A brand essentially is a business’ unique identity that makes it stands out in a highly competitive marketplace.
And although every business owner understands the importance of differentiating himself from the competition, many don’t understand the concept of building a brand to gain a competitive advantage.
As Jeff Bezos puts it so appropriately: “Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.” The flip side is that brand building can be highly time-consuming and tedious, requiring much effort, creativity and research.
However, branding benefits are far greater than the costs involved.
Branding creates a powerful and positive image of your company in the consumer’s mind through your products, customer services, and marketing efforts.
Hence, the critical factors you need to consider while building your brand are brand design, its social media presence, your product’s quality and pricing, customer service, taglines and slogans, tone, environment and company culture, messaging, and a constant theme throughout all marketing communications.
8 Amazing Benefits Of Branding For Your Business
Building a reputable brand requires consistent effort and time, but a strong brand would immensely increase your company’s value.
It provides distinct belongingness and motivation to your employees while allowing you to raise prices or launch a new product without worrying about losing your customers. Here’s a list of all the benefits of good branding to your business.
1. Brand Recognition
Brand recognition is when people identify your product merely through the logo, colour or font, even if they are not your customers.
Take the example of Mcdonald’s or Nike, both easily identifiable by their yellow arches or the black swoosh.
Even if a person doesn’t eat at McDonald’s or doesn’t wear Nike shoes, they still can easily recognise the brand anywhere.
Both brands have created this unique identity by consistently promoting the same brand tone throughout their communications, be it products, marketing efforts or any visual assets.
When a brand is easily recognisable, it translates to a higher brand recall, with customers preferring to buy from it more than its competitors.
2. Promotes Customer Loyalty
A loyal customer does not just spend more than the average person on your brand and actively indulges in referring the brand to his peers.
Loyal customers are often the first buyers whenever you launch a new product or service. If you don’t put effort into branding, you won’t have many loyal customers, and your competition may take over a significant portion of the target market.
Customer loyalty also depends on their experience with your brand, i.e., through your products and good customer service. Both need to be impeccable to gain their trust.
A strong brand continuously works towards improving its market presence and takes the necessary steps to grow its fanbase.
3. Promotes Positive Word of Mouth Marketing
The best form of marketing for any brand is through word of mouth. It’s relatively inexpensive and builds trustworthiness and credibility for your brand.
Building a solid brand will help you promote your business’s essential values that your customers can relate to. This, in turn, motivates them to spread the good word about your brand.
Recent stats state that about 75% of customers today evaluate and discover products through online reviews or shared content.
If your branding efforts are lacking, people won’t recognise your brand, even after being recommended on social media or by friends.
4. Increased ROI from Marketing Efforts
Branding improves your company’s marketing effectiveness and increases its ROI. It means the likeliness of a customer buying a product when they see an advertisement by your company.
A well-established brand often sparks curiosity and excitement in the target market, thus increasing their inclination to buy from you than a competitor brand.
On the other hand, if you haven’t worked towards establishing a unique brand identity for your company, even a customer interested in your product will think twice before making the final purchase.
5. Attracts the Right Talent
Have you ever thought about why people prefer working for the brands like Tata, Reliance, Google, etc.? This is because they’ve continuously been branding themselves as reliable, trustworthy, having positive ethos and values, and providing a conducive work environment.
Even if a brand lacks some of these qualities but has an excellent reputation in the industry, the highly skilled workforce would prefer working there. A strong brand boosts employee morale, resulting in higher productivity and eventually high customer satisfaction.
6. Competitor Differentiation
We all have seen constant brand wars between Swiggy, Zomato, or even Burger King and Mcdonald’s. So whenever there’s an interactive meme about food, our first thought goes towards one of these four brands, despite so many others nailing it better in the food industry.
It’s because of their impeccable branding efforts. No matter how many brands pop up in the food delivery or snack industries, these four brands will forever remain in people’s minds and hearts.
7. Better Business Opportunities
Your branding efforts pay you back in the form of customers and better talent acquisition and also help you strengthen business relationships in the industry.
After all, who wouldn’t want to work with a company whose name is well known in the market? Successful branding efforts can help you procure better investments, expand your services globally, and grow your business.
8. Promoting Company Values
Customers can easily relate to the values and motives of a company with a distinct personality. Take the example of Tata; they not only manufacture top-class products and deliver excellent services but also actively contribute toward society’s betterment. The TATA brand is renowned for its fantastic work culture too.
All this rightly gives the impression that your company doesn’t just do business, but considers customers and the society at large a part of their family too. And who wouldn’t like to do business or become a loyal customer of a brand that repeatedly portrays ideal business values and ethics?
Conclusion
As you know, branding has more benefits than just making your business look good. Whether you are a business owner, a brand manager or a marketer, you must know how to implement a good branding strategy for your company’s growth.
Besides the aforementioned branding benefits, you also get free PR from media houses that want to benefit from your company’s reputable brand, become renowned as a gold standard in your industry, and challenge the status quo to set better examples for your enterprise.
Your company’s brand is the most versatile tool you could ever have, and it’s the first thing you need to start working on if you wish to grow your business. To know how to implement a great branding strategy or get expert insights on the topic, check out Curious Owl – the best digital marketing and analytics blog.