Branding is an aspect of marketing in which your brand creates a name, logo and design with which it is to be identified. It is a powerful tool and has significant scale benefits on a business’ future.
Branding helps a company become more recognisable and its reliability in the market increases.
This compels new customers to try your product and existing ones to keep coming back. As the most competent workforce wants to work for the most prominent names, having a well-known brand helps you hire the most talented employees. All these factors help the business gain long-term profits.
If you are a business owner trying to make your company into a household brand, here are some of the key elements you should not miss:
Brand Name and Logo
Think of any famous brand. The first thing to pop into your mind is its name. In close second would be the brand’s logo. This is true of eCommerce branding as well as brick-and-mortar store branding. In essence, these two things work hand in hand as a brand’s face- its first impression.
As with most first impressions, they are often the last. If a brand does not have a catchy name or a professional logo with mass appeal, it can never compete with brands that do.
Choosing the brand name may seem like a rather innocuous and straightforward task; however, the right amount of effort needs to be put in. Intense brainstorming is required, and several dozen names may be thought of and rejected before the right fit is found.
Ideally, the brand name you choose needs to in some way, relate to your business. It needs to be short and easy to say. A two-syllable word is the most common practice.
The brand logo should be a clean and straightforward design. The colours need to be unique but not too bright. 2 to 3 colours should be used at a maximum.
In short, the logo should not be an ostentatious, rainbow-coloured eyesore. Colour in web design and branding should be clean, clear and recognisable to your business and reflect the core values, as well as the target audience.
It should also have a unique font, one that isn’t commonly used by other brands. Some brands, such as Coca Cola have gone too far to create their font for their brand logo. The logo should be recognizable from any angle regardless of its size.
Also, note that the logo should be designed keeping the product and its category in mind, as well as the branding.
For example, if the logo will be put on a shoe, it needs to look good on one. Remember that the end goal is to make the logo memorable yet unique, and yes, some exceptions could be made to the rules mentioned above.
Brand Story and Identity
A good brand needs a good story- how you hope to make an impact on the world. This is a short history of your inception and a clear set of goals you hope to achieve.
In this regard, it is best to draw from the truth as it is probable to be a unique and relatable story. A brand with clear motives and ambitions is more likely to catch on with the public. If they love your vision, there is a higher chance of them being more biased towards your product.
Now obviously, a large proportion of customers never bother to go into an in-depth story about a brand.
This is why your brand needs a good mission statement- a motto of sorts. This motto is, in fact, a summary of what the brand stands for. If the brand name and logo are number one and two on our list, the brand statement is number three in terms of importance.
A good example is Adidas, with their iconic three stripe logo and their motto “Impossible is Nothing.”
Brand Values
Brand values are the set of values your brand hopes to uphold in conducting the business. Values are a core component of what makes a brand, especially in the world of today. Customers want to know what a brand stands for. They want to see where the money they pay to a business goes.
Customers are rarely going to buy into a brand if they inherently disagree with their beliefs.
Brands are expected to take stances on specific issues to stand out. For example, a lot of them have gone ‘green’ over the past decade to show customers they support a clean environment. Another way is to donate to charities that the consumers can appreciate. Some like Nike, have even gone out on a limb and taken strong stances on controversial political and social issues.
Brand Marketing and Positioning
How the public views a brand defines its trajectory. And how the open views a brand can be swayed with smart marketing.
A lot of tried and tested methods are available for marketing at present. They include simple television advertisements, social media marketing, the use of SEO and even subliminal messaging in the form of product placement.
Another excellent method for enhancing a brand image is through endorsements.
Modern-Day marketing success is the headphone and speaker company Beats by Dre. They have used the methods mentioned above so well that they are miles ahead of the competition in terms of brand image.
Product Quality
The single most crucial aspect of branding and the pillar upon which it will be based is your product’s quality.
You can do all the above, and it wouldn’t count for much if you don’t have the products and services to match. Customers expect a certain standard; otherwise, they will never be loyal to your brand.
For example, an online leather jacket store must first make sure that their jackets are up to a good standard before investing in building their brand into a household name.
Conclusion
Branding may seem like a daunting task given that so many brands already exist in the space, you are looking to explore.
However, if done correctly, starting from the product quality and working up, it can surely excel. Remember it is a step by step process, and it does take time. No great brand was built overnight.
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