Branding
For those in the consumer-oriented business, especially in the service industry, the answer to the question may seem obvious. A brand is a trademark, a trademark. Accordingly, branding as a process is the creation of a brand, its development. So in modern marketing they call a set of measures and actions aimed at creating a sustainable image – associations, product image, meaning and emotional implication of a product, service or company as a whole.
What is branding for?
In today’s world, we come across brands every day. Many intuitively understand what it is and why it is needed. This also applies to ordinary consumers – the target audience.
Branding in general serves the purposes of:
- Increase awareness and reach;
- Strengthening differences from competitors with identical products and offers;
- Increasing loyalty and expanding the base of regular customers;
- Increase in the price of goods and services due to additional value: positive associations, emotions, confidence in the special quality of the product, its status, or other image advantages.
Despite the fact that the brand itself is not a material product, but rather an intellectual one, its influence on the surrounding reality is quite tangible. Think of that when thinking about changing your phone or clothing to the brand that most often catches your eye in ads. Most likely, the urge will not be expedient, but impulsive.
This is how branding differs from a trademark or corporate identity. Trademark is more of a formal side of the issue. A registered trademark used in documents, on labels and in advertisements, protected by copyright. The corporate identity serves to individualize the product in the visual aspect – these are the graphic solutions that make it recognizable. All this has to do with the brand, which, among other things, is expressed through these aspects, but the brand itself is rather an emotional-associative concept and even a philosophy. This is what the consumer feels when he mentions a brand, models, when he sees its identity. Customers’ opinions, perceptions, and trust are all represented in some way by a brand. In order to correctly build a branding strategy at the initial stages, it would be a good idea to use the services of a startup branding agency.
Branding goals include not only capturing the attention of the end consumer-individual, it also works great in the B2B segment.
Types
There are several types of branding.
Commodity
In this case, we are talking about creating the image and reputation of a physical product, such as, for example, Coca-cola drink – one of the strongest brands in the foreseeable history of marketing. Everyone knows it’s a great solvent and cleaner, but massive advertising campaigns work skillfully. Billions of people associate the products of the company of the same name with a festive feast.
Service
At a stretch, it can be said that it is more difficult for a consumer to decide among services, since a number of goods can still be evaluated or tested to some extent before purchasing. Although some services also include a trial period, so it is not so simple. This is the basis for the promotion of many services in order to reduce the threshold for customers to enter. However, if the test is not available, branding is offset by aggressive advertising campaigns.
A specific aura of trust is created for a service product through visual means and cross-promotion – that is, cooperation with other brands. For example, it is not easy to evaluate the services of airlines without buying a ticket and boarding the plane. Therefore, airlines strive to stimulate associations with increased comfort and safety in the audience through special visual materials. Joint projects are being launched, such as accumulating air miles through the use of cards from partner banks. If your business needs a good front-end solution – click here.
Internal branding
Many CEOs and top managers of companies, paying close attention to external branding and finding ways to stand out from competitors, underestimate the importance of branding within the company itself. That is, improving its image among employees in offices, at production sites, in training materials and in work regulations.
This raises a lot in common with the concept of corporate culture. Employees of many companies, according to managers, must share the values and philosophy of the brand. It is advisable to be personally loyal to him – to purchase the company’s goods or use its services. But the most important thing is to implement and follow in practice the principles that the brand declares and through which it positions itself.
