What is branding & why is it important?

Branding is crucial to so many aspects of your business and indeed your overall success. Yet few people have a clear understanding about what branding is or its far-reaching effects.

What is a brand?

A brand is:

  • Your identity
  • The values your company stands for
  • What you want people to think of your organisation (or indeed you, if you are one person operator)
  • How people perceive your organisation. QUESTION: Do they match?
  • Your logo (typography, colours or icon/marque)
  • Your tagline
  • Your brand imagery
  • Your brand personality / tone of voice

Brand is also

  • Your reputation
  • What your organisation stands for? What you offer in product/service.
  • How you go about your business
  • Your people, their behaviour, your systems, processes etc

So you see branding is, as David Ogilvy described, “the intangible sum of a product’s attributes.”

These attributes creates an image of your brand which  translates into perceptions people have about your brand.

Naturally, positive perceptions enhance brand loyalty and strong brand loyalty contributes to business success and brand equity over time. As Roger Sinclair says: “A brand is a resource acquired by an enterprise that generates future economic benefits.’

Ultimately, your brand should reflect the essence of the organisation or product it is representing.

Why is branding so important?

Good branding:

  1. Gives clarity and purpose to what you do
  2. Creates a strong synergistic image in the marketplace
  3. Simplifies marketing and other decisions because you have a clear focus
  4. Enhances morale, loyalty & support from staff, customers and trade partners
  5. Enhances your professionalism – sets you up for success
  6. Increases trial of new products or ability to enter new markets or segments with a portfolio of brands and offerings
  7. Makes you less sensitive to competitive pricing
  8. Enables you to attract great staff
  9. Helps you develop strategic relationships
  10. Adds value to your company from an IPO / merger / sell-out perspective or stock prices.

All of these points are well illustrated when you look at Apple. In 1997 when Steve Jobs was returned to the helm of Apple he rebranded it from Apple Computer to Apple as their vision was to be bigger than computers. By doing so the company paved the way for it to expand and enter new markets and enabled its customers to be part of the new world they were creating which now includes,  iPod, iPhone and iTunes. In addition, the new brand came with a new theme line that said, “Think Different,” a description of the Apple customer and how Apple operates. Today Apple has become the world’s most valuable company (based on stock options).

So you see your brand is a very valuable asset.

Is it time to re-evaluate your brand?  Is it meaningful to your target audience? Is it paving the way for the future direction of your company? We would love to help you with your brand. Get in touch with us today!