Nine Tips To Ensure Your business' Brand Remains Timeless
Your brand is the heart of your business. If you want to become instantly recognizable, even across cultures, it’s important to carefully cultivate a brand that resonates with a wide variety of people. Doing so will help your business stay relevant and avoid becoming outdated.
To help you achieve this, we asked a panel of Young Entrepreneur Council members what it takes to create a “timeless” brand. Follow their tips to future-proof your brand and find success for years to come.
1. Niche Down
You create a timeless brand by niching down and by being incredibly specific about who is and who is not your customer. This is one of the few areas where exclusion is critical. You want to think like Patagonia: “At Patagonia, we appreciate that all life on earth is under threat of extinction. We aim to use the resources we have—our business, our investments, our voice and our imaginations—to do something about it.” Patagonia is not for people who want the newest trends, people who don’t care about the environment or people who are flashy. By defining clearly who you are, you can transcend trends. That is the key to timeless brands. They know who they are, they don’t deviate from it and when the opportunity presents, they will happily take stances that put them in the crosshairs. - Codie Sanchez, Cresco Capital Partners
2. Uphold Timeless Values
People change what they like and want or need, but they don’t often change their values. Those values stay with them all their life, so a brand should focus on one or more of those types of values. That could mean hard work, ethics, kindness or anything else that your audience believes is critical. - Serenity Gibbons, NAACP
3. Tie Your Brand To Nostalgia
Nostalgia is the greatest brand loyalty generator in existence, and there’s really only a handful of brands that can actually do it right. It comes from a combination of things but, most importantly, it’s about being a part of the milestones of a person’s life. When your brand shares in those key moments, that’s how it can live forever. There’s a reason why baby-product companies give free items to hospitals. - Nicole Munoz, Nicole Munoz Consulting, Inc.
4. Be Consistent
To develop, build and maintain a sustainable brand that consumers love, being consistent in your messaging and at every touchpoint is the key to success. This simply means building your brand messaging from your mission, vision and core values. Make it easy for consumers to identify your brand, regardless of which city or country they are based in. Consider McDonald’s or H&M. When consumers are familiar with or recognize a brand they are more likely to make a purchase. Additionally, brand consistency helps build brand awareness. - Kristin Kimberly Marquet, Marquet Media, LLC
5. Know Who You Are And What Value You Deliver
As a newer brand, a timeless brand legacy is something I aspire to with Lunya. I see brands like Nike, Chanel and Calvin Klein as timeless brands because they know who they are and the value they bring, and they innovate and rediscover themselves in new eras without losing sight of who they are and what they stand for. - Ashley Merrill, Lunya
6. Keep It Simple
If you want to create a “timeless” brand that really resonates with consumers, you need to keep it simple. A complicated name, logo and brand are not only more difficult for consumers to remember, but they also make it more difficult for your brand to stay consistent. Think of how simple the Apple logo and name is. What about the Coca-Cola logo? Keeping your brand simple is the best way to create a brand that will last a long time and be easily remembered by the public. - Stephanie Wells, Formidable Forms
7. Aim To Pass The ‘S.M.I.L.E.’ Test
A great brand should pass the “S.M.I.L.E.” test. The name should be “suggestive” enough to evoke a positive brand experience. It should be “meaningful,” and your customers should get it. It should have “imagery” and be visually evocative to aid in memory. It should have “legs” that lend itself to a theme for extended mileage. Lastly, it should be “emotional,” meaning it resonates with your audience. - Rachel Beider, PRESS Modern Massage
8. Consider What Gen-Z Wants
Though it is cool to see some classic pieces from your brand, it is very important to update your products based on trending ideas and current favorites of the generation with the best purchasing power. Like fashion, classic designs that people love will always have the same value or even more, but you don’t want your brand to only be known by the oldies, right? So, listen to what Gen-Z wants, then innovate—change the process or the physical item. Better yet, collaborate with a brand or personality that Gen-Z wants! - Daisy Jing, Banish
9. Appeal To Innate Human Needs
Even with all our differences, we are all human. So if your brand can appeal to an innate human need, then your message will stay relevant. Security companies don’t sell alarm systems, they sell safety. Personal-care companies don’t sell deodorant, they sell a means to gain love and belonging. Apple doesn’t sell technology, they sell self-expression. Think about it: Apple appeals to consumers’ need to be unique as rule-breakers and innovators. So whether you’re buying an iMac in 1998 or a MacBook Pro in 2019, their former slogan, “Think Different,” still applies. First, you have to ask yourself what you’re selling. Got it? Great. Now ask yourself what you are really selling. If you know how your product or service serves an innate human need, then you will avoid obsolescence. - Chelsea Rivera, Honest Paws
By: Expert Panel, Young Entrepreneur Council
