isYour brand is the face of your business and helps consumers recognize your business in any medium. Branding is a fundamental part of the marketing plan that companies, businesses, and organizations use to differentiate themselves from competitors. In this article, you will learn what branding is and we will delve into its importance and the principles of brand building; we will also answer what the steps of brand building are and how to manage your brand so that your business is admired and remains in people’s minds.
What is the definition of a brand?
Before we discuss the importance of branding and the steps of brand building, it’s better to take a look at its basic and initial principles. What is a brand?
A brand is a characteristic or a set of characteristics that distinguishes one organization from other organizations. Typically, a brand consists of a name, a slogan, a logo or symbol, design, and brand voice.
Moreover, a brand refers to the overall customer experience when interacting with a specific business, as a buyer, customer, social media follower, etc.
What is the definition of branding?
Branding is the process of researching, developing, and applying a distinctive feature or set of features to an organization, so that consumers can associate your brand with your products or services.
This consept is an important part of marketing strategy, as a well-established brand represents stability and attracts customer trust. This is a repetitive and continuous process that requires touching the hearts of your customers and your business. Branding is important for many reasons, which we will discuss later.
Why is branding important in business?
The importance of branding lies in the lasting impact it has on consumer decision-making processes. A brand’s position in the market affects consumer purchases and the overall performance of the business. Successful branding can help create a successful company or move a successful company towards greater successes.
Branding is important because it can:
1.Increase recognition
Recognition means a company becomes identifiable to consumers. Branding, through elements such as logos and colors, helps form a distinct identity from similar products and services in the market; it also assists a brand in succeeding and prevailing over its competitors.
Your brand may be one of the most important assets of your organization. Branding gives your organization an identity, makes your business memorable, encourages consumers to buy from you, supports your marketing and advertising, and instills pride in your employees.
2.Attract new customers
Strong branding leaves a positive impression and creates a sense of stability and trustworthiness among customers looking for credibility in a product. A great brand naturally generates word-of-mouth advertising. This form of advertising is a marketing strategy that costs the company nothing but attracts more new customers.
3.Retain existing customers
After establishing a good brand, branding helps retain existing customers by providing the consistent quality that consumers expect.
4.Increase business value
Successful branding, through attracting new customers and retaining existing ones, increases the strength and influence of the company in its industry, thereby raising the value of the business. Branding adds value to your business beyond your products or services. Your brand is something that consumers can connect with and feel a sense of belonging.
5.Connect with the target audience
Branding helps you connect with your target audience through market research and data collection, establishing yourself as a professional in your industry with consistency and presence. Being easily recognizable strengthens and deepens the connection with the consumer, conveying the ideals and values of your company.
6.Be a determining factor for the consumer
When making a purchase decision, branding can be a determining factor for consumers. In a 2015 survey, nearly 60% of shoppers stated they actively buy from brands they know, and 21% said they buy a product because they like the brand.
7.Support your efforts
Branding supports your marketing and advertising efforts. Your brand makes your advertising stronger with customer recognition and greater impact, which is the fruit of your brand.
8.Make your employees proud
When you build your company’s brand, you not only give your business an identity, but you also create a reputable and respected work environment. Strong branding attracts strong employees and makes them proud.
What are the steps of brand building?
Next, we refer to how to create a brand or start the brand building process again. Brand building is a broad topic, and there are many things to consider when building a strong brand.
1.Identify your target audience
Branding leads to awareness, recognition, trust, and income. We talked about these, but let’s take a step back and recognize their source: consumers, and not just any consumers, but your target audience and customers.
If your brand does not resonate with your audience, it will not lead to awareness, recognition, trust, and income; this is where target market research comes into play.
Before you start writing, you need to conclude who your branding speaks to, who your product serves, who your ideal customer is, and why you started your business in the first place.
What you learn about your target market and buyer personas will impact your future branding decisions, so prioritize this step.
2.Define your mission statement
Let’s return to the question we asked in the previous section: “Why did you start your business?” Answering this question helps you create your mission statement, which defines your purpose and passion as an organization.
Before you create a brand that your audience recognizes, values, and trusts, you must be able to deliver on your mission; then, every part of your brand (logo, slogan, imagery, voice, and personality) can reflect that mission and vision.
