How do successful e-commerce brands differentiate themselves from their competitors in their strategies to increase not only their profitability but also their brand and name value? We’ll try to give you a guide to this in this article from our know-how of building ecommerce brands and at the same time try to inspire you at the same time. But first, a few answers to the question – Why build an e-commerce brand?
- Brand awareness and top of mind – being at the forefront of the customer’s mind when deciding where to buy is the alpha and omega of your brand and company’s success. If you’re “in the customer’s head” when making purchasing decisions, you’ve pretty much won. A strong and well-built brand helps your online store stand out and continuously gains and maintains customer attention.
- 5K – Quality, credibility, creativity, consistency and continuity are other important qualities that you have to fight for and that you have to constantly try to confirm in the competitive battle. If they all work and you have good knowledge, customers will buy from you, maybe even recommend you. A well-known brand that is not subject to excesses, with continuous and quality communication is a must. If you know your position in the market, your unique qualities and communicate them creatively – i.e. with a unique visually strong and comprehensive style, you will differentiate yourself from a lot of ordinary eshops. Have your own style, distinctive communication, tone of voice, audio and visual brand expression. Differentiate yourself.
At Generations we have experience in building successful brands primarily e-commerce or web presentations of brands Rinee, Dovido, Chia Active Power, Everything about menopause, Luxury cruises, DDD Activ, Store Invent, Maroš Molnár, Billa – sikovni.sk, Petramed, Cofidis, SK Progress, Alfa and Omega (of your health) and more are in the pipeline. We are happy to share our know-how with you in this article. Be inspired by the following steps we have compiled based on our brand building experience.
1. Research and proper understanding of the market
It is very important that you do your research on your potential customers and competitors. Research and a proper understanding of your market are essential to creating an effective and strong strategy for your brand. If you skip this step, you risk not differentiating yourself (and your money) from the competition and knowing the opportunities your brand could be well positioned to take advantage of.
This step seems like an obvious one, but it’s not. Some people invest their time and money because they blindly believe that what they have invented is unique and will make a dent in the world. Often, however, they only make a hole in their wallet and their self-esteem if it doesn’t work out. Even big brands are constantly evaluating the potential of the market to minimize the risk of their investment. As much as possible, gather diverse data and work with it.
2. Positioning and brand communication strategy
A brand is a value and to best express it you need a good communication, sales and emotion strategy. These factors can earn and strengthen your position in the market and differentiate you more permanently from the competition.
You can build a strong strategy and brand story on the following cornerstones:
- Outstanding and unique features of your product or service.
- Rational benefits – the practical benefits your product provides and the customer problems it can solve.
- Emotional Benefits – Define the emotion a customer will have when they buy your product. Create a story that allows customers to experience that emotion. We built the Rinee brand – baby earrings that a baby receives as the first gift from the family after birth – on the story of the Sign of Love – the strongest bond that is formed in a family when a baby is born. The colour of the dot in the logo is the colour of the lipstick of the owner of the e-shop and it is the symbolism of the kiss that the baby receives. It’s almost a poetic story, fitting exactly with the nature of the brand and the product.
- An interesting feature of the campaign was the precise target group targeting in the form of a voucher placed in gift babyboxes in maternity hospitals, which is given to every new mother after the birth of her baby. Simply place your voucher in the e-shop. There is no better targeting and knowing your target audience and their emotional state than this. That’s why you can have up to 20 orders per month as a start-up e-shop.
- Increasing your brand awareness and accessibility. People will only buy your brand if they know about it. Logical. Yet, many e-commerce businesses don’t behave this logically when communicating their brand. Brands grow by increasing their mental accessibility and ability to be bought. Maximize your reach and create a broad media mix. You’ll know from your competitors’ media strategy what media mix they’re using and an estimate of how much money they’re investing in communications. If you want to be a leader, you need to invest at least as much as the number two in the market. At a minimum. If you are a leader and dominate the characteristics needed to select your product and have good creative differentiation, in the short term you can afford to invest 10% less than the number two in the market. A brand doesn’t grow without investment in media.
- Creativity and differentiation – you have to impress and ideally within a few seconds, otherwise you lose potential customers. That’s why we invented a distinctive asset for Dovido – a dummy that is in every wallpaper and image. When you search for “wallpaper” in google, you will see an incredible amount of wallpaper images, but some will have a yellow ladybug in them. You are more likely to click on wallpapers that exhibit certain commonalities than others. This differentiation also works great on social media. But creativity doesn’t start with branding. That comes at the end of the branding process.
