What is Brand Clarity and why it is important

Brand clarity is the foundation of any branding and business transformation process. It’s about understanding the problems that are currently preventing you from standing out and successfully connecting with your audience.

​For Acacia’s methodology, brand clarity is one of the 4 key steps to business success.

To succeed, you need to fully understand, rather than just assume, what is currently holding you back. To reach your goals, increase sales and attract clients you need clarity on your business and brand.

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​What is Brand Clarity?

Brand clarity means knowing your brand, and how your brand is perceived in the marketplace.  

It represents all the small details of a brand, including the unique brand design and brand experience.

Brand clarity involves:

• Brand strategy
• Brand story
• Brand attributes
• Brand values
• Brand personality
• Brand positioning
• Target market

Clarity for your brand is necessary especially at this time. In the past branding and clarity was only used by brands that offer products directly to customers. 

However this is a thing of the past due to the relentless competition. It does not matter if you are working in B2B or B2C, you still need high quality branding. 

To achieve this you need to know what you stand for, who is your competitor and who is your audience. 

In other words  you need Clarity.

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Clarity for your brand is necessary, especially at this time.

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What are the benefits of clarity? 

Brand clarity revolves around your brand as a whole. Therefore, it enables you to have a meaningful impact in your business. It massively affects your brand's story and audience which leads to attracting long lasting clients.
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Attract more clients ​

The brand's story is the way your brand will connect effectively with your prospective clients. This means that the way you tell and share your brand story can become a powerful strategy. 

A brand strategy which originates from the brand story will enable you to achieve trust with your clients and convert leads into sales.

How to tell your brand story is a vital part of business transformation. Brand clarity is all about  telling your brand story clearly which includes uniqueness and avoidance of any confusion.
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Save unnecessary marketing expenses

Brand clarity enables you to target the right audience for your business. Businesses that try to attract everyone frequently fail since all the marketing efforts are not focused on the right people.

Without brand clarity, you don’t know who your target audience is and effectively how to convert them.
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By knowing your brand's ideal client you will be able to spend your resources on the right marketing tactics which will be more effective and will result in client conversions and saving resources.
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How to gain brand clarity?

To obtain clarity in your branding, you should be able to identify its fundamental elements as well as the brand core. This means three things:

1. Know who you are 
2. Know who you are dealing with (Competitor)
3. Know what people need

In order to know these information and gain clarity in your brand you need:

• Brand audit, to know your brands strengths and weaknesses, as well as your audience needs
• Competitor analysis, to know your competitors strengths and weaknesses 

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To obtain clarity in your branding, you should be able to identify its fundamental elements as well as the brand core

​What is brand audit?

Brand audit is the examination and evaluation of a brand in the marketplace. To achieve this you need to take a close look, examine and identify the current perceived image and audience of your business from every possible angle. ​
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How to have an effective brand audit

A brand audit to be effective has to be explored by an external source, since they are unbiased and have the viewpoint of a client. Having this point of view is extremely important because it reflects your clients' direct prospective which will enable you to improve your brand effectively.
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What are the benefits of a brand audit, and why is it important?

The purpose of a brand audit is to know how your business is perceived by your audience. 

The benefits of brand audit are: 

• Determination of your business-brand positioning and a strategic action plan
• Discovery of your brands the strengths and weaknesses
• Alignment of your products and services with the clients needs
• Knowledge regarding the brand perception about your business and brand

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 What is competitor analysis?

Your competitors will always try to attract more clients and increase sales exactly as you do. Competitor analysis is a process where your brand discovers the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats regarding your competition. 

Having in-depth knowledge about your competitors is crucial since it allows you to overcome barriers that you had in the past. By having a competitor analysis you will be able to identify opportunities which can be used to attract and retain more clients while increasing sales significantly.
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What are the benefits of competitor analysis?

There are a lot of important and impactful benefits if you gain enough insight into your niche market. 
The competitor analysis benefits are:

• Understanding the marketplace
• Precise and effective customer targeting
• Marketplace forecasting
• Competitor offer tracking
• Competitor pricing
• Market opportunities and limitation
• Customer acquisition and retention 

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Conclusion

Having clarity with your brand and your business is the first and most important step to success. In order to gain brand clarity you will need to perform a detailed analysis of the marketplace. It consists of in-depth analysis of your business including your target audience (Brand audit) and analysis regarding the threats of the environment (competitor analysis).

Achieving clarity is highly beneficial for your business in the marketplace. 

This knowledge will enable you to identify your target audience and their needs. It will lead your decision making and save you a lot of unnecessary expenditures for future marketing campaigns. Moreover, you will be able to earn the trust of your clients since they will be more connected to your brand due to your effective and unique brand story. 

Emotions and trust are the biggest achievements any brand can have. They are the biggest drivers and if they are achieved it is certain that you will attract more clients and your existing audience will stay loyal.
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When you acquire brand clarity the next stage of brand transformation is brand positioning.