It’s easy to assume that all it takes to create a brand is a strong logo.
While logo design is definitely a key component to developing a successful brand, behind the scenes there are a lot of moving parts that work to contribute to a brand’s image. Brand development is a collaborative effort. Your brand needs to be as complex as the lifestyles you’re trying to appeal to, exhibiting all the values of your intended customers, while staying relatable to the location you’re trying to establish yourself in.
We’ve worked with a number of business owners in our backyard of Saratoga Springs, New York, establishing brands and developing optimized marketing strategies based around the locale. Here’s some insider information on how we have successfully developed and marketed Saratoga-based brands to help get the ball rolling with your own retail or lifestyle brand.
Read More: 6 Steps For Developing A Customer Base
01.
IDENTIFY YOUR BRAND GOALS.
One of the first steps to developing a retail and lifestyle brand is to identify your business goals for that brand. For instance, when we began working with the Saratoga-based premium CBD brand Earth to Mind, we urged them to shift away from their existing brand, Saratoga Urban Farm.
In doing this we were able to help align their new brand with the goals and values at the root of their operation: a dedication providing to high-potency CBD products that supported the NY farmers growing it. With a brand identity that reflected this goal, styling their other deliverables came naturally.
We used this approach with Saratoga’s Urban Roots Juice Bar as well. Starting with their passion for bringing farms and communities together through making healthy food and juices, we were able to develop a brand identity that represented not only what they sell, but who they are.
Believing in your products and instilling your values into your brand provides a solid foundation that all other elements of your brand can be built off.
02.
ESTABLISH THE “SARATOGA SPRINGS” IN YOUR BRAND.
Location, location, location. Connecting to your home base is effective for lots of reasons, one being that it can help ground your brand’s marketing strategy. Urban Roots, for example, has its flagship shop right in Saratoga. While UR has expanded to other retail locations, their brand identity is deeply rooted in a Saratoga Springs “attitude.”
Similarly, our client Kru Coffee Collective is also based in Saratoga. From roast names with local ties to their connections with local cafes, Kru is another example of a Saratoga-based brand strategy that can go the distance.
Establishing your brand in a specific place like Saratoga allows you to inject all of the wonderful and interesting things about that location into your brand’s identity!
Just up the road: Case Study: Northway Brewing
03.
MARKET YOUR BRAND IN SARATOGA SPRINGS.
Once you’ve established your brand identity, it’s time to get the word out into the community. One of the best ways to do this in Saratoga is through collaborating with and cross-promoting other businesses. Urban Roots serves kombucha products from Junbucha, a newer Saratoga business, on tap in their Saratoga shop. As a relatively more established brand, Urban Root’s partnership helped to endorse Junbucha, telling customers that the kombucha received their seal of approval and jived with their brand identity.
Another sure-fire way to receive some attention in Saratoga is by participating in or putting on events or festivals. These types of gigs draw in huge crowds for Saratoga, with last year’s annual Chowderfest bringing around 40,000 visitors to the area for the day.
The National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame, an already established brand, exemplified how to hop onto the event bandwagon with their Kentucky Derby Day Party last year. Each spring the Museum puts on their Derby Day fundraiser with plenty of local food, beverage, and entertainment to draw crowds.
These events help to solidify organizations and businesses as pillars of the community and bring in new customers through brand recognition.
Read More: How To Use Facebook Events To Promote Your Business
As a college town in the winter months and a booming tourism-based metropolis in the summer, bustling Saratoga is a great place to establish a new brand. It’s also a great place for already established brands to rebrand or try out some new and exciting marketing opportunities to get them even more involved in their community.
Tapping the market in Saratoga Springs may not be easy, but we have the experience to help you get through the crowd.
