The terms 'brand' and 'branding' can be integral to a business' success - but what exactly do they mean? Does your business have a brand, and does it need one?
Branding gets right to the core of your business' values. It is about discovering and communicating the essence of your business and what it delivers to your customers. In effect, your brand creates your business' reputation and its 'personality'. A strong brand can make your business stand out from the crowd, particularly in competitive markets.
This guide explains what branding is, how it works and how you can use it to help improve your business. It shows you how to create a brand, how to budget for it and the different techniques of managing a brand. You will also find out what the key elements of branding are, how branding applies to different business sectors and the impact design can have on branding
Branding is a way of clearly highlighting what makes your product or service different to, and more attractive than, your competitors'.
A brand goes much deeper than just your company logo. You could define a brand as a set of associations that an existing or potential customer has of a company, product, service or individual. These associations can be the result of your own efforts and actively promoted through marketing and corporate identity. Branding also reflects your customers' experiences of your business and affects every interaction you have with your customers and suppliers.
The intelligent use of design, advertising, marketing, service proposition, and corporate culture can all help to generate associations in people's minds that will benefit your business.
Branding is your attempt to harness these associations to help your business perform better. Any business or organisation can benefit enormously by creating an accurate brand, ie one that represents their true values. Therefore, it is important to always be clear about what your business stands for.
Successful branding is about promoting your strengths. You need to be sure that you can always deliver your promises using these strengths, sometimes referred to as 'brand values'. You can start by thinking about what your business is good at and what you believe in as a business. For example:
the particular skills your business has
the best value for money you provide in your marketplace
Every business wants to be a customer's first choice. Building and managing a brand can play a significant part in making that happen.
Why does your business need branding?
Effective branding can elevate your product or business into something unique, instead of being just one commodity among many similar others. Standing out from your competitors is particularly important in competitive markets.
There is a range of methods you can use to make your product stand out. This can be as simple as using a colour in your design or packaging which your competitors are not using and which creates an impression in the minds of consumers. Remember, consumers choose products and services using emotional as well as pragmatic judgements. So, you can use your brand to create a real point of difference.
Experience shows that customers expect to pay more for a branded product than for unbranded products. Would you expect to pay the same for a can of a supermarket's own lemonade as you would for a brand you recognise?
You can apply your brand to a whole range of your other products or services. This will allow consumers to associate each product in your range with a consistent set of values which they know.
Also, if you want to extend your product range, consumers' perception of the new offering will be enhanced by your existing brand. By consistently applying your brand attributes your business can move into new market sectors without changing your core brand identity.
A strong brand can also add value to your core business. A company that offers equity shares needs to have a strong reputation - a recognisable brand communicates what your business stands for as well as what it offers.
With a strong brand, consumers can see added value in any new services you create because of the association of the new services with your core brand. However, this can also work in reverse, because if consumers don't like your brand in one product area, they're less likely to choose another of your products or services.
As branding is one way to increase public recognition of your business or product, it can help you engage with customers and create a connection. For more information, see the page in this guide on your brand and your customers.
