what is branding?

Why is branding important?

A differentiated brand can have a significant influence on your bottom line by offering you a competitive advantage over your competitors and lowering the cost of getting and keeping clients. An established brand can be a vital asset in drawing clients and producing profit in eCommerce, where new companies (and hence new competitors) are coming to the fore every day. Whether you put time and effort into creating an engaging brand or don’t give it a second thought, your company has a distinct identity. However, it’s possible that it’s not how you intended to be perceived. You have the potential to shape your customers’ expectations and create a unique bond that extends beyond the buying-selling relationship by carefully establishing your brand through stories, relationships, marketing messages, and visual assets. Marketing is tactical, but branding is strategic. You can start constructing a marketing plan oriented toward accomplishing those goals once you’ve established the higher objectives and clearly defined your brand promise.

Why Does Branding Identity Matter?

Symbols or illustrations can be used to show how a brand looks. This is called brand identity. A symbol or visual aspect can be a big part of a brand’s identity. For example, Nike has a “swoosh” and Apple has an apple. Building a brand’s identity must have a strong visual image that can be used to link the brand to other things. A brand identity is made up of many different branding elements. Many times, when you put them all together, your brand’s identity is like its own symbol in many ways. You can learn more about a company by how it looks in its marketing materials, how it talks about itself on social media, and what colors it chooses for its name, and how much money similar businesses make without a brand.  

Creating a strong brand identity

In order to build strong, cohesive, and consistent brands, there are a lot of different steps you can take. Here’s what you should do: 1-You should look at both the company and the market. In business, managers can use a SWOT analysis to better understand their situation and figure out what they need to do to reach their goals. It looks at the company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The first step is to figure out what the main business goals are. 2- A good brand identity should help meet these goals. For example, if an automaker wants to sell cars to a small, wealthy group, its ads should be tailored to that group. They should show up on channels and sites where people who might be interested in them will see them. 3-The company needs to figure out who its customers are. Surveys, focus groups, and one-onone interviews can help a company figure out who its customers are. Determine how it wants to be perceived and what it wants to say. 4- A company needs to have a consistent image. instead of trying to combine all of the good things that it can think of utility, affordability, quality, nostalgia, modernity, luxury, flash, taste, and class. All elements of a brand, including copy, imagery, cultural references, and color schemes, should work together and send the same message.

Types of Branding Identity elements

1. The brand name

There are words you use to tell the world that your business is different from your competitors. This is called a brand name. A brand name may look easy and simple from the outside. But it’s very hard to come up with a name that is both iconic and new. Chevy, Coca-Cola, Häagen-Dazs, and Target are some of the brands you might think about. Today, these words are known as “monikers.” They are now part of our everyday language. Because people are willing to pay more for products with these wellknown brand names, those simple words are now worth a lot of money.

2. Brand logo

In simple terms, a logo is a trademark that is used to show people who a company is by what it looks like. A person’s name will be on their emails, website, and maybe even their physical products. People will know who you are if they see it. There are many types of brands that use words and the name of their company to make logos that people can recognize.

3. Graphics and images.

The graphics and images that make up your brand are hard to define because they include all of the other things that make your business stand out from the rest. For example, your logo might be a picture you put in a marketing email. It’s important that when you share images, the style you use to make them look good should be the same on all platforms and materials. There are many ways you can be consistent, such as: using the same filters on your images, cropping your photos the same way, and more.

4. Typography

It is called typography when you use the fonts you choose in all of your business materials, like brochures and emails. So, your branding is all the same and people can tell when they see fonts that look like your brand or business. Having a set font for your business also makes it easier to make business content that looks like it came from the same place. Spotify, for example, uses a sans-serif font that stays the same on its website and in its marketing materials.

5. The tone and voice

Tone and voice don’t mean how your business sounds in audio, but rather how your business comes across in marketing materials. For example, is your brand personality is energetic? or it’s more luxurious? Or are you more focused on education and work? Your tone and voice are important parts of your brand because they help you show your brand’s personality. It’s important to pick a tone and voice that fits with your business and its target audience. Use that tone and voice in all of the words your business sends forward to the world.  

6. Catchphrase: Slogan, Jingle, or Jingle

You can’t use slogans and jingles for every single business, but if you do, they make up an important part of your brand. These unique brand elements can be used in marketing materials, commercials, and other things, like that. Many slogans and jingles get stuck in people’s heads, which helps you stay at the top of their minds, such McDonalds’s.

Branding strategies

A product that’s well-received by the people who want it can change a business. If businesses want their products and services to be in high demand, they need to be more strategic about how they market them. As for branding strategies, there is no such thing as a “one size fits all.” This means that the marketing team should use a strategy that fits in with your business’s values and makes sense to your customers. Here are five different ways your company should think about branding.

