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Is Business Branding important in this digital age?
What do we mean by the word “Brand”?
The word “brand” reflects the values, beliefs and qualities that are attributed to a product, service, individual or organisation. It is a perception or assumption maintained by individuals who experience such attributes – usually investors, employees, media and most importantly, the customers/clients. These perceptions can be formed based on interaction with a Brand’s image, culture, slogan, use of design, advertisement, marketing and so on.
Products are made in the factory, but brands are created in the mind.
Walter Landor
Case Study:
The Apple brand is well known for its slick gadgets, frequent upgrades and great marketing. Whilst these are beneficial to the brand by helping to attract a mass of loyal customers, at the very heart of the brand is the idea of ‘simplicity’. This is achieved by removing the complexities experienced by users when engaging with technology through people-driven product design.
Branding is all about perceptions which lives in the minds of everyone who experiences it. It goes beyond the boundaries of reasoning and turns into valued personal relationships.
Why is business branding Essential?
Branding helps businesses stand out from their competitors; It amplifies your values, vision and personality. It creates a foundation of trust in which your customers can relate to, also important is the need to emotionally captivate your audience.
No matter how entertaining or creative your branding campaigns are, if there isn’t an emotional connection with your target audience, your branding or marketing strategy is likely to miss the mark.
A strong brand helps businesses attract new customers and retain existing ones
Furthermore, branding helps to create a consistent message across all sectors of a business. It could be through a distinctive logo, choice of colours or visuals, slogan, product packaging, customer experience and etc. As a result of this, customers are able to create a mental note of the attributes of your company and easily tell it apart from others. When it comes to sales, even if a potential customer isn’t ready to make a purchase or use the services just yet, they are likely to recommend the brand to others and at a later time, use it themselves.
For anything to be memorable, it needs to be repeated – your message needs to be consistently repeated through whatever form your product or services are represented.
Business Values of a Brand
In the current digital age and the advancement of social media, business branding has become increasingly important. This has resulted in unparalleled levels of business transparency, and customers are looking to engage with purpose-driven businesses who share their values. With the right branding measures in place, the business can enjoy tremendous benefits such as increased sales, improved awareness and exposure, retention of loyal customers and so on.
Brand Building is a way of creating a long-term competitive advantage that can yield measurable passive returns throughout the lifespan of a business. If you add value to your business by building a strong image, you will in turn receive loyal customers which might form a strong base of people who are receptive to your products and/or services which might evolve into the production of new products and/or services.
Case Study
Apple’s brand has evolved over the years, originally coming into being in the late 1970s with desktop computers and then laptops in the 1990s, it took over 20 years before Apple expanded into its first major new product area with the launch of the iPod in 2001, followed by iPhone in 2007, iPad in 2010, then Apple Pay and Apple Watch in 2014. Apple’s core competence remains delivering exceptional customer experience through superb user interfaces and touch gestures. Apple’s main brand strategy focuses on the simplicity & emotions. Apple’s brand personality is about lifestyle, imagination, liberty regained, innovation, passion, and power-to-the-people through technology.
The Apple brand is not just intimate with its customers, it’s loved and there is a real sense of community among its users
Branding your Business in the current digital age
Creating a strong brand requires an in-depth assessment and market research to ascertain why customers should engage or be involved in your business. Firstly, the organisation has to understand whom they are, what they do, what makes them unique, their industry, potential customers and competitors. Secondly, a brand strategist will create strategies that will amplify the organisations brand awareness, enhance the brand image and ensure the organisation’s mission, values, culture, products and services are consistently represented and communicated consistently to all audiences across all channels.
A strong image will help customers to remember your business and feel greater confidence that your products or services will suit their needs, be it now or in the future. As the relationship you establish with customers grows deeper, the longer they will engage with your brand.
Below are some questions that needs to be answered before determining the image you hope to portray for your business:
- Who are you and what do you offer?
- What are your core beliefs or values?
- What is your organisation’s ‘personality’?
- What makes you different to your competitors?
- What problems are you hoping to provide answers to?
- How will your products benefit them?
- What does your consumers want or need?
Once decided, these ideas can be put into effect using the right branding channels. It can be replicated through the language and tone used to promote your brand. With the right branding in place, you have the chance to get some control over how people perceive your business among the crowd.
Conclusion
Branding is all about perceptions and creating a strong connection with customers is of great importance to any business. Whilst a solid business plan is undoubted important, branding is the engine that powers such ideas, and should be considered at the early stages of developing a business.
Launching a business with a great business plan, a well-thought-of brand design, and formidable business management will give you a greater chance of success.