarize the public with a new or revised product and differentiate it from the competition.
• Social media has become an important new tool in brand awareness marketing.

Products and services with high brand awareness will likely generate more sales. When faced with choices, consumers are simply more likely to buy a name-brand product than an unfamiliar one.

Building brand awareness starts by connecting your product or service to a clear and compelling value proposition. For example, Verizon's "Can you hear me now?" campaign effectively captured the attention of its target audience and highlighted its expanded service coverage, resulting in a 10% increase in net customers to 32.5 million in the first year. Other key strategies include establishing a strong online presence, using visually appealing designs, and actively engaging with your audience through social media, email, and other platforms.

Another example of successful brand awareness is the soft drink industry. Without their packaging, many soft drinks are indistinguishable, and sugary beverages are known to contribute to chronic diseases like diabetes. However, industry giants like Coca-Cola and Pepsi rely on strong brand awareness to ensure consumers choose their products despite these health risks and competition from alternatives. Over the years, their effective advertising and marketing strategies have significantly increased brand recognition, leading to higher sales.

This higher brand awareness rate for dominant brands in a category can serve as an economic moat , preventing competitors from gaining additional market share. For example, Warren Buffett is an investor in Coca-Cola partly because it's one of the most recognizable global brands with intense customer loyalty, providing it with a wide economic moat.

As of 2024, Internet users spend just over 2 hours daily on social media, compared to an hour and a half back in 2012.

Not surprisingly, companies spend a lot of energy promoting brand awareness on platforms like Instagram and Facebook, especially targeting Millennials and Gen Z audiences. This has led to new forms of promotion in which consumers generate  discussions about products  and services they like and use. Facebook continues to be the most used platform, while Instagram and TikTok dominate among younger users. Brands must stay updated with these trends to effectively reach their target audiences and maximize their marketing impact.

Inevitably, consumers also share unfavorable experiences, and marketers are adapting to that reality. It has become crucial for a company to respond to negative reviews and offer a solution to the customer's problem, in real-time.

But as consumers view and interact with social media posts and updates, brand awareness will increase. For brand awareness to be most productive, consumers should be able to connect to the company's website seamlessly from the social media platform. It's also a good idea to use data-driven insights to tailor content for each platform, ensuring it resonates with the specific demographics active there.

Print media is not the force it once was, but consumers still read newspapers and magazines. Strategically placed advertisements, such as those in targeted sections of newspapers or specialized publications, can capture viewer attention and boost brand awareness.

For example, a new  forex (FX)  trading company might advertise in a magazine focusing on global trade and currencies to create brand awareness among investors.

Advertising in physical locations, such as inside stores, is also used to create brand awareness. Impulse purchase products are well-suited for in-store distribution and advertising. For example, a company marketing a new candy bar may distribute the product at a point-of-sale (POS) location to create brand awareness.

Event sponsorship may effectively build brand awareness, offering visibility at charitable events, sporting events, and fundraisers. For example, the PGA Tour’s Valspar Championship significantly boosted Valspar's brand recognition by using paint buckets as tee markers, dressing caddies in branded gear, and featuring a chameleon sand sculpture. These creative efforts led to a 10-point increase in brand recognition, prompting Valspar to renew its sponsorship contract early.

Another example is a health insurance company that may distribute complimentary company-branded health packs at a charity marathon. This associates the brand with an act of goodwill and community feeling, increasing awareness of the brand and burnishing its image.

Coca-Cola, McDonald's, and Nike are some of the most recognizable brands globally. They have successfully created positive brand images and increased customer awareness. The red Coca-Cola can, McDonald's golden arches and Nike's checkmark instantly identify their respective brands.

Brand awareness is essential because it ensures your brand is top of mind when customers make purchasing decisions. It builds trust and credibility, making it easier for consumers to choose your brand over others. Strong brand awareness fosters customer loyalty and can increase sales and market share.

To increase brand awareness, psychologists at the University of Southern California recommend focusing on the psychological aspects of branding by emphasizing sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication, and ruggedness. Use creative marketing campaigns to make your brand memorable, engage with customers on a personal level, and consistently reflect your brand’s values in all interactions. Be strategic in using colors, carefully choose your words, and try to foster a sense of belonging, as this can significantly improve your brand's appeal and customer loyalty.

For certain businesses, including consumer-focused companies, brand awareness is crucial for influencing consumer purchasing decisions and fostering loyalty. It's a key reason why brands like Coca-Cola and Nike have had such a lasting impact on consumers.

Effective strategies include connecting your brand to a compelling value proposition, using creative marketing campaigns, and engaging with customers across multiple platforms. Staying current with social media trends and using targeted ads can also help maintain a strong market presence.

