If you are an entrepreneur and sell products and services in a competitive market, you would know how challenging it is to attract and retain customers. Customers in the present decade have a plethora of alternatives to choose from, and this is what makes the market so competitive. Your challenge is to beat the competition. There is only so much you can do by offering discounts to customers and slowly, even promotional tactics start eating into your budget. So what else can be done to win the favor of your customers and sustain it for a long time? The answer is branding.
The Purpose Of Branding Explained
Take the following example:
Which one of the two bottles are you likely to pick up in a department store? A majority of you would definitely pick the right one because you recognise the brand as Coca-Cola. And what about the left one? That’s just a plain cola without any identity.
This is the power of branding. You may think branding is about creating a logo, a catchphrase and sticking to a colour palette. But it is more than that. Branding gives your product or service a personality and becomes your business’s identity. Just like Coca-Cola did in the above example.
Now that you have understood the purpose of branding, let’s take a look at what branding can help you achieve for your business.
Connect With Your Audience Instantly
Branding is not limited to attractive colours or unique selling points, it is about establishing a deep connection with your audience. This is why brands that participate in community engagement are able to build credibility in the market and also establish a connection with the audience. However, you don’t always have to be involved in community engagement, there are a lot of ways you can connect with your audience. Imagine going into a room full of strangers and coming out with two friends, you can use the same psychology to form a connection with your audience.
Some ways you can develop a connection with your audience is by:
- Being accessible on social media.
- Taking a stand to support your audience in a social cause.
- Recognising your loyal customers and rewarding them for their loyalty.
- Participating in trends.
Developing a bond with your audience is not limited to the list mentioned above. It’s all about exploring your creativity with content and going the extra mile to offer a memorable experience to your audience. Moreover, an audience that resonates with your brand will automatically be inclined toward buying from you. You can take the help of a content marketing agency to help you with establishing a connection with your audience.
Familiarity Brings In New Customers
A brand with a strong and positive reputation can easily attract new customers through word-of-mouth and referrals from friends and family. Strong branding often indicates that consumers have a favourable view of the business and are more inclined to buy from you due to the familiarity and presumed reliability of having a name they can trust. Once a brand is well-established, word of mouth will be the greatest and most successful promotional approach for the organisation.
Secondly, since branding will help you establish your identity in the market, it will become easy for customers to recognise your brand even if it’s surrounded by competitors.
Your Employees Are Happy To Work For You
Always remember that employees are the first line of communication for any brand or business. When an individual works for a powerfully branded firm and genuinely believes in the brand, they will be happy with their employment and take greater pride in their work. Working for a recognised and well-regarded brand makes working for that firm more pleasurable and gratifying.
Moreover, employees who have a positive affiliation with the brand they work for will spread that view to the clients and partners with whom they deal. This may also lead to improved leadership, more engagement, and improved sales.
Branding Gives Your Business A Direction
Highly successful companies have well-defined missions, visions, and values. Large corporations, as well as small businesses, can follow branding principles to stay focused on their mission, whatever that may be – improving customer experience or bringing in innovation.
When your business has a clear vision of its end goal or mission, branding gives it direction. Branding will clear the lines between what is acceptable for your business and what is not and this will help you sustain in the market for a longer period of time.
The topic of branding can never be covered in just one page or a single article. It is a constantly changing subject that encompasses several areas of knowledge, including business management, marketing, advertising, design, and psychology, among others. This is why so many businesses turn to a good digital marketing agency to help with branding, at least for the first couple of years.
We hope this article helped you recognise the purpose and importance of branding for your business.
All the best!
Recent Posts