The only way to be different is to stand out.
Think about it. When you see a laptop with a shiny silver apple on it, or a runner with a black checkmark, you most likely instantly think, “Apple.” “Nike.”
Branding gives businesses the chance to create something memorable, something different compared to what already exists in the market.
While many people think that branding stops at deciding on a logo and font, it actually goes beyond design pieces. Branding includes everything from a businesses’ colors and slogans, to mission and vision statements. All of the choices you make about your brand will ultimately set your customer’s expectations and perceptions.
That being said, it’s essential to curate an exceptional brand experience for your audience so that you can secure repeat buyers, and reap the benefits of other competitive advantages.
1) It creates a consistent brand experience
Once you have a solid brand in place, the experience you offer your customers, and prospective customers, becomes consistent and cohesive. Important assets such as brand guidelines, logos, and brand messaging, should all lead your marketing and design team in a unified direction when creating and implementing external assets.
Additionally, when the brand experience becomes consistent, your business becomes dependable in the eyes of a buyer. If your social media voice is wildly different than the voice you use on your packaging, you’re instantly sending mixed signals.
Would you buy from a business that is constantly changing its brand voice and values, or a brand that sticks to the same values and persona they have embraced since day one? Or a business that continues to fail when delivering on its products and services?
“55% of consumers are willing to pay more for a guaranteed good experience.” - Esteban Kolskey, Huffpost
This isn’t to say that a business can’t evolve and change its branding approach as the years go by. This can absolutely be an appropriate business decision when it has been well researched and executed correctly.
2) It makes you unique
Digital marketing is alive and booming, and it’s only growing more and more powerful. In 2019, the various avenues where you can advertise and market your business are truly endless. Gone are the days of spending a ridiculous amount of money to place a large ad on a billboard in hopes that people will pay attention to it as they drive by.
Now more than ever before is the time where branding can serve as a powerful tool to ensure your business is perceived as unique. The internet is saturated with every type of product and service imaginable.
Take the time to build out a solid branding strategy that ensures people pay attention to you online, rather than your competition.
3) It reinforces brand recognition
Did you know it takes more than four encounters with your brand for people to finally begin to remember and recognize it? Without a solid brand strategy in place, you’re actually missing out on acquainting people with who you are and what you do.
Beyond things such as distinctive company name, as we’ve already mentioned in this blog post, it’s essential to develop other branding pieces to make sure you’re building that recognition in the marketplace.
“Most of the time, brand recognition strategies are focused on keeping your company in the eyes and minds of your customers at all times. That means creating a consistent visual and verbal strategy, ensuring that you’re on the right social media platforms, and making efforts to improve your marketing reach.” - Steve Harvey, Fabrik
If prospective customers don’t know who you are, how can you expect them to trust and buy from you?
4) It creates trust within the marketplace
Think about the last time you went grocery shopping. Did you gravitate towards the same brands you’ve been buying from for months or years?
Most likely. Why?
You probably trust and believe in many of those brands, and you’ve also likely had a good, consistent experience with their products. Maybe you’ve even had a bad experience with a product, but then continued to buy from that same brand because you had an excellent customer service experience in response.
The marketplace is jam packed with so many different products and services, it’s hard to keep track of everything available these days. Due to this, consumers are less and less trusting than ever before.
“Every interaction with your customers has the potential to reinforce or refute their belief that you 'get' them. People want to evolve with a brand whose products and services help give their business or life meaning. They can tell if you’re faking it, and if they doubt you’re sincere, they’ll dump you.” - Rob Danna, Forbes
A solid brand strategy allows you to formulate a brand promise that you can then deliver on and maintain in all customer touch points. When you fail to deliver a solid brand and promise, you will in turn lose that trust.
“Branding is the key to differentiating yourself from the competition, but if you don’t build your brand promise around reality or consistently live up to it, your branding efforts are pointless. Brands are built through the consistent delivery of the brand promise through all stakeholder touch points. It is the consistent, desired experience that builds trust and trust is the foundation for loyalty and promotion.” - William Arruda, Forbes
5) It helps create an emotional connection
When all of the elements of a brand come together, you make room to build an emotional connection between your business and your consumers.
This all starts with humanizing your communication, building a relatable brand mission and promise, and executing your marketing collateral with a beautiful logo, typography and identifiable colors.
Final Notes
The five things we mentioned above are genuine, competitive advantages of a solid brand strategy.
However, it’s important to note that actually building a competitive branding strategy takes a lot of work, research and creativity, as well as a long-term vision for your overall business.
Think about your favorite brands. Does yours measure up?