What differentiates a local shoe manufacturer from Nike? Why is it that the name ‘Nike’ itself is enough to induce a certain level of confidence in the customers’ minds regarding the quality of their product? The answer is simple, it’s a ‘Brand’. Nike is a Brand, but not every other local shoe manufacturer is. Now, why does being a brand make such a difference? That is exactly what we will be discussing further in this article. Unless you understand what branding is, you cannot understand why it’s beneficial for you.
So, whether you are a newbie to marketing, a new small startup, a mid-size flourishing company or just someone seeking information, you can just sit back and chill, while we explain to you all that you need to know regarding the benefits of branding.
What Is Branding?
To define it precisely, ‘Branding is a marketing strategy adopted by companies to make a ‘one of a kind’ character for themselves in their respective sectors in order to stand out from their competitors and gain popularity among the consumers.’
But, what exactly does it mean? Well, let us explain it to you in an easier way.
It’s safe to say that your brand is how your customers perceive your company or business. It is the personality of your business. Right from how it looks, to what it promises, your brand is how you can communicate easily to your consumers. So basically, your brand is everything your company is about. And branding is the process of establishing yourself as a brand.
Right from the name of your company, to its logo and website, everything is a part of branding and plays its own role in creating an identity for your company in the marketing world. If you do it right, you will create presence and assets identifiable to your company specifically.
Why Do You Need Branding?
Now that you understand what Branding is, you need to know, why does your brand need it? Well, simply put a Brand creates trust and when consumers can trust you, they would definitely do business with you. It is often observed that consumers are willing to pay more for branded products and services.
To help you understand the benefits of Branding better, below we have explained them in a few points.
1. Branding Helps Get Recognized.
Gaining recognition and popularity among the customers is one of the big goals of any company, and we assume it would be the same for you. But how do you do it? Simple, through Branding.
Branding helps you get recognized by the people. Take logo for example, which is a key component of branding. It is basically the face of your business venture, by which everyone will recognize you. It’s important though that the design of your logo describes your venture well. The more and more you will be recognized, the easier it would be for people to trust you and hence do business with you. Recognition is a major factor for any large or small company and shifting from being ‘a company’ to ‘a brand’ might help you with that.
A good example would be Maggi. In India, the word Maggi has become synonymous to ‘instant noodles’. The very first brand to come to your mind when talking about instant noodles has to be Maggi. Maggi has created a strong recognition as an instant noodles brand, strong enough to replace the word ‘instant noodles’ to ‘Maggi’ completely across the nation.
2. Branding Helps You Stand Out
As a venture, you can never be alone in your selected field. There might be hundreds if not thousands of other companies in the world providing the same services as you. Now, to stand out among them, you need to create a unique identity.
Branding helps you create an identity unique compared to your competitors. It helps people understand how are your products and services superior to your competitors? When you can convey properly the philosophy, aims, and personality of your company, it helps customers differentiate you from the rest of your competitors and thus increases the chances of them selecting you over others.
Let’s take Levi’s as a brand. Levi’s has created a unique identity in the apparel industry. Levi’s jeans are not just any other denim jeans, they are different and people understand that. As a result, the customers are willing to pay more for it. A big reason for Levi’s attaining this status is their creative branding.
3. Branding Helps To Create Trust
If you want more and more people to do business with your venture, you need to create trust among them regarding yourself. Now, for a fact, if you are just another company or business venture, people might be doubtful in doing any business with you. But, on the contrary, if you are a known brand, it becomes easier for them to trust you.
Being a brand means that you guarantee to provide your customers with a certain quality of services on your part. They know they can trust to have a consistent experience on your part.
When you walk through the doors of any Domino’s outlet, you have a certain expectation not just regarding the food but for the overall services provided there. This is because Dominos has created a level of trust among its customers through years of consistent quality services.
4. Branding Helps In Build A Customer Base
Branding doesn’t just end once you do business with your clients. Good branding ensures that your clients choose only you everytime they need services that you can provide. Once you provide your customers with good service experience, chances are they would stay with you. And a loyal customer base can prove highly helpful for you in the long run.
A customer base works as an important force for the advertising for any brand, so the more loyal customer base you have the easier it might get for you to gain more new customers.
Imagine you always order clothes online from Amazon.in only. Now, if someone asks you for a suggestion for ordering online, chances are you would suggest the same to them, as you have had a good experience when buying from that brand and are a loyal customer to them.
5. Branding Generates Referrals.
As we mentioned before, a loyal customer base can prove to be very beneficial to you. Your happy customers will play an important part in advertising your brand. If they are truly satisfied with your services, there is a high chance they will recommend your brand to others as well. These free referrals can go a long way in creating new customers for you.
All this happens only through the right branding. As far as your branding techniques are up to par and your customers like you, referrals will keep generating, thus eventually advertising you to more and more people. Word-Of-Mouth is a strong workforce when it comes to advertising. On the other hand, you can’t recommend a brand you can’t recall. So, Branding is very important.
6. Branding Helps To Motivate The Company Staff.
Your company’s staff is basically the body of your business venture. And happy staff is what makes a company great. But, to keep your employees happy, you need to make sure that they share the same vision as you do.
Now, when your employees understand your aims and also relate to it, it creates a great impact on how others see your brand too. Any employee would feel proud to be working at a known and reputed workplace rather than just some average business enterprise. Being a brand you can create a sense of pride in your employees’ minds and motivate them to work harder.
Even if you are a small brand, as long as you are just to your employees, it will work in your own benefit as they can also help create referrals for the brand by suggesting them to more and more people.
7. Branding Increases Business Value.
Branding helps generate more value for your brand, which your physical assets can’t do alone. A greater business value leads to improving your reputation which will help you in the long run. Every popular brand is a perfect example of this.
Good branding presents your company as more desirable than its competitors. A greater brand value helps increase a brand’s worth and reputation. According to a report from Statista, in 2018, the most valuable brand in the world has been Amazon with a brand value close to 151 Billion US $, while Apple stood on the second position with a brand value of 146 Billion US $.
We hope now you understand what being a Brand should mean to you and what are the benefits of branding. If you haven’t opted to Branding yourself, you most definitely should. Branding has a number of different elements like brand identity which include logo design that is essentially the face of your brand, brand personality, brand equity, social media presence, etc. and you need to take care of all these aspects to establish yourself as a strong brand.
Now, to do this, you can contact experts, just as we have here at Walnut Folks. We have professionals who understand branding perfectly and can help you understand where to start if you are new to it.
If you have any questions you would like to get answered regarding the topic, we would love to answer them. Feel free to drop them in the comments below or mail them to us at hello@walnutfolks.com