why is branding important?_
Branding is important for any business, especially a business which relies on word of mouth, a target audience or is an online company. What is your brand? Basically, it’s the part of your business that the public can see. That covers a lot. Including customer service, advertising, public relations and product design.
It’s easy to underestimate the value of branding. Surely if you make high quality products and services, then your company will naturally get a good reputation? I’d love for that to be the case, but unfortunately it doesn’t always work out that way. Sometimes customer reviews, even fake ones, can damage your company’s reputation. And besides, other companies that focus on their branding will outcompete you unless you have a countervailing strategy.
Here are some of the reasons why branding is important in helping your company succeed:
Improved Recognition
Branding gets your name out there. It’s undeniable that how customers view your company, the impressions they make, determines whether or not they’ll pay attention to your offers, recommend you to their friends, comment about your brand on social media. If people see you more often, they’re more likely to have a lasting recognition of you. People trust brands that they recognise, which is important when making the decision of which company to use. They could connect seeing your shop or product to a catchy jingle, a popular logo, or a well known slogan.
Building Trust
Having a strong reputation for consistency and reliability is central to helping customers to trust your company. Branding is essential to building a reputation of reliability, by telling people about your company’s track record, how many people have been served, what your awards and review scores are, the care and professionalism with which your employees do their jobs. Through advertising, your company’s record can be displayed for people to see. But you can also increase trust through having a polished, professional-looking brand. A company that is professional cares about whether or not it looks professional.
Advertising Opportunities
Advertising is an essential part of branding. It’s the part that actively tries to persuade customers to buy your products. You should think about the medium of advertising you’re using as well as the audience you’re targeting. These two areas of consideration will be different for different markets: if for example you’re targeting millennials then consider advertising on mobile devices. If you’re selling running shoes, then target people who run. If you focus too narrowly on a particular audience or medium, then you can get pigeon-holed: people only know you as part of a particular market, and it can be difficult to break out into new markets or diversify. But if you set your focus too broad and don’t set priorities in terms of media or demographics, you’ll fail to make a clear impression and the company will not distinguish itself in any respect.
Financial Worth
Branding adds to the financial value of a company. This added value is known as brand equity. Having a strong brand unlocks opportunities, to be able to receive outside investment or experiment with a new product line. Companies with strong branding can better weather the unexpected such as financial downturns or technological disruption. So branding shouldn’t be seen just as a necessary cost but also as a positive asset.
Company Inspiration
Having a brand can improve employee motivation and satisfaction in several ways. It can help them to identify as a part of the company, and associate with its values and goals. It can bring them a sense of achievement if they helped to create the brand, whether they were involved directly in marketing or engaged in any face-fronting work that helped build a good customer impression, all employees can share in both the responsibility and sense of accomplishment of creating a brand.
New Customers
Getting new customers is important, in terms of extending your reach to new audiences, finding buyers for new products and building a community of customers from whom you can get feedback. Branding helps to create customers through word of mouth and generating interest through popular campaigns.
