History tells us that even the pioneers with the most innovative products will find themselves in competition with cheaper copycats. It is imperative to differentiate your successful reliable company from new knock-offs.
In this blog, we will discuss the key information about branding, as well as some tips to make your branding more efficient.
What is Branding?
Branding might be a broad concept, but it refers to the process of creating a unique identity for a brand. It can give meaning to a product, service or organisation by shaping the consumer’s perception of a brand.
Branding is not just about the visual identity, such as logo, design, and packaging, it is also the brand personality. These aspects help consumers to know what to expect from your company and set it apart from the many competitors.
Why is branding important?
Your brand is one of your company’s most important assets. A strong brand helps make a memorable impression on customers and benefits the company greatly. It builds trust and loyalty and creates an emotional connection, making it easier to attract customers.
Benefits of branding
Brand identity
When you build a strong brand, you also improve the brand identity and personality. This comes with using all the visual design elements, including a logo, its colour palette, and typography. Setting a brand’s voice and tone will help your brand represent its mission, values and vision which is proven to improve customer relationships and business. Giving an identity to your brand that resonates with your target audience also creates awareness of the products or services, setting you aside from the competitors.
Brand Loyalty
Another important benefit of branding is brand loyalty. This term refers to when customers make repeat purchases from the same brand, even if the competitors offer similar products or services.
Brand loyalty is the result of customers associating a brand with positive emotions. Though branding is crucial in maintaining customer loyalty, it is also vital to maintain good quality. No branding can compensate for a bad product.
Brand recognition
Brand recognition refers to how well the customers recognise a brand without seeing its name, so it needs to be easily identifiable by only seeing its logo, packaging and colours, or by only hearing its tagline or jingle.
For example, following brand research, Nike discovered that their iconic swoosh was more important to their branding than the actual name “Nike”. Because of this, they were able to simplify much of their branding, removing the name from many of their products.
Where to improve branding
To create a stronger and more impactful brand identity, there are a lot of branding fields that can be constantly improved, the first one is the logo.
Logo
A good logo should be easily recognisable, so we advise that you opt for something simple that is not hard to reproduce. It must align with the target audience and the brand’s values. Finally, it is important to test it on different scales to make sure it remains clear, whether it is on a business card or a billboard.
Slogan
Having a clear slogan that can transmit the brand’s message in a couple of words is crucial as it has the power to evoke an emotional connection to the brand, and stick in the customer’s mind. It should align with the target audience and be short and straight to the point.
Design
The colours used in the design play a big role in branding, and each colour creates different emotions in the customer’s mind. For example, green can represent nature and sustainability, red can convey passion or hunger, and finally blue can represent trust and peace. You might notice many banks utilise blue in their branding, while many food brands use red and yellows. Do not underestimate the power of colour in your brand.
As well as making sure your brand’s colours align with the messaging, you should use your brand elements consistently across all channels, including social media, website and packaging. This creates cohesion across channels which in turn increases memorability and brand impact.
In-person presence
Having a strong in-person presence is key to improving your branding. Attending trade shows allows you to put a face to your brand, which will make customers trust you more and increase your credibility. Make sure to attend trade shows that are cohesive with your brand as this will help you connect with new potential clients.
Having a high-impact exhibition stand is imperative if you want to make a great in-person presence. Quadrant2Design, an exhibition stand designer located in Poole, might be the perfect fit for you. Creating a custom-modular, reusable stand that showcases your branding and makes your brand stand out in a busy exhibition hall is at the heart of what they do.
Conclusion
To conclude, if you want your brand to succeed, having strong branding is the key. It will foster trust, and loyalty and make you stand out from competitors.
Working to improve design aspects such as logo and slogan, as well as having a strong in-person presence will help you create a strong emotional connection with customers, ensuring that your brand stays relevant.
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