Branding is your business’ ability to clearly deliver a message and connect with your target market on a deeper, more intense level. With effective branding you can motivate your clients to not only buy your products but to remain loyal customers time and time again. It also encourages your clients to spread the word about your business and your brand. With the proliferation of the internet, this has never been easier.
Back in the 1600s, branding was used physically as a stamp of ownership. Gradually, brands were burned onto wooden cases as a guarantee of a good source and a good quality product (for example, onto a case of wine). Over time, it became a lot more than this; it is now a physical and emotional element that resides in the hearts and minds of your clients and potential clients.
Branding is:
- Confidence
- Passion
- Belonging
- Action
- Security
- A set of unique values
Branding is not:
- A logo
- Corporate identity
- Advertising
- Marketing
Brands are Big for Business
Coca-Cola is one of the world’s most successful brands. The Coca-Cola image is visible from the remotest corners of the globe, whether on the face of a clock or in a small fridge cabinet. This brand is one of the most powerful marketing models in the world, having dominated the world.
Coca-Cola’s focus has always been on:
- The most profitable products
- Reinvestment
- Superior delivery & sales support
- To build on its existing expertise in marketing and consumer understanding
- Possessing a detailed understanding of consumer requirements
- Exceeding consumer requirements
Many things can be branded including products, places, people, services and religions. Brands can take your company and your customers to incredible places – even outer space (think Red Bull campaigns as well as Virgin).
Once a company becomes a major player in the business environment then this is almost a guarantee of that company’s success. The successful ingredients are innovation, quality, motivation and remaining well ahead of the competition.
Today’s big brands are working in a different way. They are:
- Selling things (e.g. EBay)
- Adding to knowledge (e.g. Wikipedia)
- Providing information (e.g. Google)
- Making friends (e.g. Facebook)
Ignore Branding at your Peril
Brands have belonged to farmers, manufacturers, advertisers and organisations for many years but the face of branding is changing considerably largely as a result of the major international usage of the internet to share information, interact with others and buy or sell online.
Related articles.