By defining your mission, values, and personality as a brand, you know who you are and keep those attributes consistent in all your interactions with customers. Determining what you want to achieve, why, and how you will convey your message to your customers are all key components of branding.
Your mission statement is the cornerstone of your brand statement, which includes why your organization exists and why people should pay attention to your brand.
3.Define your values, attributes, and benefits in branding
Branding – Define your values, attributes, and benefits in branding
There are likely many businesses in your industry and field. Focusing on competition is easy (and there’s another time and place for competitive analysis), but at this stage, you should focus on yourself.
What does your business have that others can’t imitate (at least legally)? Your answer is your “brand.”
For this reason, you must ensure that your brand is composed of elements unique to you (values, benefits, and characteristics that make your brand unique) and only inspired by them.
Spend time creating a list of characteristics that differentiate your business from others. We don’t mean product features like appearance, components, or capabilities, but rather how your product or proposed service improves people’s lives and contributes to their success.
4.Create your visual resources
At this stage, you should understand your target audience, mission statement, and the unique characteristics of your business. If you have successfully completed these steps, you can move on to the more exciting stage of branding, namely visual design. We mean the logo, color palette, fonts, icon design, and other visual components.
When creating such elements, compile a set of brand guidelines or a brand style guide to monitor the combination and use of your visual resources. This ensures that people use your new branding correctly and consistently.
Your logo and colors are the visual and symbolic representation of your company’s values. The logo serves as the face of the company and is one of the first ways consumers use to identify your brand. Your logo should be unique, easily recognizable, and understandable.
Carefully choose your logo to encompass all your target audiences and lay the foundation of trust for your customers.
Note: Design can be as intimidating as it is exciting. Try to hire a professional for your logo and identity design work or use design templates.
5.Determine your brand position
Brand positioning means what plan you have to differentiate yourself from competitors. This is what makes you unique in what you can offer your customers. Having a clear and value-based positioning idea brings credibility and power to the market and differentiates you.
6.You must find your brand voice for branding
For branding, you must find your brand voice
The next step is to find the auditory component of your brand. Imagine you are talking to your brand; how should it sound?
How you interact with your target market should also be considered part of your branding. It is best to define a brand voice that connects with and resonates with your audience; otherwise, customers are likely to ignore it; hence, do not overlook returning to step one to familiarize yourself with your audience.
Try to ensure that your tone is consistent across advertising campaigns, social media captions, blog posts, and brand stories.
Give your audience the opportunity to familiarize themselves with your brand and recognize its voice; even better, choose an entertaining and engaging voice so that your audience always looks forward to updates on your social networks and emails.
7.Decide on pricing and market positioning
The price of a product subconsciously conveys a value to the customer. Precise decision-making about pricing and market positioning helps define the goal and consequently sends a more significant message to your customers.
Setting a high price for common products, such as shoes or jackets, conveys that the item is luxurious and valuable. Pricing an item lower than its actual value indicates to the customer that the quality is reliable but not desirable. This approach can create a system of more frequent purchases for customers who want more money.
8.Use your branding
Your brand only works if you do. When the design and creation of your new brand (rebranding) are complete, incorporate it into all aspects of your business. Wherever there is a trace of the customer, your branding should be present.
Conclusion
Strong brands distinguish themselves through their branding. The tangible components involved in this process include: an attractive logo, a clever advertising phrase, an authentic statement, and a clear and articulate brand voice, but smart brands also focus on the overall brand image. If you can reach the hearts of your target audience and organization, a successful brand will follow.
Branding is more than a name, logo, color palette, voice, and image of your organization; it’s the intangible feeling customers have when interacting with your brand, the experience we referred to at the beginning of this article. We’ve explained what branding is, its principles and steps, and its importance. We hope you found this article useful. Share your thoughts with us.
Elevate your brand with Imazh Branding Studio – where creativity meets strategy to bring your vision to life. Our team is dedicated to crafting unique brand identities that capture the essence of your business and resonate with your audience. Stand out in the marketplace with a brand that’s not just seen, but unforgettable. Start your journey to branding excellence with us at Imazh Studio.
