5 Brand Pillars Every Business Needs to Know

Every business’s success depends on the brand pillars it chooses and establishes. When starting a new business, you are bound to face stiff competition from established and newer entrants. That means you must consider many aspects of building your brand as a trustworthy name among your potential customers. 

So, you need to think differently to stand out. That is the only way to drive customers’ attention and then stay consistently in the market for long-term growth. That brings us to brand pillars. Some crucial aspects of a brand serve as pillars for future growth. Without proper strategies, defining brand pillars meaning, competing and surviving in any given market will be challenging. 

What are brand pillars?

Brand pillars are basic principles on which a brand counts immensely to accelerate its growth. These pillars allow a brand to maintain consistency in its offerings to its target consumers, which include products, services, and communications. . 

The brand pillars aid customers recognize a brand from others. 

Brand pillars vs. brand values 

Brand pillars and brand values aren’t the same. There is a slight difference between the two. While there are many brand pillars, each defining one aspect of a business specifically, brand values are static. So, you need to first determine what values your brand should hold. Then, these values will apply to each brand pillar to build your business. 

So, we can say that the values are the same across all the pillars. 

5 Brand Pillars Every Business Needs to Know

Five central brand pillars hold a brand firmly for further growth. These are the five brand pillars to consider. 

01. Brand Purpose

The brand purpose is about showing why you started the business in the first place. It shows your brand’s origin, values, vision, and mission. You should be sharing your brand’s history and story of how it all started. Mention your company’s mission statement, which changed with time. Show details of how your small company grew decades after decades and how it met its long-term goals.  

Brand purpose also discusses the type of consumers your brand aims to satisfy by offering its products or services. It also includes your company’s short-term and long-term goals and values and shares them with customers to build trust. Overall, brand purpose serves as your guide for your marketing team in launching new marketing campaigns.

02. Brand Positioning

Where and how do you position your brand in your target market niche amongst your audience compared to your competitors? How should consumers take your brand in terms of its prices and values? That means a brand should be competitively positioned in its target market.  

The positioning pillar refers to how a brand approaches its target audience. It is also about knowing which audience a brand needs to target. So, it is about knowing the right demographic to get better sales results. 

After a brand has determined who its ideal consumers are, it becomes easier to find out what interests them most and what their different backgrounds are. Then, a brand positioning strategist will think of taking into account those interests to put in place a marketing strategy. 

That means if a brand makes and sells athletic shoes for indoor soccer players, the positioning will be how customers will use the shoes for the indoor game. That is also how it will be able to build its brand identity in its niche market.

03. Brand Personality

Take your brand as a human, then see which characteristics should define it. How should consumers associate themself with your brand? Specific answers to such questions will determine your brand personality.

The brand personality pillar, also known as the identity pillar, refers to the human characteristics, emotions, behaviors, and intellectual features of a brand. So, to define your brand personality, you should first determine the qualities that make your brand unique. These would be your unique brand name, your company’s unique professional logo design, fonts, colors, and other aesthetics. Even a brand’s tone and voice will make its personality. 

Also, note that the personality pillar is your way of making a first impression on target customers. That means the personality should be such that it helps build instant and memorable connections with customers.

A recognizable brand personality also helps in building brand loyalty. For instance, golden arches of McDonald’s are instantly recognizable and everyone can tell that it is from the global fast food giant.

To determine your brand personality, ask questions regarding the brand’s point of view, brand archetype, the mood, tone and voice of the brand, its colors, fonts, and what behavior defines it.

04. Brand Promotion

Brand promotion is about taking a brand and its offering to the masses through communication strategies using media platforms.  It refers to the ways a brand uses marketing and advertising for generating brand awareness. This all leads to driving potential customers’ attention toward the brand. 

So, carefully drawn communication strategies to appeal to customers become part of the brand promotion pillar. Some companies take brand promotion to the next level by partnering with celebrities with massive fan followings. They make them brand ambassadors to encourage customer loyalty.

05. Brand Values

Brand values are the path you want to take to achieve your brand’s goals. What are the values your brand stands for? What do you care most about as a company and what would you like to place above your financial interests? Answer such questions to decide on your brand values.  

Generally, brand values define how a business manages its customer relationship for future growth. So, the values are connected to all the resort of the brand pillars.

The brand value pillar will help you understand what you care most about your company and why. For example, a brand can opt for sustainable sourcing, which will be its brand value. Or, it can wish to be seen as promoting diversity, which is also a brand value. Precision is another value that defines a company’s work culture and contributes to its quality. Similarly, a brand can wish to be transparent in sourcing their ingredients to create a perception that it deals in healthier products. Brand values enhance customer choice and foster loyalty. 81% of consumers need to trust a brand before considering buying from it. With the right values that resonate with your customers, you can gain their trust and loyalty. 

How to create brand pillars 

Now that you know that brand pillars are crucial to ensure brand growth in a target market, find out how to create these pillars. If you are not sure where to start, here are some tips to get started:

01. Know the purpose of your brand 

First, know why you started the company and its business. You must be crystal clear about the reason for your company’s entrance into the market. When the purpose is clear, it serves as your guiding principle to run the business in a specific direction and way. 

