As a business owner, branding matters more than just running a business because it’s your identity that sets your business apart from competitors. The relevance of your small business depends on your branding because it gives your customers a clear sense of purpose and well-defined roadmap of the vision of your business. Branding helps your business not only find its voice, but it’s unique selling point which would make your business stand out. Therefore, running a business goes beyond having a plan that focuses on working the numbers; cashflow, revenue, expenses and profit. You can leverage on branding to expand beyond your current size, increase your sales, and enhance your credulity and bottom line. Building a profitable business depends on whether you are building a brand or just a business.
What Is A Brand?
A brand is a way a company, organization, or individual is perceived by those who experience it. It is more than a name, term, design, or symbol; a brand is the recognizable feeling a product or business evokes. It represents your customer’s perception of your business’s customer experience, reputation, advertising and logo. Having a brand shapes your customer’s opinion about your business, whether good or bad, which is why branding should be your priority more than just running a business. It has the power to shape your customer’s reality. This is why companies like Apple spend millions of dollars trying to leverage the ability of branding to shape the reality of their customers and increase sales. In shaping a customer’s reality, it means it influences their behaviour whether to buy or not.
Why Does Branding Matter?
With increased competition, and many businesses trying to be noticed both offline and online, having a brand is a crucial part to having a strong presence as you grow your attention, attract customers, build trust and longevity.
Building a brand helps your business’s recognition: Having a brand is a way to build a strong presence, whether offline and online. This is part where your business logo comes handy since it is the face of your company. Not just your logo, your slogan has to be recognizable and snappy. Maintaining a consistent brand image throughout every interaction a consumer has with your business is one of the ways to develop an easily recognizable brand. It does not matter the niche or size, creating awareness about your business should be at the top of your marketing funnel. If you have a strong brand, you can build a relationship with your customers. Since there are preconceived notions about your company based on the relationship you have with your customers, you have loyal customers who will advocate for your brand.
Creates Trust and Credibility: Branding puts a personality, voice and face to your business. People are more likely to purchase from a business they trust and think is legitimate. Especially now, there are scammers posing as business owners on social media, having the brand that speaks a certain language to your customers is a way to build trust with your customers. To create credibility, create FAQs on your website that provide answers to some of the fears of your customers, or features that reinforces how your business is reputable. Building a brand helps determine how your customers perceive the quality of your services.
Designs a Value System for Business: Branding helps your business relay the underlying message that every single initiative you take is to delight your customers and encourage them to keep coming back to you. Managing and maintaining a brand instead of running a business is a great way to offer value and present the solutions of your brand to your customers. This is something people look for when purchasing a product or subscribing to a service, and with branding, you can position your business and retain as many customers as possible in the long run.
Serves as a Motivation to your Employees: Building a brand rather than just a business, your employees become self-motivated instead of being forced to be inspired. Branding creates a mission and vision statement for your business. If your business is reputable and has what it stands for, it makes working for it more enjoyable and fulfilling than tasking. Having a strong brand creates passion among your employees.
Attracts Customers: Branding is a way to generate customers who find your mission captivating. With a combination of good product, customer experience and perfect branding, your old customers will advocate for your business through word of mouth referrals to help you recruit new customers. If you give your customers a good enough reason to feel strongly about why they should care about your business, you have a better chance at retaining them or expect a second or third visit to your store or website.
Supports your Marketing Efforts: A strong brand makes your marketing efforts easier. It’s to sell a brand than a product; it’s more effective. Your branding messaging helps spread the word about your business while you stand out from the competition. When you have already created an emotional connection with your customers through building a brand, it becomes easy to sell your product; because the bond you have created can trigger an emotion which a customer reacts to by making a purchase.
Building a brand matters more than just a business because you can always leverage on branding as a way to grow your business beyond the normal size. It is the first impression that matters and determines whether a customer wants to come back a second time or how it can keep your employees inspired. When creating a brand make sure it’s memorable and authentic too.