BRANDING?

BRANDING?

Today’s over saturated world of too much choice and too little time, the competition for a customer’s attention and wallet is fierce. Most products are similar in features and quality, making it hard to convince consumers to try buys and re-buy. Yet, in spite of the odds, there are some companies that do inspire loyalty beyond reason. Passionate and emotionally driven, this type of loyalty is triggered by one main thing BRANDING. But what is branding, really? And why is it so important?

Branding is all of the ways you establish an image of your company in your customers’ eyes.

By building a website that describes what you offer, designing ads that promote your goods and services, selecting specific corporate colors that will be associated with your company, creating a logo, and featuring it across all your social media accounts, you are branding your company. That is, you are shaping how and what people’s perceptions of your business are. In a nutshell, your brand is the set of perceptions people have about your company. It is a carefully curated emotional expression of your value that lives in people’s hearts and minds. Branding is the set of actions you take to cultivate your brand. When done right, branding becomes a beautiful symphony of design, language and experience, all combining to cultivate a very specific feeling. An archetype of “gut feeling” branding is Apple, arguably the most successful brand in the world.

If your business does not yet have a consistent brand, or you don’t like what your brand currently stands for, it’s time to rebrand. Here are some steps to take to shape public perception for the better

•       Identify what your customers love most about your business. What makes yours stand out? What are your strengths?
•          Create a brand message that conveys what your business aims to do for its customers, what you’re best at.
•      Make sure your visual elements match your message, and your brand. If you’re promising innovation, don’t use grays and boring images.
•     Develop standards for employee dress and behavior that support your brand promise. Make sure they understand what your brand is and can support it. 
•       Apply your visuals across every marketing tool you use, from advertising to signage to store displays to mailings to shopping bags.

Branding is a complex process, mainly because its success or failure is determined by your customers’ reactions to the act of doing business with you.