03 Jun Branding for a Singapore Audience
There’s a lot of branding advice out there, but there’s not much that’s specific to a Singapore audience.
If you’re a local startup or a small business starting out with no data on your consumers or even an in-depth analysis on your target audience’s challenges and pain points, it can be difficult when you’re trying to establish your brand.
But you don’t need deep pockets to be successful at branding in Singapore. All it takes is a little research and some observation skills.
One of the biggest challenges to establishing a brand in Singapore is in picking a demographic to target your marketing campaigns at. Singapore is extremely diverse market-wise but our geographical limitations mean that every market is quite small, especially in comparison to large countries like the US, China or even Korea.
Thus, most brands starting out in Singapore tend to reach out to a “general audience” with their brand marketing, since that gives you access to the largest group of consumers.
However, this approach rarely works.
It might sound like a catch-all branding solution, but it’s actually extremely hard to execute because of the preferences, styles and pain points of each demographic and socio-economic group.
If your brand marketing ends up being too vague, then you won’t stand out from your competitors nor will you form deeper connections with your target audience—which is everyone.
The products your company sells might be usable for all demographics but you should still focus on enhancing your relationship with a smaller group of consumers and gain their loyalty first.
And while it might be tempting to start out with the largest group of consumers in your target audience, it’s always best to start out with the one you know the most about first.
Identify the challenges that matter most to your small group of target consumers, observe their lifestyle habits, online and in real life, and the kind of content that resonates with them best.
Once you have these details, produce content and ads like that with the resources at your disposal. Don’t say it can’t be done, because we’ve done it for our clients before!
Another thing to note about branding in Singapore is to appeal to our national values of efficiency and convenience. Of course, this is subjective (depending on the demographic) but Singaporeans in general respond most positively to brands that have the same ambitions they do and who make an effort to simplify the lives of their consumers.
In your branding efforts, you must always empathise with their struggles and add value to their daily routine.
It goes without saying that your campaigns to spread awareness about issues they care about must not be a one-off thing but should converge in an ongoing conversation that speaks to their pain points.
Similarly, you shouldn’t make claims you can’t fulfil either. With such a small market pool, you only need one major disappointment for an entire group of target consumers to lose their trust in you. Make sure you value-add to their lives in a practical and tangible way, after all, branding is a marketing strategy for the long haul and not a once-off sales-boosting campaign!
Not sure what direction to take with your company’s branding, take a look at our branding services for more.
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