National Library of Medicine. " The Influences of Brand Awareness on Consumers’ Cognitive Process: An Event-Related Potentials Study ."

Strayer University. " 3 Ways Entrepreneurs Can Increase Brand Awareness ."

University of Cincinnati. " How to build a brand ."

Wizard of Ads. "' Can You Hear Me Now' - How Verizon Grabbed Greater Market Share As Premium-Priced Provider ."

National Library of Medicine. " The Effect of Graphic Warnings on Sugary-Drink Purchasing. "

Statista. " Daily time spent on social networking by internet users worldwide from 2012 to 2024 ."

Sprout Social. " Social Media Demographics to Inform Your Brand’s Strategy in 2024. "

BrandVerge. " Creating Impactful Social Media Marketing Campaigns. "

Georgia State University. " Rising Above the Clutter: Brand Awareness of Sponsorships ."

Amazon Ads. " Brand awareness: Definition, importance, strategy examples, and how it works. "

University of Southern California. " Psychology Behind Developing Brand Loyalty ."

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Marketing91

What is the Buyer’s Journey? Definition, Stages, and Examples

June 28, 2024 | By Hitesh Bhasin | Filed Under: Marketing

The Buyer’s Journey is a term used to describe the cycle of events customers go through when considering purchasing. The journey typically begins with a customer recognizing their need for a product or service, researching various options, and eventually deciding to purchase.

At each stage of the Buyer’s journey, companies must know how their brand is presented to potential customers . Businesses must craft a unique and memorable brand voice that speaks to existing customers and prospects at different stages of the Buyer’s journey.

Table of Contents

What is the Buyer’s Journey?

The Buyer’s Journey can be defined as the process or stages a potential customer goes through, from discovering a brand to making the final purchase. It’s a path guided by the brand’s unique voice and identity that resonates with customers at each stage. Buyer’s journey stages are often categorized into three primary types – Awareness , Consideration, and Decision.

An example of the Buyer’s journey would be someone who discovers a new brand on social media, researches the product , and then compares prices before making a purchase decision. At each stage, they come into contact with the brand’s message, which should feel consistent no matter what platform it appears on.

It is also sometimes called the purchase journey. Simply put, a buyer’s journey describes what a customer has to go through to purchase a product or a service. Creating a buyer’s journey would involve mapping out all the interactions, decisions, and actions the prospect takes, from defining his problem to identifying the solution.

The key to creating a journey map is to watch how the prospect behaves at each stage of the buying process. This is comparable to how playtesting works in games. Game developers watch how people play, identify their pain areas, and design the game appropriately. Mapping the customer’s journey assists the organization in identifying buyer pain points. Then, you may control the purchasing process so that no gaps cause buyers to slip out of the sales funnel .

Key Takeaways

• The Buyer’s Journey is divided into three stages: awareness , consideration, and decision, which outline the customer’s path from discovery to purchase.
•  A consistent brand voice across all platforms is critical for connecting with customers at every step of their journey.
• Mapping the Buyer’s Journey is similar to playtesting in gaming, where businesses discover and fix customer pain spots to improve the purchasing experience.
• Effective path mapping assists businesses in avoiding potential drop-offs by addressing gaps in the sales funnel.
• The journey includes encounters with the brand and the customer’s decisions and actions, from problem identification to solution purchasing.

Why is Studying a Buyer’s Journey Important for your Sales Strategy?

Studying the Buyer’s journey is vital because it allows businesses to understand the customer’s thought processes, behaviors, and decision-making patterns. This further helps the company decide whether there is a need or a problem that the company is not fulfilling. Thus, this allows the company to research the necessary solutions so their buyers can make chase .

Some of the reasons that understanding the Buyer’s journey is essential for your sales team are-

1. Focus on Customers: Businesses can lose focus on their customers and match their needs in each stage of the purchase process. This, therefore, makes their marketing more efficient and effective.

2. Product Development : Studying the Buyer’s journey helps the business determine features or elements missing in its current product line. This can lead to better product development . Example: Lego conducts mindstorms where initially they just observed kids playing with toys.

3. Sales Strategies : Companies can realign their sales strategies based on the Buyer’s journey and customers’ needs.

4. Customer Experience : Better customer experience during the buying journey helps improve the overall purchase experience, fosters repeat purchases, and leads to better word-of-mouth referrals.

5. Competitive Advantage : A company that is studying the journey of its customers will always be able to design superior products and service solutions that will give them a competitive advantage .

6. Pull Strategies : Based on what the Buyer is looking for, companies can design their pull strategies so that customers themselves approach the company. Example: Apple iPods were designed by observing the pain points of Walkman or CD players.

7. Retaining Customers: Finally, once the company is attuned to observing its customers, it fills all the gaps, leaving the customer happy at the end of his buying journey. This results in customer loyalty and retention and turns customers into brand advocates . Example: Ikea always keeps observing the movement of customers around the store and rearranging its display accordingly.

