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This article gives you a succinct
overview.
Branding is a holistic approach to your company’s position, customer
interactions, and operations, based on your company’s values. Branding
is devoted to establishing and nurturing a relationship with your customers.
Your brand is a person’s gut feeling about your company. It’s an emotional,
sensory understanding of what your company is, rather than an intellectual,
rational memory of your tagline or logo.
The stronger your brand, the greater your customer loyalty. The world’s
strongest brands have not just customers or fans, but evangelists.
Brand evangelists champion their favorite brands, not just by buying that
brand’s products, but by enthusiastically recommending them to other
potential customers. Word of mouth is one of the most important factors
in influencing a buyer’s decision; brand evangelists build buzz
for your brand out of intense loyalty, giving your company free advertising
and testimonials.
Strong brands claim greater market share and higher price premiums, lower
customer churn, attract and retain better employees and customers, block
out competition, and can co-brand or expand into new business areas more
easily. They are less likely to fall victim to commoditization. They lead,
they innovate, they create niches rather than try to compete
for what others have already carved out.
The stronger your brand, the more flexibility you have as a company. You
also have higher staff morale, which leads to greater productivity. A
brand is not a face a company wears; it’s a true reflection of the experience
of interacting with that company.
Your brand is much more than just your logo. Your corporate identity (logo,
colors, paper stocks, and other identifying graphic material) is one component.
Other components include your marketing strategy, public relations, employee
identification with the brand, and every customer interaction, whether
that’s one-on-one or via the web, print, or broadcast media. It’s
how your staff answers the phone, how easy your web site is to use, what
message your visual identity sends, how quickly staff responds to customer
needs, the tone of your copywriting, and even, in the case of a retail
environment, how your store smells. It’s the sum total of every
experience people have with your company.
International brands are rated each year by branding agencies for their
market reach, strength of identity, customer loyalty, and more. Brands
which often rank in the top ten include:
• Coca-Cola
• Nike
• Starbucks
• Ben & Jerry’s
• Apple Computer
Branding is for every size company. Small businesses have an advantage
over large businesses because it’s much easier for them to provide a consistent
brand experience. Think of your favorite mom-and-pop restaurant or store:
You probably patronize that business because you enjoy not just the product
or service itself, but the experience of getting it. Small businesses
are frequently much better positioned to stake out niche markets because
of their intimate understanding of the communities they serve.
Having a strong brand doesn’t mean having a huge, international corporation.
It just means having a clearly identifiable presence in the marketplace
that offers a unique experience to your target market. With a strong brand,
your business will flourish as a provider of an experience which customers
can’t find anywhere else.
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