Steps for Making Your Business a Household Name

Steps for Making Your Business a Household Name

Everyone knows a household name when they see one. Having your product or service become a household name is not done overnight. It can take years of dedication to your business as its reputation spreads. It also takes a lot of work to keep your business successful and growing. There are steps along the way that will increase the chances your business will one day be recognized as a household name.

Before you can project a memorable product or service you have to know exactly what kind of company you really are and what exactly you will be known for. This often takes a lot of soul searching before your business is even off the ground. Once you know the character of the company you wish to make known, project that in every decision you face. If you believe your mission as a company is to clean up the environment by means of a new invention, never lose sight of that. Keep working to have your company stand out as a top environmentally conscious company from the ground up. If your company has the mission to make children safer, never compromise or veer from that focus.

Another step to making your business a household name is to know your market. Constantly marketing toward your target audience is necessary. You can never be satisfied with the idea that enough people in your target group know about your business or product. You also need to constantly find new and creative ways to reach this market as they change and evolve. Do not ever think one demographic is all you have to work for. Your market will expand if you can find ways to appeal to other demographics. Basically, the work of marketing toward a target audience is never really done.

Most household name products, services or businesses have successfully created an emotional connection with their customers. Be it a fast food chain or hardware store, a sense of nostalgia or familiarity is often evoked. We can all think back to commercials or marketing campaigns which made us laugh or cry or feel some sort of emotional connection with the company. This common emotional connection bonds people together and inevitably will make the business a household name.

Setting yourself apart from the competition is a vital component to making your business a household name. You can not just sit back and know your company or product is unique or heads above the rest. You have to prove it. You have to find unique and creative ways of drawing the attention to you rather than your competitors. You must make what you have to offer not only seen as the best choice, but the only choice. Take on competitors boldly. We all remember soda commercials and fast food commercials featuring taste tests. These experiments in marketing featured the competition but boldly held them to task and showed them as weaker. This technique can propel a company into the national spotlight making it a household name. However, before employing this technique, be fully confident that your product really is heads above the rest in the eyes of customers.

Once you set out to prove you are better, quicker or more efficient, and you have creatively reached your target audience, you now must stay consistent. Being on the verge of becoming a household name, then changing your product or message can kill your marketability. Consistency keeps your message out there and steady. The more consistent you are, the more ingrained your product becomes in the American psyche. When a well known soda company changed its formula a few decades ago, this change tarnished the company for a long time. Loyal customers found it to be a betrayal that this company would take a perfectly well known and enjoyed soda and change it for no reason. This backfired dramatically on them creating a public relation nightmare. Staying consistent is what loyal customers come to expect once they have put their faith in your company or product.

One last vital component to making your business a household name is the visual connection all well-known companies have. You have to design a strong image that resonates with people. Again, this image can evoke an emotional connection to your customers also. Many studies show that a strong logo or image is what makes you more drawn to a company over another. Tests have even shown that children who appear completely oblivious to name brands can identify certain well-known logos and brands based on their image alone. This component also must stay consistent and be unique.

It can take many years or even generations of hard work to make a company a household name. Sticking to your original ideals and vision for your company and staying truthful to what makes you special is perhaps the most important step.