Importance of branding in marketing
What is Branding?
A brand, in terms of marketing, can be tricky to define. What does it mean? What does it actually describe? Essentially, what is a brand?
It's not a word for a singular physical object you can actually lay your hands on, but so much importance is placed on the brand and branding that you have to ask, what is it, and why do companies spend enormous chunks of their budgets on getting it right?
What is the importance of branding your business? In short branding helps a business create an identity among its customers. People come to know and like a business often on first impressions. Having a consistent branded image through company logo, name and signage etc helps build an image of trust and professionalism when done correctly.
The answer is your brand name. It distinguishes your product, a coffee for example, from the ones that are made by other manufacturers. Without a brand name, you will not be able to make a claim or make your products noticed by the people. They'll just probably think your products are a pack of coffee that the manufacturer (in this case, your competitor) forgot to print a name onto.
The brand is also what you use to catch the attention of your intended market. Aside from the name, there is also what you call the tagline. The tagline is a very short statement that is put alongside the brand logo. It is very short, just a few words long, but it's also very powerful. The tagline is used to drill into the consumer's minds what you have that will benefit them.
Famous Tagelines
• "Just Do It" – Nike
• "The best or nothing" – Mercedes-Benz
• "Think different" – Apple
• "Melts in your mouth, not in your hand" - M&M's
• "I’m Lovin’ It" - McDonalds
• "Eat Fresh" - Subway
• "Taste the Rainbow" - Skittles
As you can see, all of these slogans or taglines are used to emphasize how the products of those companies are beneficial or will be appealing to the consumer. In the case of M&M's, they easily captured the market because it's simply appealing to eat chocolate-coated nuts that don't mess the hand even before you could eat them. It's taglines like these that clearly set the line between what the competitors can't do and why the consumer will be benefited by your product.
All of these show that the brand is the one thing responsible for making the product memorable in the minds of the consumers. That is what each company is out to achieve: to make the consumer know that their product is exactly what they want and need, thus convincing them to patronize its product and its products alone. This way, the company gains an edge over the competition by capturing part of their shared market.
The bottom line is, with a solid brand that you can use to promote your market to your intended audience, you make sure that you can hold your own against the competition. They now have an image of you that they can remember. Now, think about how things would be different if you didn't have a brand in the first place.
Benefits of Branding
1. Branding Creates Emotion
Branding helps to engage your customers on an emotional level for the products you sell. Brands such as Nike and Disney have been capitalizing on branding for decades and it has been essential to building a relationship with their customers.
2. Branding Helps You Launch Further Products or Services
Building a Brand name for one group of products will benefit other products you launch later on. Your customer will recognize your company and be more likely to try the new products as they already know who you are. The importance of branding is that it helps to prolong and compliment your current and future business growth.
3. Branding Helps your Bottom Line
Effective branding builds repeat customers through trust and recognition which in turn improves your business sales revenue. A great example of this is Tiffany's: their little blue box branding creates want and need (and headaches for husbands everywhere). They can price accordingly because no matter what customers will still buy it due to the brand.
4. Branding Reduces Future Marketing Costs
When your brand is recognizable your marketing costs may be reduced with repeat customers. Ongoing marketing campaigns may not need to be as intense or as expensive when launching a new product or service.
5. Branding Creates Top of Mind Awareness
Anytime a person goes shopping, they try to recall the popular brands for the products or services they need. Good branding creates an impression that will stay with your customer when they are making a purchase. People tend to stick to the brands they know, love and trust.
6. Branding Separates You from Your Competition
You probably have several rivals in your market and so you need to stand out from them. Once again the importance of branding can be acknowledged as helping you to express how and why you are different from your competitors.
Conslusion
The importance of branding becomes apparent when customers start picking your brand over others in the market. Your brand should build trust, earn respect and become your customers "go to' product. Obtaining favor over the competing brands is a characteristic of success for any business.
The importance of branding and how it affects your business is remarkable enough to consider investing time and money in. You will be able to find many business consultants work in this area and will help you to implement business branding methods to ensure your success.
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