Company Name Branding:

Well-known brands use the popularity of their own company names to help their brands be more well-known. People usually think of logos, slogans, packaging, or colors when they think of a business. They usually think of the business as a whole. For example, Coca-Cola, Tylenol, and Porsche use their company names to connect with their customers.

Individual branding

Large companies that make a lot of well-known products may choose to give each one its own brand name. For example, Apple is the parent company, but each of its brands, like Mac, iPhone, and iPad, has its own marketing strategy.

Attitude branding

Sometimes, a company will use a general feeling or attitude to market its products and show off its business. Marketing a larger feeling helps bring the business to life and connect the brand with its customers in an emotional way. It’s not just athletic shoes that brands like Nike use attitude branding to sell. It’s also healthy habits that match the “just do it” slogan.

Brand Extension branding

An already strong brand may want to expand its success into a new business with the help of a brand extension strategy. A lot of clothing companies use “brand extension” strategies to start a new line of shoes, fragrances, or other things. Brand identity doesn’t change, even if the products are different from what people used to buy.

 

Private-label branding

People who run successful store brands might use private-label branding strategies to compete with bigger retailers. For example, Kroger, a supermarket chain, makes cheap brand options for some food items.

The Importance of Branding in eCommerce

Branding is a complicated process that requires a lot of planning and thought. Ideally, you should think about your branding strategy before you start your online store. This way, you won’t have to work backward to try to make your store match what people expect. A strong brand is easy to connect with and draws on values that connect well with the people who want to buy it. Having a strong brand can also protect a business from having to compete on price. So, how do you build a brand for an online store, and how do you do that? In eCommerce branding, these are the main steps that you need to take. -You need to know your customers. To be able to communicate well, you need to figure out what factors are important to your target customers and focus on using them. What do they enjoy? What makes them excited and motivated? They like what you do. -Create a persona for your brand. A brand persona is the persona of your business that you will use to make customer experiences. It will be very dependent on the information you learn about your customers. What kind of voice should I use? It’s important to know what kind of language will work best. What images will make them want to look at them? -Make your brand promise clear. As a business, what do you say you’re going to do? When they use your products or services, how will their lives be better? Make sure that this promise is kept. -Visual assets should be improved. Online shoppers don’t have the chance to touch and feel the things they buy, so the visual experience is very important. A brand’s visual assets are all its front-facing elements, like its website design, fonts, typography, color palette, logo, and ad designs, as well as the packaging and unboxing experience you make for people when they buy your products or see your ads. It’s a powerful branding tool that works best when all the different parts work together. Research shows that having a unique signature color will make it more likely that customers will recognize your brand by 80%. -Improve the customer experience. Customers may not always like your brand, but you should try to make sure that every interaction and touchpoint you have with your customers is in line with your brand promise and follows your brand rules. 69% of people say that the best thing brands can do to improve their experience is to “know them.” You’ll want to think about everything from your return policy to shipping arrangements to email marketing communications and more. -Always remember to give back. As simple as saying “thank you” to your customers who have been with you for a long time can go a long way to making your business look better. Show your appreciation by running special loyalty programs or promotions, giving away free gifts, or giving discounts from time to time. It’s a sure way to build long-term relationships with your customers and make your brand more relatable

Branding is important for startups, 5 reasons why?

1. Branding gives your start-up a unique look and feel.

Branding helps people recognize your business and makes your business a focus. This makes your business more valuable in the eyes of the public and your employees. If your brand has a unique personality, you should show that through your visual expression and the way you want to show your brand to the public. If your brand is unique, it will allow it to stay in place in the market rather than fall through the gaps.

2. You can stay in the market for a long time if you have good branding in place.

When you brand yourself, you have the tools to set yourself apart from your competitors. This gives you the power to stay in the market for a long time. Is not just a logo or a slogan, it is how you communicate with your customers over and over again. For a long time, your customers will be able to tell that your messages are always the same, no matter what medium they use to get them.

3. Brands motivate your employees and help them see the big picture

You might not believe me if I told you that strong brands also motivate employees. It is true! It’s important to motivate and set clear expectations for your employees through a strong brand because they spend a lot of time at work. This is even more important if you think of them as brand ambassadors. When you have a strong brand, that doesn’t mean your employees will be excited to work for you. Still, when it comes to salaries, working conditions, and job opportunities, it does help a lot. Employees who have a strong brand will be able to show off that brand to customers.

4. A strong brand gives customers a sense of what to expect when they do business with your company

A promise is what your brand is all about. It’s what you say or promises as a company that tells the world what your company stands for. Having a good impression makes customers think they are getting to know you and what you stand for, and in turn, this is what they come to expect from you.

5. Branding is important for your start-up because it helps it stay the same and get noticed.

It’s important for your company to have a consistent brand so that it can grow and last in the market. A strong brand helps customers understand what a company is all about, how it can help them, and why they should care. Brand traction doesn’t happen right away, but with consistent branding strategies, it can be done over time.