What are the Three Stages of the Buyer’s Journey?

The Buyer’s journey has three stages: awareness, consideration, and decision. When studying the Buyer’s journey, these three stages evaluate the prospect’s decision-making process.

Each stage in the Buyer’s journey may have challenges. It is your job as a marketer to resolve the challenges and ensure a smooth process for the customer. As a business owner, you must remove as many obstacles from a buyer’s journey as possible. Let’s now go through the three stages of the Buyer’s journey that are crucial for any successful sales process –

1. The Awareness Stage

The Buyer’s journey begins at this stage. The awareness stage in the Buyer’s journey is when the customer becomes aware that he has a problem or a pain point. They have just started to look for a solution.

For example, I realize I have gained some weight and need to exercise a bit. However, I need to figure out where to begin. I have to start exercising.

I am still deciding what I want to do at this stage. I will start learning and understanding the different options for exercising. I could go to YouTube , buy a book from Amazon , or subscribe to a health magazine. There are many solutions available to my problem.

Once a customer is in the awareness stage, they might have several options. They are just aware of their problem and have resolved that they want to solve it. That’s the awareness stage. Once the customer is aware, he moves on to the next step.

2. The Consideration Stage

The consideration stage is when the prospects consider different solutions to their problems. They seek more information on their situation and try to find solutions.

The information may be found by googling, asking people they know, using social media or even forums. They may get information like quick fixes, suggested products, recommendations from someone personally, and potential solutions.

Prospects generally weigh their pros and cons in the consideration stage before reaching their buying decision. This is the stage where most companies can persuade customers to buy their products, and prospects can be influenced with correct information.

For example, now that I know I need to get active, I use YouTube and Google to seek relevant material. This brings me to a content influencer suggesting I join a gym or buy an exercise bike for home. I could take up some sports or start trekking as a pastime.

I am considering several options. In addition, I am assessing my advantages and disadvantages. For example, as a writer, I prefer the exercise bike option since it allows me to work whenever I have a 15-minute break. So now I have considered all of my options. This helps me get to the decision stage.

3. The Decision Stage

The decision stage is the final stage of the Buyer’s journey, where he chooses a product or a service that will solve his pain points and appears to be the correct choice for the customer.

This is the stage at which the prospect is most interested in learning more about the chosen product, and the salesperson must always be watchful in case the customer changes his mind.

Highlighting the product’s qualities and understanding the customer’s pain points are crucial for sales conversion . Even at this level, the consumer is likely looking for answers to his questions about the chosen product. These queries could be about warranty, maintenance, EMI, paperwork, customer service hierarchy, or any other issue that a customer may have.

I am continuing my example. I need an exercise bike. I go to Decathlon and look at all the options available. I am looking for something compact that is durable and can fit easily in my chosen space. Based on this, I found the right exercise bike at Decathlon and checked out with it.

In the internet age, many considerations are driven via the internet itself. Businesses need a strong internet presence to win in the Buyer’s journey.

Creating Content for Each Stage of the Buyer’s Journey

Content is crucial to the Buyer’s journey and helps build trust with your potential customers. To ensure you create content for each stage, start by identifying your target audience and developing effective buyer personas.

Then, create content that speaks to their needs at every stage, help them make an informed decision, and build brand loyalty . Sales reps have a huge role in creating content that resonates with the target audience. They can use customer feedback and develop blog posts, articles, case studies, and other forms of content that address their customers’ questions or problems.

These pieces should be written using your company’s brand voice and tone to ensure a consistent message is delivered each time. Additionally, content should be tailored to meet the needs of each stage in the Buyer’s journey. Remember that all pieces should be engaging and informative and include calls-to-action (CTAs) when appropriate.

Content Ideas for Each Stage

1. Awareness stage – Create a blog post that compares different models, generates buyer personas to identify potential customers, and develops a solution strategy for your sales reps to utilize. You may also create social media posts, whitepaper, how-to videos, checklists, Ebook, educational webinars, etc

2.  Consideration stage – Focus on providing relevant product information, highlighting customer reviews and testimonials, offering informative case studies, and developing an FAQ section. Additionally, you can create content such as product comparison guides, free samples, etc.

3. Decision stage – Aim to create content that will entice buyers to make a final purchase decision. Examples include product demos, free trials, discounts/promotions, consultation offers, etc. You should also ensure that your brand’s voice is consistent throughout the Buyer’s journey to build trust and loyalty with potential customers.

How can the Companies use the Buyer’s Journey for their Benefit?

Now that we understand what the buyers’ journey is made of, it becomes essential for the companies to use it in the best possible way to enhance the growth of their own companies. Now, for companies to tackle buyers’ journeys and find the best solution to make the best out of them, they should approach it stepwise.

