Branding – Greater than the sum of the parts
“It’s just a logo” No!
‘Branding’ represents the personality of your business. It is a vital marketing tool to leverage customer decisions. It becomes recognised by your customers. It represents what your business stands for and gives them confidence in their loyalty.
A strong brand stirs customer emotions, both positively and negatively! By establishing an overall format for the way that your brand is displayed in the media over a period of time, your campaigns gain momentum and recognition. https://tinyurl.com/2zp6fj82
A brand framework for advertisements proclaims to your market on a regular basis that you are the ‘go-to’ supplier for their needs, a knowledgable and experienced provider – and in return, your customers gain confidence in your service and products.
However, behave badly under your brand or provide a poor experience and it can also create animosity and rejection – a double-edged sword.
Because a brand appeals to the emotions it instantly, subliminally, affects the behaviour of potential customers by attracting – or repelling them.
Used well, it is an opportunity to engage customers at this instinctive level and to immediately gain their confidence and affect the longer-term relationship that they have with your company where your brand influences their default choice.
Less perceived risk or value-for-money, if the experience is good – rejection and counter-productive publicity, if a brand behaves badly or provides a poor design or service.
A brand can, over years of honing, create loyalty and an emotional bond with your customer. It encourages tribal instincts and passion. Football clubs and supermarkets really understand this.
And ultimately, customers become your salespeople. Emotional attachment to a particular Brand creates a unique connection with customers that cannot be replicated by competitors.
Your brand guidelines and framework, once established, makes it is so much easier and economic to generate new material that falls within your brand template. A designer, when part of the marketing team, provides that consistency and economy of production.
A brand’s Guidelines provide a framework and a policy within which to easily and economically develop new materials. This ensures consistency of presentation and immediate customer recognition across the ‘marketing mix’, empowering the brand image and lowering marketing expenses because of the established templates.
And remember, a great brand is also recognised by your staff as banner under which they perform and behave as a tribe, encouraging teamwork and pride in their work.
See our work with GSK: https://tinyurl.com/yr2hhus8
and Bellavita https://tinyurl.com/ymcp3628
Credibility. Clarity. Consistency.
And ultimately, the Value of the Brand carries weight as valuable market asset at company sale time. Sell the company – you will attract buyers wanting to buy the brand because you are providing ready-made customers and their loyalty.
