Building a corporate brand is like building a reputation. Your company must prove itself over and over again to gain the trust of the market. You are developing loyalty among your customers and while this may seem daunting a process, if you take the steps you took to build your reputation in your circle that may make it a bit easier to undertake.

Know your Brand – Be clear on your what your brand stands for. This helps you communicate the brand message clearly and precisely. For example to say that your brand is innovative is not only cliché, it is too broad to clearly state what customers would be getting from using your brand.

Know your competition – Keep an eye on your competitors and what they are doing. This is not to copy them but to know where your company fits into the market. Studying the competition shows where there are gaps in the market that can be serviced by your company. It also helps to know what the competition may be doing wrong so that you can avoid those pitfalls.

Separate yourself – Once you know what the competition stands for and what they are doing and the space that is available then you can clearly determine and communicate how your brand is better, different and value that you are bringing to the market that your competitors are not. Again don’t be cliché or vague saying things like “we give great service” or “are the most qualified”. Be clear and specific about how your brand differs from the others in your sector.

Draw attention – Find ways to package your product and company that will attract the attention of your target. Plaster your brand’s look everywhere you can: on your car, on Facebook, Twitter, blog, even ask your friends to plaster their cars with your brand, the more the merrier. Keep your brand and a consistent image in your target’s vision at all times.

Stay committed – Building a brand is a lot of work and it’s easy to give up when you may not be seeing any results. That’s why it is important to embrace the fact that it is a lot of work to build a brand and remain dedicated to doing whatever it takes for as long as it takes to get that brand established.

Monitor your progress – It would be a shame to spend time, money and effort on building your brand in channels that are not working the best way to avoid this is to continually monitor the progress of each avenue you use to build your brand. Once you have your results don’t be afraid to change from what is not working to a course of action that is working. If you have to scrap everything and start fresh then work with a clean slate. 

By Kathy-Ann Fletcher

Recent communications in the media showed me that several financial companies have developed products for the fifty-plus market. I find this quite interesting, as in the past in seemed that most companies, including said financial firms, have shied away from this market for one reason or another.

What’s stopping us from pursuing this group?

We are hesitant to approach the so-called senior market because we may not understand the dynamics of the market. We are somewhat unsure of how commercially viable this market is and therefore resist it to pursue “surer” markets.

However, considering that many of this age group have paid of their mortgages and car loans and may not have the awesome overheads that some younger persons carry, this target has on average more dispensable income than previously thought.

We are also guilty of being unable to communicate with them. We figure that they may not be where our current trend of new media communication takes our promotion efforts via the internet. This is in itself not true. However, I would suggest that the same way you research the lifestyles of other targets and communicate based on the where they gain their information, follow this method with this segment.

Why pursue this market?

This commercially viable target has needs and wants just the same as any other segment of the market and it is up to the enterprising business person to create the means of fulfilling these demands.

I observe that there are potentially strong relationships to be built with this valuable segment of the market as well. Their expectations are higher from the products and services they use; however, if you can meet or exceed these you can generate a more loyal customer than a younger one who may prove to be fickle.

How-to pursue this market?

I would advise against lumping all seniors into one segment and treating them as a homogeneous group.

They are individuals and despite the being in the same age-bracket, have different needs, lifestyles and financial and societal positions.

Therefore, I believe the best way to pursue this potentially lucrative market is to put out of your head whatever you previously thought and approach them with the same methodology as you would another market. That is, you provide a product/service that meets their external and internal needs, e.g. Financial independence and housing; and communicate with them where they are whether it is through their organisations, TV, radio and yes the Internet.

I hope that we see that this is segment has great potential just as any other in our market and are enterprising enough to resist the urge of ageism and stereotyping to provide relevant and useful products and services to this valuable segment of our market.