What is Branding?

What is Branding?

Branding is your brand name.

Branding is your company logo.

Branding is the people who work for you.

The list is endless and is more comprehensive than initially thought......

Every company has a name, employees and possibly a logo but these alone don’t make them brands.

Brands are of course influenced by the efforts made by the company to project a certain image to customers through advertising, marketing and PR. However the second half of branding is based on the thoughts and feelings that people associate with the products/ service. If companies can identify these cognitive and affective processes then they will be able to target their customers more effectively and even influence these processes.

Does a good brand bring any benefits?

Creating successful branding for your business can be crucial, especially in hard financial times such as the recent recession.

Having a successful brand provokes loyalty from your customers as they feel a connection with your company and would prefer to continue giving their custom.

Branding makes you memorable in amongst an already crowded market place. Customers can sometimes feel a sense of ‘information overload’ when they enter the market place, a known logo along with an integrated marketing campaign can act as a safety net as they search for something familiar.

Customers associate slick brands with successful and professional businesses. Are you projecting the right image? Your business must have strengths, that is why it succeeds so tell your customers about them.

Branding your product or service is not easy but for this precise reason it is something that is worth doing. By investing both money and time into your brand now you should reap rewards in the future as customers remain loyal to the brand that they know and love. Why not differentiate your brand from others by putting in extra effort to give yours the edge?

Some links you might find useful:

http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/
http://businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/detail?type=RESOURCES&itemId=1073790772
http://identityworks.com/default.htm
http://www.slideshare.net/coolstuff/the-brand-gap
http://www.brandrepublic.com/


Article Written by Carli Smith

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