Are you struggling to be recognized as a business?
That is where the importance of branding comes into play.
Whether you’re just a new start-up or have been in business for a while you need to consider the importance of branding for your business to stand out.
In today’s article we’ll dig in-depth around:
The importance of branding, and how to build your business brand.
Let’s get started.
The Brand and the Importance of Branding
When we mention the word “brand” a lot of people used to consider that just a logo of a company. And that is wrong.
So let’s consider the logo is just the face of a brand!
Branding a given business comes as a result of working on all that business’s aspects so that it can eventually have a specific identity.
Then what is the right definition of Branding?
Branding is how your target audience perceives your business.
In light of the aforementioned very brief definition, we can tell how important branding is for businesses.
That leads us to break down:
Why building a strong brand is crucial to your business.
Your Business Will Get the Right Recognition
A strong reputable brand will get your business noticed and recognized easily. That helps your business to stand out from the competition and get the attention it deserves.
Imagine how easy it’s for Apple brand to catch your eye from among so many of their rivals.
A Well-Established Brand Increases Your Business Leverage and Authority in the Marketplace
People tend to buy well-known brands as they feel proud to own big brands that most people know and trust. Then what is the impact of that?
This in return will hugely increase sales and generate revenue that boosts business growth. It also increases the company’s leverage and authority in the market.
As a result, when the company launches one of its new products it will find the market paved which helps to take its growing path from day one.
Look at how people camped out and lined up to get one of Apple’s new products in stores.
Branding Makes Advertising and Marketing for Your Business Work Like a Charm
When a well-established brand starts a new advertising campaign to promote a newly launched product or for whatever reason they have, they get far better results than that for a less known brand. Why?
Because of familiarity:
Once your brand becomes popular a little bit of reminder will have a resounding impact on your target market.
Trust plays its significant role:
The trust you have developed with your audience since you started your business will pay off.
As when your target audience knows about your new product they’ll be confident enough that it will be as good as all of your products, or even better with its new features.
As soon as your campaign starts your audience will start talking about how good your products and reputation are.
That generates word of mouth marketing for your business.
Don’t underestimate how powerful word-of-mouth marketing is. When it comes to a strong reputable brand it works like wildfire.
Strong Brand Helps Your Business to Rocket to the Top with the Industry Leaders
Why does a strong brand rocket your business to the top of the industry?
Because it wouldn’t be strong unless you made all your business aspects qualitatively excellent.
To rank at the top of the industry you should build a strong brand through the following:
Branding Differentiates Your Products and Determines Your Business Identity
The products of the same brand can be differentiated easily from the competition as they all have the same attributes.
The popular brand catches the eye, identifies its business, and sets it apart from the crowd. What gives the product a real identity among the industry rivals.
Branding Boosts Employees Pride and Loyalty
Which would you rather work for: a business with a strong brand, or for a business that is hardly known?
It might be a dream for some people to work with big brands for many reasons.
- They will acquire valuable experience that will be highly respected when added to their resume.
- Most often they get paid better than the industry average.
- They will feel secure due to the sustainable success that big brands usually have the potential to maintain.
So and as a result, the employees of big brands:
- More loyal to their organizations.
- Feel motivated most of their working time.
- Proud to work with such great brands.
- Have a great feeling of satisfaction.
Branding Enhances Creativity and Innovation
With all the aforementioned advantages available for the big brands’ employees, they will be more likely to create and innovate than their peers in other organizations.
It’s now pretty clear how branding is critical for businesses.
Then we need to know the way to build strong brands.
That leads us to ask:
What Are the Factors That Contribute to Brand Branding?
The Quality of Your Product or Service Comes on Top of Brand building Factors
Unlike all who have spoken about the factors that build a brand, I see that product quality top the list. Why?
How can a fancy logo, a graphic element, or even all the marketing activities do with a customer who had a bad experience related to your product or service quality?
Sure, the unsatisfied customer who badly experienced what you had offered to him feels that he had not got the value that was worth his money.
Consequently, there is not any other element that could make him have a good perception of your business.
And so comes the quality of your product or service first to focus on so that you can develop what you wish your prospect perceives about your business.
More about the effect of product or service quality on customer satisfaction here.
Customer Service’s Significant Role in Brand building
Now, after buying what is supposed to be a quality product; there is still a very important experience that can make or break your customer’s loyalty to you and your brand.
When a customer has a question about his purchase, where does he go?
Here is where the significant role of customer service comes into play.
How a customer is served after purchasing a product has a significant impact on his perception of the brand and the overall business.
The chart below from Statista shows the share of customers in the United States who stopped doing business with a company due to poor customer service from 2016 to 2018.
