In today’s increasingly competitive marketplace, branding is essential for a business to create a lasting impression, separate itself from competitors and build customer and employee loyalty. In this blog, we will explore the importance of incorporating a consistent identity into your business activities in order to create an easily identifiable and trusted brand.
WHAT IS A BRAND?
A brand is the distinct identity of a company that makes it recognisable to consumers and helps it to stand out from its competitors that sell similar products or services.
However, the better way to put it is that your ‘brand’ is what consumers think of when they hear your company’s name. This is a much more effective way to think about it because ultimately, the goal of creating a brand is to earn a place in the minds of your target audience so that you are their preferred choice for doing business.
WHAT IS BRANDING?
Fundamentally, branding aims to create the unique identity, mentioned above, that is directly associated with a business. It is a process involving the design and development of a distinctive set of features that consumers will associate with a company. These features may include:
- Visuals such as logo, colours and font
- How the company communicates with their audiences such as tone, ads and marketing methods
- The products the company sells and how they are packaged
- The price point of the products or services the company offers
- Whether they are an in-store or online service or both
- The overall customer experience they provide
- Any sponsors or partners they may work with
It is important to remember that contrary to popular perceptions, branding does go beyond the logo. Branding is the whole customer experience, including any communication, pricing and partnerships.
Take Lush for example; Lush employees are known for being extremely attentive and interactive with their in-store customers. This is part of its branding which is delivered by its employees. Even though some consumers may not find that appealing, this sets them apart from their competitors.
Creating a distinguished identity is essential to ensure that a company can stand firm in an extremely competitive marketplace.
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?
- IT MAKES YOUR COMPANY RECOGNISABLE
Probably the most obvious reason why branding is important is that it helps to make your brand recognisable. If your company has a strong sense of branding, consumers are more likely to remember it, this is also known as ‘brand association’.
Brand association is where a consumer will link a concept, image or object associated with the brand to their memory.
Examples of brand association:
- A tick is commonly associated with Nike
- Zara is known for taking the latest, high-end fashion trends and selling them at a more affordable price
- If someone said ‘Finger Lickin’ Good’, you would be reminded of KFC
If your branding is easy to recognise, consistent and well-known, consumers will feel more at ease purchasing your products.
- IT SETS YOU APART FROM YOUR COMPETITION
A critical aspect of business success is standing out from the crowd, and branding helps you to achieve that. Branding can provide you with an edge over your competitors, especially if your branding is done well.
For example, if a group of different bottles of water has no packaging or branding on them, they would all look the same so consumers would just buy any bottle of water. However, when branding is involved, such as the packaging, consumer attitudes and purchasing decisions alter as they may have a connection to a particular brand.
Strong branding can also encourage customers to attach a level of quality to a company and see the brand’s products as being worth more, thus meaning they are willing to pay more for their products and services.
Furthermore, successful branding will make you the preferred option for doing business in comparison to your competitors.
- IT GOES BEYOND JUST HAVING LOYAL CUSTOMERS
Branding goes beyond how customers feel about a brand, it also improves how the employees of the brand feel by improving employee pride and satisfaction. It can help to make them feel that they are involved in something more than just a job.
Working for a reputable brand is held in high regard by employees who will find their work life more fulfilling and rewarding which will reflect in their attitudes towards work.
Moreover, employees are an important part of the overall customer experience. Employees that are aware of the association that they have with a brand will maintain that positive brand perception in their interactions and work activities.
- BUILDS TRUST IN THE MARKETPLACE
The more that consumers trust a brand, the better the overall perception of the brand and therefore, the better the reputation of the brand. This leads to higher levels of customer retention and an overall better brand image.
As consumers who are making purchasing decisions in an enormous marketplace, we expect to see some type of branding.
Branding can help promote the professional image of a company and also displays that effort has gone into the presentation of the company. This effort is essential to exhibit to your customers that time and care has been put into creating your brand.
Furthermore, companies want to retain repeat customers and building a trustworthy brand will help to achieve that. When a customer has a positive experience with a brand, they are likely to repeat purchase from them.
- IT GENERATES NEW CUSTOMERS BY INCREASING VISIBILITY
IT GENERATES NEW CUSTOMERS BY INCREASING VISIBILITYStrong branding tends to generate referrals. Where there is a well-established and positive perception of a brand, interest is generated amongst consumers which will lead to new prospects.
These new prospects will more than likely go on to become loyal brand customers as they have experienced the most effective marketing
method – word of mouth. From here, the brand’s audience will grow and so will the bus
iness.
It is evident that branding is extremely important in today’s marketplace. More access to technology, the introduction of social media and increasing competition has pushed companies to consider their overall brand image and has made it a key element in a business’s success.