The purpose of starting a company could be personal or to take advantage of a gap in the market. If the market lacks quality products, filling that gap could be your purpose. Or it could be altogether a different reason. 

But do not mistake a brand purpose for a mission statement. There is a fundamental difference between the two. A mission statement determines how to execute your brand purpose. It contains brand messaging pillars to help define your mission statement. 

With a brand purpose put in place, you can humanize your business. This in turn enables marketers to set the precise tone for brand promotion and pricing. 

02. Position your brand

Positioning a brand in a market simply implies how you will differentiate your business from your competitors in that market. You can do that in many ways, including setting a competitive price for your product or service. You can also offer innovative products that people long for, which come with additional useful features that attract customers. You can also target a specific customer based on your brand’s positioning. 

To promote your brand, first, prepare your ideal customer profile. Know the financial, educational, cultural, and educational, backgrounds of the target audience. That will help in devising a marketing strategy to target that particular customer.  

Therefore, do some research to know your target customers inside out. Through the study, you can find out their values, desires, expectations, spending power, etc. That helps you build the right communication strategy for them.

An effective way to position your brand is to conduct market research to determine what problems customers face in existing products or services. Then, add value to your offering by providing helpful features to drive their attention. 

03. Build a brand personality 

You need more than just a brand in a market to make your mark. Unless and until the company projects itself as a personality, it will unlikely grow in the right direction. It means that the offerings of products or services should match the brand’s personality. Any mismatch will ultimately be damaging.

For example, Harley-Davidson is known for its robust bike brand. Therefore, when in 1994, it tried to start a perfume line, it failed since its robust brand personality and the business of perfume did not match.    

To know and develop your brand personally, first do market research and find out what resonates with your target customers. Then, decide on your colors, fonts, and other visual elements to form a personality.  

You should use brand visuals across social media, packaging, advertisements, and other online and offline platforms. Make sure that you invest in new products only after conducting thorough market research. 

Note that brand personality is not something static. Instead, it should evolve with the time since customers’ taste changes. Therefore, consider the changes taking place in the societies and then transform your business personality.  

04. Devise and execute advertising campaigns

Next, build your promotional strategies and execute them carefully on different platforms. Do not randomly use each and every online and offline platform. Instead, use social media frequently if your target customers are social media savvy. Or, find out a specific platform that they use mostly. 

You should also pay attention to the language and tone they prefer. Find their favorite topics and then get involved in the discussion of the topic they like. 

Research the market to find out your customers’ interaction points. How will your customers interact with your offerings?

Your company’s promotion strategies should also include the ways to generate brand awareness. Know also how aware are they about your company, products, and services.  

05. Showcase your ethical side through brand values

Lastly, ensure you have projected your brand’s values to support your customers, internal stakeholders, and communities. 

To build and show your business’s ethical and moralistic side, you should discuss your values in detail on different platforms—and issue statements regarding your social responsibilities. 

Show people what actionable steps you take to demonstrate your responsibility towards society and customers. You should be transparent in your efforts while sharing your business data and other achievements. 

Updating your content on social media and elsewhere is essential to winning customers’ trust and enhancing your values as a business.

Help customers understand different aspects of your business. The more insight they have into your brand’s workings, the more trust they will have in your offerings. 

06. Apply your brand pillars

Once you are finished with creating your brand pillars, it is now the time to execute the pillars. Apply them to the entire gamut of your brand strategies to drive customers. Business owners can also use these pillars to test their marketing plans.

A carefully assessment of the brand pillars will help immensely in generating quality ideas without deviating much from the set pillars. 

Examples of brand pillars

Here are some brand pillars examples from global brands

Hilton

Hilton is a hotel brand of global reputation. Its website clearly mentions its brand pillars. It talks about the value it cherishes including integrity, hospitality, teamwork, leadership, ownership and a sense of urgency. 

These might be their values but actually are brand pillars of the company. It defines how the target customers should be perceiving the brand. The company showcases its identity and tells about its customer experience. It also talks about what the brand values they have.  

Samsung

Samsung makes technological products. That means its brand pillars are more than just speaking about B2C customers. It is for more than just customers purchasing digital displays and mobile phones. Instead, the brand also communicates its purpose, values, and personality to its B2B customers in health, network, and other spheres.  

Its pillars, such as progressive innovation and optimism, and pillars including transparency, social betterment, and integrity, build its values for customers. 

Pixar

Pixer tells diverse stories to build its brand value for customers. Its creators come from diverse backgrounds and cultures. The company asks them to tell their stories. That approach has helped the brand make innovative films 

These intimate stories have resulted in building a special emotional connection with the audience. This also helped brand in uniquely positioning their services in their target market. Such brand pillars have yielded the desired results and outshining their rivals in the market. 

So, consider these brand pillars and pay attention to each to give your business a direction for growth. Make sure that you continue to amend your strategies with the changing times. 

Wrapping Up

Brand pillars such as brand purpose, personality, values, and promotion are essential for future growth in its target market. However, create each pillar with a strategy that serves your business well and targets customers. Evaluate the pillars and strategy for customer interaction with the changing times.