1. The companies need to define their buying persona

The companies first need to understand the journey their targeted customers, i.e., their buyers, take.  And for this, they need to understand their customers, needs, demands, income, and how much they are willing to pay.

2. The companies need to understand the journey that their buyers take

Once the companies can figure out who their potential buyers they must determine the different processes through which they will approach their customers.

3. Mapping the content to the Buyer’s Journey

Once the customers are known and their journey is understood, the last and final step for the company is to map the journey in which they will be tracking down every single step of their customers and address the various solutions and challenges they may come across through this journey.

In this way, the buyers’ journey plays a vital role in the companies selling their products to marketers. By analyzing the Buyer’s journey, one can develop potential solutions to help them overcome the challenges and increase their sales revenue.

Buyer’s Journey vs. Customer Journey

Customers have a unique path they take when it comes to researching, purchasing, and using products or services. This is known as the Buyer’s journey.

However, businesses should also know that customer journeys encompass every step beyond the purchase, from initial discovery to ongoing support after the sale. Companies can build intense client retention levels by understanding and improving each touchpoint along this customer journey, leading to long-term loyalty and success.

Monitoring both journeys is essential to guarantee that they cohesively integrate. Any customer who purchases your business may observe any disparity between how you cater to potential customers and existing ones, so it is crucial to maintain consistency in the quality of service provided regardless of where a particular individual sits along their buying journey.

Steps of Applying Buyer’s Journey to the Sales Cycle

Having learned the critical aspects of the customer journey, it’s time to look into how you can incorporate them into your sales operations –

1. Evaluate your buyer personas

To completely understand our target audience and customers, we must analyze buyer personas – a thorough account of customer experience that includes Age, Gender, Location, and other pertinent details such as Likes and dislikes, Profession, Education level, Income Level, and Values.

2. Define your Buyer’s journey

When pinpointing your target customer, it is time to construct a journey that suits your sales funnel and pipeline.

3. Align your content with your sales strategies

Having determined the type of content your buyers require at each stage, you must ensure that your sales teams and reps are adequately prepared to maximize every opportunity.

4. Perfecting your Buyer’s journey

Crafting content tailored to the user’s needs and organized for easy comprehension should always be a priority. Additionally, including a strong call-to-action at the end of your writing will encourage customers along their purchasing decision journey.

Buyer’s Journey Examples

1. Awareness stage – Suppose you have an older Smartphone model and want to upgrade. Your buyers’ journey could begin with some investigation – examining various models, specifications, costs, etc.

2. Consideration stage – As buyers move further down the Buyers’ Journey, they must decide between their top choices and compare different models. Once they have settled on a specific model, it is essential to ensure that reputable sellers with positive customer reviews are located to make an informed decision.

3. Decision stage – If a Smartphone user completes the Buyer’s Journey, they should examine all the details and consider any warranties or services that may accompany their purchase. By doing this, they can make an informed decision that best fits their needs.

How do you track the Buyer’s Journey Stages?

When tracking the Buyer’s journey stages, it is essential to understand your target customer and the various touchpoints contributing to their decision-making process.

Tracking customer data, such as clicks, page visits, lead forms, call times, etc., can help you better understand the most effective channels and where improvements can be made for increased sales. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools are integral to managing and understanding the Buyer’s Journey.

• Salesforce : Salesforce is a globally recognized CRM tool that offers a comprehensive view of the Buyer’s journey. Its advanced analytics capabilities enable sales reps to better understand buyer persona behaviors and preferences.
• HubSpot: Another key player in the CRM tool sector is HubSpot. It provides a seamless interface for tracking customer engagement and behavior, helping sales reps engage effectively with different buyer personas.
• Zoho CRM: Zoho CRM offers a range of features supporting sales rep interactions with customers. It provides deep insights into the buyer persona , helping businesses tailor their communication and marketing strategies .

Conclusion!

Ultimately, the Buyer’s Journey is a crucial element of sales. With this method, marketers can gain an understanding of their prospects’ motivations and desires to create tailored experiences that will move them closer to making a buying decision.

By leveraging the power of a Buyers Journey approach, companies can gain valuable insights into their target audiences and craft personalized experiences to drive conversions.

Liked this post? Check out the complete series on Marketing

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• Buyer’s Remorse: Definition, Meaning, Reasons and Prevention
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About Hitesh Bhasin

Hitesh Bhasin is the CEO of Marketing91 and has over a decade of experience in the marketing field. He is an accomplished author of thousands of insightful articles, including in-depth analyses of brands and companies. Holding an MBA in Marketing, Hitesh manages several offline ventures, where he applies all the concepts of Marketing that he writes about.

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