3 Tactful Ways Branding Will Improve Your Marketing and Business Efforts

“Branding is the art of aligning what you want people to think about your company with what people actually do think about your company.” – Jay Baer

Branding is like attaching a friendly face to you business; it’s giving it an identity. When you’re successful in your branding, you create a distinct and unique name and image for it that makes it more memorable and easy for your audience to remember you by.

In essence, you gain more awareness and consistency in the marketplace, giving you leverage over your competitors. It allows you to present yourself as a well-rounded establishment that your customers can trust, fortifying your relationship with them while increasing the odds of making a sale.

The Many Benefits of Branding

Branding comes in all shapes and sizes. It can be creating a memorable logo and a tagline to go with it, updating your color scheme, or choosing a typography that matches your Brand’s personality. Companies such as Quality Logo Products offer a variety of products that can be easily customized and adapted to fit your brand. The gist is that there’s a lot you can do to further your branding, and doing so will incur a variety of benefits.

For example, some ways branding can help you out are:

#1: Increased Recognition and Loyalty

The first benefit that comes with branding your business is increased recognition and, with it, more loyalty. Think of this like you would any interpersonal relationship; you’re more likely to remember and like someone if you can attach a face to them.

Branding also functions to keep you in the mind of the consumer. You want them to think of you when they see products and services similar to the ones that you offer. To illustrate how this will benefit you, let’s go through a thought experiment in which you’re a branded potato chip producer:

1. After an afternoon spent playing video games and watching movies, Johnny realizes that he’s hungry and would absolutely love a grilled cheese sandwich.
2. Johnny realizes that he’s out of both bread and cheese — a doubly bad scenario — and decides to go to the grocery shop in the corner to buy the necessary ingredients.
3. As he walks around the store, Johnny’s stomach growls and he comes to realization that he simply cannot wait one more minute to eat.
4. Lucky for Johnny, he’s standing in the snack aisle, completely surrounded by chips, cookies and candy. Because he’s still craving something salty, he decides on chips, the epitome of a salty snack.
5. Upon reaching the chips section of the snack aisle, Johnny immediately spots your Brand amongst the bunch (thanks to your branding efforts).
6. Being so hungry that he can’t wait any more, Johnny immediately rips into the bag, devours its contents, and heads to the checkout register with a big smile on his face (a qualifier because he’s an honest shopper, Johnny pays for everything, including the chips that he already ate).
7. Bonus: Johnny heads home, starts preparing the grilled cheese sandwich, and stops midway because your potato chips satisfied his hunger.

The same line of thinking that led Johnny to choose your potato chips comes into effect when someone makes an impulse purchase — they want something right then and there, and because they’re familiar with your Brand, they choose you, the trustworthy option.

#2: Better Brand Image

A very good byproduct of branding is that it projects the image of a bigger and more established business that provides better quality products and services. For example, let’s go over two scenarios involving soda.

First, imagine offering random person A (RPA) two different options for a cola drink. Option 1 is Coca-Cola and option 2 is a store brand, generic cola drink. Now imagine a second scenario in which you offer random person B (RPB) three different options for a cola drink. Option 1 is Coca-Cola, option 2 is Pepsi, and option 3 is a store brand, generic cola drink.

Which cola drink will each person choose? Well, under the assumption that both people are average consumers, RPA will choose Coca-Cola and RPB will choose either Coca-Cola or Pepsi, depending on how each has branded themselves in RPB’s eyes. The breakdown comes to this: branded products are seen as more reliable and trustworthy than their non-branded counterparts. Simple as that.

As such, RBA chose Coca-Cola because he knows the Coca-Cola brand more than a generic one (it even has ‘generic’ in the name), and RBB will choose between Pepsi and Coke for the same reason, except that further knowledge of each Brand and specific preferences will come into play when when choosing between them.

#3: Increased Revenue

And of course, branding can lead to more money in the bank. By differentiating from others and setting yourself apart, you’re essentially opening up the avenue for a premium price for your branded products or services. This is the same mentality that leads countless millions of people to purchase one product over another, even though both items are exactly the same in terms of ingredients and function.

The thing is, the more that people know you, the more likely they are to give you their business at a higher price. They’ll start believing that your services are better than those of others, increasing your Brand’s value in their eyes. Similar to our previous scenario with RPA and RPB, the fact that generic products are usually cheaper than branded products makes little difference when choosing what to buy.

If people believe that buying a branded product will lead to a better experience, then why would they go for an unbranded one? Choosing an unbranded option could lead to a waste of money if you’re not satisfied with what you bought, effectively eliminating the positive of saving money from buying a cheaper option.

Final Thoughts

“A Brand is the set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another.” – Seth Godin

For good branding, you must understand your audience. Your goal is to create a Brand they trust; one that they’ll keep coming back to. Once you do, you’ll benefit from:

• Increased Brand recognition and more loyalty
• A better Brand image
• Increased revenue

Best of luck branding!

About the Author!

Matthew is a creative content writer for Aumcore, a digital marketing agency based in NYC. He first jumped into the scene with digital sales and has since migrated to the marketing sector, he has a passion for marketing and all things digital, and he specializes in Brand Identity Services.