IMPORTANCE OF BRANDING TO YOUR BUSINESS
Many people are aware of the business term “branding,” but most don’t know how to define it or why it’s important for any business. In the same way that you wouldn't be able to visualize a $5 million home from a high level, branding is difficult to understand at first glance.
If you struggle with understanding this specific aspect of business, know that you’re not alone. With that in mind, we'll explain what branding is, why it’s important for any business, and why your business needs to incorporate it.
What is branding?
Branding is the process of creating a unique image for your business. It includes developing a brand strategy, identity design (logo and name), website designed, and other brand touchpoints (packaging design, stationery design and interior design).
Branding is important because it helps you stand out from the competition and make sure customers know what they're getting when they buy from you. This can include everything from logos and color schemes, to taglines and slogans, right down to the way your employees interact with customers at trade shows.
Your brand needs to be consistent across all platforms so people can easily recognize it wherever they see it—whether it's on your website or in person at a tradeshow booth!
So, why branding is so important for businesses?
1. Crucial to modern business building
2. Stronger and easier brand recognition
3. Provides trust, value, & authority to your business
4. Easier customer generation and higher sales
6. A well-defined brand will guide advertising and marketing
Crucial to modern business building
Branding is important for business success because it helps you mold your business to be an important addition to the market, not just another noise in a saturated market.
A brand is much more than a logo or tagline. It’s how you want people to perceive you, what they expect from you, and how they feel when interacting with your products or services. When done correctly, branding allows us to develop our disjointed ideas into a cohesive whole that meets the needs of our target audience.
Branding also helps to define your human characteristics to become more relatable. Personality is what makes us human. It's how we connect to each other, and how we decide who our friends are. It's also how we decide what brands we like and what products we buy.
Brands have personalities too—and modern brands are not utilizing the power of embodying specific characteristics to appeal to certain audiences. Find out your brand’s personality with our free 2-minute quiz that will show you your brand characteristics and how you can use that in the way you do business.
Stronger and easier brand recognition
Brands help you stand out from the crowd and provide a distinct identity, personality, and experience.
Strong brands have a stronger recall in the minds of consumers – they are easily recognizable by consumers who don’t even need to be reminded of them. These brands are therefore considered more trustworthy than others that may offer similar products or services in the marketplace but don’t have strong brand recognition.
Consumers choose brands that gave a positive first impression to them; this means that 95% of our buying decision happens in our subconscious reptilian and limbic brain. The first few seconds when we see a product advertised are crucial because this is the limited time where we decide if we want to know more about that brand or not. Consumers have a short attention span and if they don't find your brand credible then, they'll move on to the next option.
Provides trust, value, & authority to your business
It is important for the consumer to trust in your brand because when they trust in you, they will be more willing to purchase from you and recommend it to others.
Branding helps build up your brand value. Wellness businesses need their audience to trust them so they can also trust them with their health. For example, if you're selling health supplements or skincare products then branding helps build authority for the product's quality, efficacy & safety standards. It also builds credibility which increases sales conversions and improves customer retention rates because your audience knows that what you say is true when it comes from an expert like yourself who has gone through extensive research before launching your brand into the marketplace!
Branding is important because customers want to know that they can trust what you do and who you are. If a customer trusts your business then they will buy from you again because they know that their needs will be met on every occasion.
Easier customer generation and higher sales
Branding helps your consumers know what to expect by making your products easy to choose from. If you want to stand out from the crowd and attract more customers, then branding is going to be your best bet. It helps people recognize and identify with the company’s identity and goals.
A strong brand identity helps build customer loyalty and ultimately leads to repeat business for your company. In order for that to happen, you need to put some time and effort into building up your brand value through:
Creating a strong visual impression with identity design;
Aesthetically pleasing website;
Clear messaging that resonates emotionally with audiences;
Consistency across all communication channels (website, social media posts).
Helps save money and time
One of the biggest advantages of having a well-defined brand is that it helps save money.
Without a solid foundation, everything that follows is a lot of guesswork, trial and error, and could be very costly. A good brand will allow you to make better decisions because you’re not wasting time and effort on things that won’t help achieve your goals or reinforce your message.
By getting clear on who you are as a company, what makes you different from others in your industry and why people should care about those things—you can avoid costly mistakes such as trying to be all things to all people or attempting to appeal to everyone in your market by being bland and boring.
Your clear vision will also help guide all marketing activities so they fit seamlessly into the larger story we want everyone outside our company (and even inside) to hear about our business! This means less backtracking when it comes time for new initiatives or product launches because we won't have wasted resources trying out ideas that didn't work out before.
Want to jumpstart your branding? Download our free branding workbook to get started on defining your target market.
FREE E-COMMERCE BRANDING WORKBOOK
Easy but effective exercises to kickstart your branding now with the right foundations.
A well-defined brand will guide advertising and marketing
You’re probably thinking, “But branding is important for the long term. I want to focus on sales and marketing now!”
You’re right! Branding can help you drive sales and marketing in the long run. A well-defined brand will guide your advertising and marketing efforts so that they are consistent with your business’s vision and values. That said, there are plenty of short-term benefits from a strong brand that you should be enjoying now:
Higher conversion rates – When a customer looks at an ad that speaks to their goals and depicts their personality, they are more likely to buy from you than from competitors who fail to meet their needs effectively.
Lower costs – With a clear picture of what success looks like for your business, it will be easier (and cheaper) to implement the right strategies and tactics that achieve those goals.
Branding helps hone the message of that marketing activity and gives it a unique personality. Without branding, your marketing efforts will be less effective and less memorable.
To sum it up, branding is a crucial stepping stone to any business's success, it doesn't matter if you're a large company or a small business. A well-defined brand will give your company a big advantage in an increasingly competitive and internet-driven business world. You'll find that implementing a strong branding will help you define your target audience, creates a consistent look and feel online and off, differentiate yourself from your competitors, set and achieve measurable goals, maintain a consistent message across all channels, and ultimately increase your sales.
Redd Creatives can help your business be a standout brand that will put you in the limelight in your niche. We are a branding agency specializing in developing purpose-driven and stand-out lifestyle brands through strategic branding.
Whether starting from scratch or scaling your business, we will work with you to strategize and design the best roadmap for success to reach your vision and goals. Contact Redd Creatives here to have a free consultation call.
AUTHOR - GHIAN RED of REDD CREATIVES
BRAND DESIGNER & STRATEGIST
A branding expert who is passionately focused on transforming wellness businesses through effective strategy and experiences. Working with global, small to large businesses, she makes sure that each detail and decision is carefully made to ensure each clients’ success to grow and scale their brand with ease and clarity.
