What is branding?
Branding is a way to tell your customers or audience who you are, what you can offer and why your business exists and matters. This is not just creating an eye-catching, colorful logo. This is all about the look, image and even the voice behind the brand that will help you rise among your competitors.
Branding helps create trust. It is how you gain long term success for your business. Customers who have never heard of your products and brand should be able to stop and take another look. They say, first impressions are very important to develop brand loyalty. Around 48% of consumers say that they are more likely to be loyal to a brand based on the first purchase or the first time that they used the product.
First impressions last to develop trust and using branding can help you attract more customers and enable them experience what you can offer.
Why is branding important?
Branding helps attract customers; helps customers identify the company and the product. Branding also creates trust in the business. Customers put their full trust in the business enough to patronize the company.
Most consumers have a clear idea of what products they want the minute they set foot in a department store or a supermarket. For instance, if they want soda, they head directly to the aisle where Coca Cola is found. If they want laundry detergent, they look for Tide. Sway these customers to choose another product other than what they have in mind and possibly they would disagree. Some might try an alternative but only with some form of bribe, like a promo or a special offer.
It can take time to build a brand; Rome was not built in a day! But once you get the beat going, your brand, your business and your product will surely flourish. Another important thing, branding will give you an edge over your competitors. When you have established your spot in your industry, the competition will have a hard time bringing you down.
So why rely on just basic marketing strategies when you can use branding to attract more customers or visitors?
3 Common Branding Problems & Solutions
If you have a small business and you have not used branding in your marketing strategies then you may be losing customers. Have you ever wondered how household names like Apple, Sony and McDonalds did it? These companies started just like you did, small and still testing the waters. But with a firm focus on branding, these companies are synonymous with the products that they sell.
Do you know that around 77% of consumers make purchases by using a brand name? Why do we call tissues Kleenex and ask for the iPad when we are supposed to call it tablet? We have developed some kind of trust in these products. Trust in the quality and trust in the brand. And this trust has made these names very popular and very profitable. Your business can be this way too when you use branding to increase visitor trust.
Problem 1: Lack of target market knowledge
Possibly the first thing that most businesses do when establishing their brand is to consider the identity of their customers or target market. You need to take into consideration your market, what they need, what they look for in a product or service and what you can offer them.
Solution 1: Define your target audience
A simple profiling of your customers would have to start before you can create products that would cater to their needs. If you sell cupcakes and plan to sell it in a school canteen, you can use a simple poll to find out what cupcake flavor is a huge hit with the student population.
Now, your successful branding may follow. Think of a name that will easily ring a bell while considering your customers.
Problem 2: Branding inconsistencies across different mediums and platforms
If you advertise on different mediums such as online, on newspapers, on the radio or using leaflets then you must keep things consistent. Nothing turns off customers more than inconsistent information.
Solution 2: Be consistent across all platforms
Make sure that your company information like your social media page, phone number and address are listed correctly on all media. If you post a promo online then make sure that you have the exact same promo in your store.
Problem 3: Not knowing your business values, goals and services
Before you start attracting customers, have a deeper look into what you really want. List your ultimate goals, your core values and the things you want to get done.
Solution 3: Define your business values, goals and services
t would help if you establish a FAQ section on your business page and refer your customers to this each time a question is raised. This establishes integrity and trust. You are a few steps closer to making your brand a true success.
Next steps
Now that you know what branding does and how it establishes trust, why not go the extra mile and take advantage of our complimentary branding audit? You will just be answering a short questionnaire and soon you will find out how effective or not, your business brand is. Try it out.