Good customer service drives loyalty and builds trust, and builds a brand itself.
The Impact of Your Business Logo and Tagline on Branding
- A simple yet professionally designed logo is needed to represent your brand. Also, the well-designed logo will have the potential to leave a powerful and lasting impression on your target audience.
The simplicity will make your logo memorable and easy to be recognized.
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”
Leonardo da Vinci
- Just like the logo, your tagline represents your brand, but in an audible way.
A professional tagline is brief yet strong composed of a group of words that imply positive feelings about your brand.
When created right your tagline will be memorable and your brand will be quickly recalled just after hearing or reading it.
This will help generate word-of-mouth marketing that goes viral when promoting your brand.
Some of the Most Popular Logos and Slogans of All Time
American Airline
“Something Special in the air”
Coca Cola
“It’s the real thing.”
CNN
“Be the first to know”
DHL
“We move the world.”
Ford
“Go Further.”
Jaguar
“The art of performance.”
The Right Positioning Helps in Brand Building
Now you need to plant your brand in the marketplace but rather in the minds of your target audience.
Positioning doesn’t just mean finding the right marketplace for our business, but it also means finding the right people to position and entrench our brand in their minds.
So you need to find the right environment where your plant (brand) can be planted and grow.
It’s the niche that fits your business and will become your target audience.
Target Audience
Businesses will not ever get success unless they provide a solution for a problem that a targeted group of people faces in their lives.
This group of people is called the target audience for that business. And this is the right environment for that business to be planted and grow.
Targeting the right audience is critical for branding your business. Where your brand’s slogan will resonate among its people and so flourish your brand.
More tips here.
Be unique and Your Brand will Shine Like the Sun
Unique products lead to iconic brands. The one-of-a-kind products sell like water in the desert due to the absence of competition and the bad need for them in the market.
Consequently, they easily become entrenched brands.
As we know that the business market regardless of the industry is very competitive and saturated.
So it’s next to impossible to deliver one-of-a-kind products.
Therefore, you can focus on your Unique Selling Proposition (USP).
What is USP?
It’s the differential advantage that sets your product or business apart from the competition.
Consistency: Are All Your business Aspects Consistent?
All the aspects of your business should fit together as a part of a big picture that is designed very well to build a strong brand.
All your Business aspects need to be consistent that each aspect seems to be part of something bigger.
If you want to build a strong brand all your business aspects should be qualitative.
“Let excellence be your brand”
Oprah Winfrey
All your business activities whether tangible or intangible should reflect high quality, and convey the impression that they are designed to deliver value.
- Intangible activities like your business mission, vision, slogan, positioning statement, customer service, and internal communication among the personnel should work very well in harmony to achieve the strategic goal of building a strong brand.
- Tangible activities like product design, packaging, and delivery, to name a few. You need to accomplish all of them in a way that aims at building a strong brand.
Build a Community Around Your Brand
A brand would never be a brand if it didn’t get the adoption and recognition of a group of loyal customers.
It’s a brand’s community that you need to build, for your brand to be live-in the marketplace and get word-of-mouth marketing.
How do you build a community around your brand?
Find the right platform where your community can thrive.
Most businesses use social media platforms like Facebook pages and groups, while others use other ways like forums or events to name a few.
While almost all businesses use social media to build their brand community, big brands do so, as well as using a self-hosted website or blog too.
Create your website or blog
Having your blog gives you the capability to engage with your customers professionally.
And so you can educate your audience by providing valuable content around your brand.
That will help to build a loyal community and passionate followers.
Also, that makes it so easy to build your email customer list of engaging followers.
Deliver Value to Your Community – Focus on Giving More Than Getting
Why do your users maintain active participation in your community?
Always, provide a logical answer to this question. As your users need to find something in your community that is worth their time.
Provide helpful resources to your community members and thorough answers to their questions. Educate them not only about your brand but about the industry too.
The more they get instant value the more they engage in the community, become loyal, and advocate for your brand.
Your community will thrive for sure when your customers find the kind of help they need easily, and for free. That gives them the required confidence to pay for your premium product or service.
The concept of providing free resources for beginners works well. Look how users love to visit WPbeinner to find answers and guidelines regarding their WordPress sites.
Keep Your Promises
It’s wise to under-promise and over-deliver!
That concept would keep your customers satisfied with your service as they get more than what they expected.
That boosts customers’ trust and loyalty in your business and your brand.
Now it’s your turn!
How do you see the impact of branding on businesses?
Did we miss something that can help in brand building?
Let’s know what you think by leaving a comment below.