With competition higher than ever, it's important for your businesses to stand out from the competition! Branding is a marketing strategy that can help your businesses do just that! Some popular examples of brands you recognize are the McDonald's arches, the infamous Nike Swoosh, and the Nike slogan "Just Do It.”
You may not know it, but this marketing practice has a large impact on your daily life. Let's say you are shopping for running shoes and you’re offered two choices. The first pair is a company you've never heard of with a logo you do not recognize, but the second is a pair of Nike shoes with the recognizable logo. More than likely you will choose the pair of Nike shoes because you are familiar with them. Brand recognition and trust have a lot to do with your purchasing decision and this is why building a brand can make or break a business.
In order to be successful, every business needs a plan or strategy. You need to know where you're going and the goals you want achieve. A business without a plan is a business set up to fail – and no one wants that! Branding is one of the most important strategies a business can implement and I’m here to offer some friendly pointers about the basics of brand building. Keep reading to learn how branding can help your business!
What is Branding?
It may be easy to confuse a brand and a product, but branding plays a much larger role for a company than a single product does. A product is one particular item that is for sale, but a brand is not an item for sale or any physical thing. A brand is the representation of the company that makes the products – it is everything that creates the culture of the company and makes the company recognizable. Branding is any aspect of a company that grabs customers attention and makes the company memorable, such as the Nike logo from earlier or the Red Robin jingle, “Red Robin Yummmm!”
Branding is a form of marketing that focuses on creating a recognizable logo, name, and/or slogan that sets a business apart from others in the same niche. The goal of this marketing practice is to stand out from the competition and get customers personally invested in the company. Successful brand development takes time and hard work, but the payoffs are well worth it – just look at Chick-fil-A!
What is the Purpose of Branding?
The purpose of brand creation is to help grow your business and set yourself apart from the competition. You want your products to be easily recognized, instantly trusted, and to create a following for your company. This marketing practice is meant to evoke positive emotions in both current and potential consumers and increase customer engagement for your business.
There are many marketing strategies businesses can pick and choose from based on their type of business, needs, and long-term goals. However, one thing all businesses have is a need for creating and developing their brand. Brand building is a ground zero marketing strategy that every business needs to focus on because it can be the difference between success and failure.
Why Does Your Business Need a Brand?
It is easy to overlook branding because it may not seem like a big deal at first, but creating a following early on can only help your business as it grows. Make no mistake, this is one of the essential building blocks for the foundation of your business. The sky is the limit when it comes to growing your business, and making your company recognizable is one of the best ways to get your business off on the right foot! Let's take a look at 4 ways your business can benefit from branding.
Recognition
Branding improves the recognition of your business and its products. Think of it like this: you recognize your friends and family by their familiar faces. The logo is the face of your business. Let's say you add a new type of product that you've never offered before. Your logo will provide instant recognition to consumers. This, in turn, will make them take a second look and be more inclined to purchase the new product because you already have a relationship and began building trust with this customer.
Create a Following
At first glance, you may wonder why in the world you need to create a following for your company. Your following is a group of people who are your loyal customers. While marketing and advertising are important to your business, word-of-mouth or referral marketing is some of the best free marketing you can get. Your followers will recommend your products to anyone and everyone they know, which of course leads to increased sales and a larger group of followers, who then recommend your products to others. You can see how the cycle just keeps repeating itself and can really grow your business.
Generate Business
Branding beyond a shadow of a doubt generates business. Let's go back to our Nike example. Imagine there's a new running shoe on the market, that is said to be the lightest, most comfortable shoe you will ever put on your foot. It also claims that they will last twice as long as any other shoe on the market before you have to replace them. You would be skeptical right? What if you found out that Nike makes the product? More than likely this would change your mind, and you would be more inclined to purchase them because Nike is a company you know and trust.
Creating a well-known brand encourages both current and potential consumers to purchase your existing products and any new products that your business may introduce in the future. Brand recognition makes it easier to launch unknown products because it is backed by a well-known and trusted brand!
Build Trust With Current and Potential Clients
Trust is the most important component in a relationship between a brand and their consumers. Just like losing a customer's trust can have a devastating effect on a business, gaining a customer’s trust is an important part of growing a business.
Branding helps to build trust with both your current clients and potential clients. Gaining the trust of customers leads to customer retention which is extremely important in every business. Building trust is important with consumers because it keeps them coming back time and time again to purchase your products and recommend them to others.
Branding is one of the most important first steps you can take to build a business and it will give your business the potential to soar to great heights. Contact us for help creating a strategy to build your brand, a marketing consultation, and any of your other marketing needs!
