Branding has evolved from its traditional role of differentiating businesses on the basis of certain identifiers to its current role as a customer experience entity. Branding is the perception that customers visualize for their favorite brands. Whether you want to shape your products or present your services to your customers, branding stays at the center stage. Branding establishes a lasting competitive edge, an unbreakable moat, and a distinct identity for businesses.
Through innovation, expertise, strategy, and planning, a brand can create a distinct identity that differentiates itself from rivals and resonates with its target audience. It is imperative and advisable for companies of all sizes and verticals to create a robust brand identity right from their genesis.
This article details how important branding is to meet marketing goals and aims to help businesses understand how investments in branding activities beget high returns for their business’s growth and stability.
The Importance Of Branding In the Marketing Journey of Businesses
Marketing is the sum of activities that make your offerings visible to your potential customers, while branding sets your products and offerings apart from your peers and competitors.
To ensure a thriving and long-lasting business, understanding how clients perceive your brand and then tilting the perception in favor of your brand is important.
The below points detail the importance of branding in marketing:
- Branding Eliminates Competition
Branding is no more just a survival tactic. Earlier businesses would merely use marketing tactics to pitch and sell their products and services. Today, customers want to know the idea behind the product, they love the stories that make a product special; inspiring brand stories are appreciated and welcomed by customers, and clients want to be part of the overall experience that a brand provides to its customers. Branding helps businesses earn that space in the minds of their customers.
For instance, Tesla doesn’t just sell a car, they market their brand as an idea of a sustainable and zero-emission future.
Branding is the vibe, the unique selling point itself that differentiates one company from the other, and it helps businesses wipe out their competition. Well-perceived brands are undisputed leaders in the hearts of their buyers. - Connects You on a Human Level With Your Clientele
Many people, including numerous marketers, believe branding in marketing is equivalent to a company’s visual aspects and properties, such as logos, symbols, signs, boards, brochures, marketing materials, flyers, letterheads, and website colors. However, branding goes beyond just visual representation. Branding isn’t limited to visual identity. It is projected through the combination of visual identity with the human-level experiences you deliver as a brand.
Coca-Cola’s Sunset ad is an example of how the brand conveys its values on humanity and love. Branding includes your values as a business and the emotions you evoke in your customers. It connects you with your customers on an emotional level and humanizes your business endeavors. - Influences Buying Decisions
Branding influences how humans perceive things, and therefore people react to the message that brands deliver. Branding can appeal to people and generate their interest in particular things. Branding can affect, control, and completely change the decision-making process of customers. Once your brand’s identity is firmly established and easily recognisable to consumers, it effectively and without effort directs their buying choices in your direction. - Branding Augments and Complements Product Innovations
Even highly innovative products need branding activities to build their market and gain consumer attention. It is not sufficient for companies to spend huge amounts on research and design activities and create technologically superior products or services. Without branding, there will be no general awareness and visibility in the market. Branding creates the moat, visibility, and awareness around the product that is essential for even the most innovative products that enter the market. - Branding Act as a Bulwark Against Difficult Times and Reputation Crisis
Robust brands possess the ability to endure in times of difficulty. Clients harbor a great deal of faith and reliance on brands that have created a positive perception in their minds. Consistent branding efforts, along with exceptional offerings, help brands stand firmly in difficult times as they have their customers’ backs. For example, Samsung survived the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 devices bursting incidents, Subway survived the Jared Fogle-led reputational hit, and Volkswagen survived the emissions scandal. All these brands had years of accumulated brand equity which persuaded their stakeholders and customers to stay with them even after the big reputational crisis incidents. - Great Brands Create Loyal Customers and Employees
Establishing a brand does more than just generate devoted clients; it also fosters committed employees. A strong brand offers clients and employees a cause to support and identify with. This enables people associated with the brand to grasp the objectives of the company they buy or serve. Branding fosters a sense of pride among employees, leading to increased job satisfaction and productivity. - Creates a Perception of Higher Quality Among Customers
Branding in marketing elevates the perceived value proposition for a brand’s products and services and allows companies to charge a premium price. In the realm of branding, consumers emphasize genuineness, relationships, and quality. With the changing tendencies in consumer behavior towards buying products based on values, businesses that prioritize branding can project themselves as high-value brands. - Enables Brands to Launch Umbrella Products
Businesses can capitalize on their existing brand equity to launch and market more products under the same brand name. The identity, trust, recognition, and goodwill the brand has built hitherto can be leveraged to launch products under the same brand umbrella. Brands that have already established their credibility will have to take less pain in positioning and marketing their new products. Companies like P&G, Johnson and Johnson, Unilever, Apple, Nestle, etc., have many products under one brand name. These companies have successfully utilized their brand excellence to benefit and promote other products launched by them. - Branding is an Intangible Asset that Helps Businesses Negotiate Better
Branding helps companies create a distinct place for themselves in the business world. It is an intangible asset with a high inherent value. Brands can negotiate better during applying for loans, mergers, acquisitions, lawsuits, protests, and collaboration if their brand is strong and is perceived with reverence in the market. - Branding Aids in Customer Retention
Branding revitalizes customer life cycles and implores them to re-enter your product space. Successful brands generally channelise their client’s journey towards positive experiences. A robust brand ensures that customers re-enter the buying cycle following their first encounter with your company.
Manage Your Brand
Ensure a uniform brand experience across all channels, offline and online. Know and analyze your brand’s inherent strengths and weaknesses. Explore chances to enhance your brand’s prestige on valuable platforms and review websites. Consider methods to actively participate in your industry as a thought leader and contribute by imparting expertise and experiences.
How Can Evo Mark Take Your Branding To The Next Level?
Increase Your Brand Value with Evo Mark’s 360-degree Branding Strategies:
Our branding strategy is thorough in its efforts. We offer a comprehensive brand enhancement solution that revitalizes your website design and visual brand elements. If you are seeking all-inclusive branding assistance with a highly experienced team of web designers, branding experts, and digital marketing experts all in one place, then Evo Mark is your go-to destination.
To avail of a free consultation regarding our branding services or to know how hiring us can be the most prudent investment for your brand, contact us at 01202 790300 or email us at sales@evomark.co.uk