How can you boost your brand image? Think differently!

These days, it’s not easy to stand out from the competition. Informed consumers expect real added value from brands before they take action and make a purchase.

At DJM digital, we asked ourselves what simple actions could be put in place to boost brand image. 🚀

We explain the fruit of our research. 👇

1 Work on your storytelling – Tell me how you talk and I’ll tell you who you are 🔎

We’re all familiar with the concept of storytelling… but are we practising it properly? Today, storytelling has become an essential part of an effective marketing strategy. To develop a compelling story, don’t hesitate to play on your brand’s emotional value.

The aim of emotional marketing is to arouse a set of emotions in your target audience, linked to personal values, which will help them to identify with your brand and make it memorable.

How do you go about it?

• Tell your story and the story of your products;
• Explore your values and beliefs – what do you stand for?
• Convey your state of mind;
• Speak loud and clear about your mission.

The emotion your customers feel when they see and use your products allows them to create a real connection with your brand. Remember: Customers don’t just buy what you do, they buy who you are.

Want to announce a new product or service? Convey enthusiasm and generate excitement. Or would you rather thank your customers for their loyalty? Get them excited and proud.

👉 THE question most companies ask us: Why all this marketing effort?

Storytelling allows you to create a community around your brand, because your customers will become attached to your company more easily if they fully grasp the story and philosophy behind it.
The aim of this practice is to strengthen your brand image. By telling your story, you ‘sell’ a lifestyle, a way of seeing things, a state of mind. And it also works to boost your recruitment strategy!

What’s more, have you noticed that brands are making more and more of an effort to go back into the past and recount (even romanticise) their origins, their values… “How did it all begin? It’s no coincidence … because nostalgia is a powerful cognitive tool for talking to customers.

The case of DJM – introspection 🍺

DJM is a fast-growing company, but one that doesn’t want to lose its family-friendly spirit. So we had to work on our storytelling to convey these values, which are dear to our CEO, Domi Maes.

To set ourselves apart, we decided to launch a beer in collaboration with the Brasserie de Liège (located at the Grand-Poste)! The ‘Hashtag’ reflects the concerns mentioned above and sends out these messages:

• A beer means conviviality: DJM brings its employees and partners together,
• A beer is festive: DJM attaches importance to celebrating a job well done and relaxing with colleagues,
• A beer is a drink full of simplicity: DJM never forgets its origins in Liège and its friendliness, and tends to maintain this personality trait through its exchanges and collaborations.

2. Develop a strong corporate culture!

Your employees are the best ambassadors for your brand, its world and your storytelling. What are you doing to take care of them? Have you put them in the spotlight on your website? Do you talk about them on your social networks? In fact, you’ll soon be able to discover our colleagues on our site (stay tuned 🚀 )!

As well as boosting your engagement rate by sharing your company on social networks, don’t hesitate to showcase your employees and the atmosphere in the office. This will have the added benefit of reinforcing trust in your company as well as a feeling of closeness and friendliness even before you’ve made an initial customer contact.

Do you want to sell a particular state of mind and way of life, as discussed in the first point of this article? In order to inspire your customers, your employees need to represent this. Remember, the best customer experiences are those where a member of your team creates an emotional bond with a consumer. What’s more, your customer service is a reflection of your corporate culture! Makes you think, doesn’t it?

How do you convey this culture? Here are three areas in which your corporate culture should shine through:

• Well-being at work
• Relations between colleagues
• The recruitment process

The case of DJM – introspection 🍺

DJM is one of those companies thinking about the world of tomorrow. As mentioned above, DJM wishes to promote values such as conviviality, simplicity, professionalism and originality.

So we asked ourselves what we could do to promote these values. And here’s what we’re currently working on:

• Ongoing training for our staff to boost their performance and expertise,
• Teambuilding to strengthen cohesion and creative processes within the company,
• Sports incentives to contribute to the physical and mental health of our employees,
• Flexible working hours to boost confidence and well-being at work, and work-life balance,
• Relaxed recruitment processes to find the candidate who best matches DJM’s needs and values.

All these initiatives are reflected in the Hashtag project: user-friendly, simple and original. A company beer sends out a strong, positive message, both internally and externally.

3. Enhance the customer experience : Show them they’re part of your family.

Now that you’ve won over your prospects with your storytelling and they’re part of your community, it’s time to pamper them. Whether online or offline, analyse their behaviour so that you can reach them in a different way.

Don’t be afraid to be original! In other words, get noticed by creating a break with what your competitors are doing.

Whether in terms of the message or the channel used, create a different kind of communication on your own scale and invite your community to take part. Put your customers in the spotlight, share their comments and don’t forget the vital role of UGC (User Generated Content). Indeed, the big brands are no longer hesitating and are basing their communication about their products and services on customer experience. What used to be seen as purely commercial techniques are now becoming real viral communication strategies.

Today’s consumers are no longer simply looking to buy your product. Their decision is based on everything that revolves around it:

• How do they obtain the product?
• What packaging does it come in?
• Are there any extras?
• What added value does this brand offer me in terms of customer experience?

So many components that have the potential to transform your brand from a “simple product that meets a need” to a “total experience”. Give your customer the impression that they are part of your family, a closed circle with precise codes.

The case of DJM – introspection 🍺

Now that the health crisis is somewhat behind us, it’s high time to reconnect. At DJM, we wanted to honour our partners while encouraging exchanges and moments of conviviality.

So what could be better than to offer our employees a special moment dedicated to sharing? This was the aim when Domi Maes launched the idea of organising an afterwork at the Grand Poste in Liège.

With this in mind, DJM wanted not only to create a partnership based on trust and the long term, but also to go beyond its services to offer a moment dedicated to its employees, celebrating them. By offering Hashtags to its customers, all DJM’s values are embodied in this product, which goes beyond the scope of a traditional web agency.

Brand image is at the heart of customer relations and is much more complex than you might think. Thanks to the three initiatives mentioned above, you can stand out from the competition by thinking outside the box. Storytelling, corporate culture and innovative ideas will all help you reach your target audience and build loyalty through the bonds you forge with them.