The Top 5 Reasons To Invest In Your Brand
“Your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room” - Jeff Bezos (Amazon)
Brands are omnipresent - they now penetrate almost every aspect of our life. It is because of this tendency to pervade everywhere that many have come under growing criticism. On average, we are exposed to about 4,000 to 10,000 brands a day, and if that isn’t enough, we live in an era of “almost identical features”, where many products [e.g., mobile phones or bottled water] are offering extremely similar features and benefits. (Martin Zarian, LinkedIn)
The words brand and branding are often thrown about quite liberally, but what do they actually mean?
Brand is a complex phenomenon. According to the American Marketing Association, “a brand is a name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller’s good or service as distinct from those of other sellers.” Furthermore, Forbes suggests that a brand’s identity is more than just what is sold to customers. It’s not even the benefits that it can provide to customers or the results they can expect from experiencing the product or service. A brand identity is something much more personal than just benefits and solutions. It’s who they are; it is a distinct personality and set of promises which are enhanced and delivered through a series of consistent messages, storytelling, and channels. Next, the focus needs to be on language and messaging. Using the same tone, understanding, and perspective throughout written content and communications can evoke the brand feeling required. By consistently using the same language and messaging, an audience will develop their expectations of a brand and resonate more strongly with the business.
As we can see, the art of branding begins with the creation of the holistic symbol that identifies a product, differentiating it from other possibly similar products. However, the concept of branding, whether it is a product, a service, or even an organization, can be swathed with uncertainty and can easily be misunderstood as simply a marketing gimmick.
Quite simply, however, having a clear and defined brand identity in place can pave the way for a consistent and reliable marketing strategy. It helps a company refine their brand focus, thus avoiding any contradictory messages. This is very positive news as once an organization strays away from its core brand, customers can quickly start to lose faith and turn to other, more strongly perceived brands.
Branding, when done correctly, is one of the best investments an organization can make – particularly if it is experiencing a period of stagnant growth, dwindling profits, or finds itself operating during a pandemic. To succeed in an ever more complex world, it is important for all companies that their intended customers know about them, and have strong, positive, and unique associations with them. What makes some businesses hesitant about making that investment is that they can’t always draw direct correlations between investment and return. While that may be true, it can still be argued that you can’t put a price on developing an authentic brand: the returns aren’t just financial, especially over the longer term. Investing in a brand is a long-term strategy that can yield long-term rewards. Look at brands such as Coca-Cola, Apple, or Amazon - they are built over time, step by step. They focus on customer satisfaction, empowerment, and support to gain, but most importantly, retain customer loyalty and trust.
Why it is that a company should invest in their brand and what are the core benefits of doing so? Here are the top five reasons.
1. Build Brand Recognition
People are more likely to buy from brands that they already know or have experience with. Investing in branding allows an organization to build a consistent and recognizable brand across all their channels and touchpoints. What’s more, standing out is where a strong brand shines at its brightest. While marketing and paid promotions can help a company or product get noticed in the short term, building a strong bond with customers through a powerful brand will help a business expand sustainably and consistently.
When you invest in a brand, rather than just a product or campaign, a company is giving an audience a long-term connection with their business. This means they will have a pre-set group of interested buyers each time they introduce something new.
Additionally, a bold, and reliable brand identity will increase the effectiveness of a company’s overall marketing strategy as all efforts are seamlessly integrated, creating engaging, innovative, and well-executed campaigns that generate interest and return.
2. Build Trust
Trust is something an organization must earn, but if customers do not trust an organization or brand, they simply will not buy from them. Branding can help allay the concerns of any potential customers; every time a customer buys a product or service, they subconsciously form a perception of that product/service brand. This influences whether they will become a repeat customer or not. Consistent messaging is one way to build trust and ensure regular customers.
3. Command A Premium Price
Customers who value a brand will pay a premium for that brand. When there is a powerful brand attached to products or services, customers will know they’re getting a quality item and will be willing to pay higher prices. Not only will they pay a premium, but they’ll be faster to buy. Thus, customer behavior has been deemed one of the most important factors when it comes to a company’s performance commercially, but it also has a direct impact on how the brand is perceived. Therefore, it is the brands that resonate most with customers that are also the ones that can justify their worth whilst commanding a higher price for their products or services.
4. Close More Sales
Would you as a customer buy from a brand that is dated and lackluster or a brand that is fresh, bold, and exciting?
Brands that are current and well-defined are easier to sell because they have a persuasive narrative laced into every part of their brand. They are transparent, appealing, and likeable, all of which give them a position of superiority. This means that in the case of B2B brands, much of the work has been done by the sales team. The branding has given them a significant advantage, and in many cases, customers come looking for the brand rather than the salesperson actively looking for customers.
5. Create Positive Brand Equity
The perception of a brand will determine the behavior of customers, which in turn determines the way that a brand performs financially. The time and money that is invested into a brand and branding strategy will build brand equity. This will boost the value of the business meaning that if the time comes to sell – the brand itself is a valuable asset.
We can also see that positive brand equity achieves the following:
• Increases the profit margin per consumer
• Skyrockets the sales volumes
• Gravitates consumers towards the brands
• Helps charge higher prices than the competitors
In an age where consumers are bombarded with targeted advertising messages when even our smartphones are thought to be eavesdropping on us, brands that convey authentic meaning gain the upper hand over their competitors.
The branding of a business should not be viewed as yet another cost against the marketing budget rather it should be treated as an investment. An investment, which, if nurtured correctly has the potential to yield exponential returns throughout the life of a business.
To truly get the most out of the investment, a company needs to focus on building a brand – not just selling a product. To bring consistent branding throughout the various channels, the starting point is the visual brand identity; the selection of colors, a logo and other visual standards that help an audience identify when something belongs to a particular company.
Good branding is a journey that, when done correctly, will generate long-term gains; for this consistency is key. Remember, just because it is a non-financial metric, it does not mean that branding cannot impact a company’s bottom line.