- Improving the customer experience – communicate at every stage with your customers, learn to accept feedback for your improvement, constantly ask for it. Try to retain the feeling of enthusiasm and satisfaction customers had just after buying your brand. Build a personal relationship with them. It is very important how you react in case there is a mistake, for example, sending the wrong product. It’s acknowledging it and resolving it quickly, or delighting the customer with a gift, that sometimes builds a stronger relationship and trust than when everything goes smoothly. Our client Primitivo has built a customer satisfaction rating of 99% on Heureka in this way.
3. Build your brand identity (it’s a never-ending process)
Creating a brand identity is a process that doesn’t happen in a day or a year. Long-term consistency is needed to build identity and integrity. And a fundamental entrepreneurial trait – persistence.
Brand identity is a complex set of elements that combine to create a unique character and brand recognition – across space and time. There are several important aspects to consider when developing a brand identity:
Tone of voice
Determine how you will communicate with your customers – visually, audibly, in the style of your language, in the way you talk/act. Choose the method of communication that will reach your primary target audience fastest and best. The one that will buy you first. Petramed’s family business is a clinic At Good Dentists. Whether it’s the logo, the cartoon teeth or the claim itself, they work together consistently to create a welcoming atmosphere. Most importantly, they can be developed and are like good guides or boundaries that give everyone in the company room to understand and communicate and present the brand in the same way. There is no danger that with such a brand code everyone sees and communicates it differently.
Logotype, colours, typography and graphic elements
These elements should reflect the character and personality of the brand. Support the story. Do not limit your marketing, communication activities. They should not hinder the potential expansion of your product or service portfolio. Note: no, such a logotype and identity certainly does not cost tens of Euros. As a reference we can mention the brand Alpha and Omega Health – an interesting name, which is quite common and colloquial among people, but in conjunction with vitamin supplements it gains in value. These vitamin complexes are more expensive and more effective than the commonly available vitamins and therefore we have positioned the redesign and communication of the products in a “fashion style”.
Story by
Tell a story about your brand that is engaging, authentic and human. Story sells. Every brand we’ve built has a story because every owner has a story.
Customer experience
Define how you will guide customers. How they will get an amazing emotion from you, a unique and positive experience. From the first interactions with your brand to the regular one, every contact with your brand should be thoughtful and contribute to building a positive impression.
When developing a brand identity, it is important to keep consistency and authenticity in mind. All aspects of the brand should be connected and create a unified image for customers.
4. Be consistent
The identity of your brand will relate not only to your logo and name, but also to the texts and design of all the accompanying materials that customers will see, the entire communication.
Consistency doesn’t just mean sticking to the same colours and logos. It’s also important to maintain the same communication, values, quality, feedback and in every single contact with everyone who represents the brand externally, ideally internally as well.
5. Improve your e-shop over time
Creating and managing an e-shop is a dynamic process that requires constant improvement and adaptation to the changing needs and expectations of customers.
In order to stay competitive and ensure the long-term success of your online store, it’s important to invest time and resources in its gradual improvement.
One aspect to focus on is user experience. Note whether your e-store is simple and intuitive for customers. Analyse their behaviour on your site and use this information to identify any weaknesses and opportunities for improvement. Ensure fast page loads, an easy shopping process and convenient payment options. Constantly monitor trends in e-commerce design and functionality and adapt your e-store accordingly.
Another important aspect is the product offering. Regularly update and expand your product range to offer new and interesting products to your customers. Make sure that product descriptions are clear, contain sufficient information and, where appropriate, customer reviews. Create clear categories and filter products to make it easy for customers to find what they are looking for.
Communication is also an important factor. Ensure that contact information and customer service are easily accessible to customers. Respond to their questions and feedback in a timely and professional manner. Create content that is interesting and useful to customers – such as articles, tips and tutorials related to your products.
Track analytics and performance of your online store as well. Analyse data on traffic, conversions and sales and use this information to identify areas that need improvement. Test new features and strategies, and make decisions about implementing them in your e-commerce store based on their performance.
Building an e-commerce brand is a complex and ongoing activity and with the right product, communication and approach has the potential for rapid growth in multiple markets. Whether you want to build a small specialist shop in the Slovak market or a large multi-market e-shop, or you want to build a brand from scratch or redesign or rebrand it at a certain stage of its existence or evaluate it for eventual sale, we can advise you.
We are experts in branding and will be happy to share our know-how with you. If you have any questions and are interested in information or consultation, please contact us at daniel.bradac@generations.sk or eva.bradacova@generations.sk.
