First of all, what is branding?
When you ask people “What’s branding?”, the usual answers you get are logos, fonts or colours. These are not wrong answers, but they are incomplete because it’s practically impossible to list everything that a brand is because a brand is everything.
If we imagine a brand as if it was a person… The face would be the logo, and the clothes would be the colours and the fonts. But a person is more than a face and how they dress. They have feelings, friends and a way of speaking and writing, to name but a few. They also grow and get more intelligent and experienced as life goes on. Now bring this simile to branding, and you will see that branding is the logo, the fonts or the colours, but also the tone of voice or the business values. You could even say your clients are part of the brand since they engage with it.
So, what is branding? It’s all to do with the personality and emotional connection between your company or product and your customers, so they can recognise it and interact with it. A good brand should be as unique as possible and talk to the right audiences (their high-value customers). That’s why it is essential to understand the audiences that you want to engage with and to keep a close eye on how these individuals evolve. So remember that like a person’s life, it’s an ongoing process that changes depending on the circumstances. It is crucial to understand branding is not the goal but a tool to connect to your customers and needs to be aligned with your business.
Why is it so important?
As mentioned above your brand will give recognition and makes you memorable, which will enable you to connect with your current clients, and it will also establish trust and context to potential customers who will see you as a professional business. It then translates or should translate to sales. So here it’s an important reason: money.
Branding will make you stand out from your competitors. Without a brand there isn’t much that can differentiate you from the competition, so this is how you tell your audience ‘I’m here, and I’m unique’.
Internally a brand adds great value to your company, especially financial value, as it will give you a a better evaluation by looking professional and well established. It will also give you focus when it comes to business direction. Another internal advantage is that it will inspire your employees making them proud to be part of this brand.
Branding doesn’t need to cost you millions. You can start small, having some basic well designed to start with and then keep building upon it depending on your business needs. This way you will have a coherent and consistent look and feel. Which means that when someone sees your business card, they will automatically remember that this is the same company they saw on a TV ad. Just remember branding is a never never-ending and it will grow and evolve together with your company.
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