Are you looking to market your brand? Confused about whether branding is any good for your company? You’ve come to the right place. We’ll talk about what is branding and why it’s important for small businesses to flourish.

 

Branding by definition is a marketing practice in which a company creates a name, logo, and symbol that identifies them. However, it goes way beyond that. Branding is also about how you present yourself to your customers, customers’ experiences, and how they perceive you as a business.

 

Many startups and small businesses neglect this important aspect of branding and only focus on their website, logo, and name. But, it’s important to have a good brand image and be aware of your brand experience for the business to grow.

 

Firstly, let’s see what is brand building and the process of branding before getting into its importance.

 

What is Brand Building?

Brand building is creating awareness about your business using different methods, strategies, and campaigns. The main goal for brand building is to create a unique and lasting image of business as an identity in the market.

 

Branding can be divided into three essential phases. They are:

• Brand Strategy

• Brand Identity

• Brand Marketing

 

Brand Strategy

Brand Strategy is essentially a brand discovery process. You figure out who you are and why you are different from your competitors in this phase. You convey why you are trustworthy and memorable along with your purpose, plans, and promises.

 

This is your first step towards building a brand from scratch and the foundation piece. For an effective brand strategy, you must have the proper information and research on:

• Brand Discovery

• Target Audience

• Brand message

• Brand voice and story

• Competitors

 

You must have proper research in these components before moving onto the next phases.

 

Brand Identity

After you have proper research on how to convey your message and present your brand to the public in the brand strategy phase, this is where the action begins. You bring your brand to the public and present them with your identity and your purpose.

 

It can be a time-consuming process as you have to bring all your strategy to action. You also should be able to answer these questions at the very least.

 

• What is the company's mission?

• What benefits do your products and services provide?

• What do your customers think of your company?

• What qualities do you want them to associate with your company?

 

Your brand identity should include:

• Logo

• Theme

• Brand Message

• Tagline

• Website Design

• Content

• Advertising

• And more

 

These elements of brand identity must be across different channels and be associated with your company. You must be consistent in advertising these on different channels as it is how you are recognized.

 

Brand Marketing

Brand Marketing is the method to bring awareness to your products and services by connecting them to the right target audience. Various marketing methods can be applied to achieve this and improve your reach.

 

In this final phase, you use various marketing methods to increase your brand awareness and reach the target audience. One of the most popular and effective ways of marketing the brand recently is digital marketing. There are various digital marketing activities to promote your brand and some you can follow are:

 

• Deploying your Website

• Content Marketing and SEO

• Email Marketing

• Social Media Marketing

• And more.

 

Now, let’s look at why we emphasize branding a lot and go through its importance.

 

Why Is Branding Important for Small Business?

Branding is very critical to businesses especially startups because it makes a huge impact on growth. It defines how people see your brand and your product and services. Moreover, it can also increase your brand awareness and define how trustworthy your brand is.

 

Some of the reasons why branding is important are:

 

Recognition

Branding is how your company gets recognized by the people. They make an impression about your company based on the logo, name, and symbol. It is how your business becomes known to people.

 

Therefore, having a professional and memorable logo is the most important element of branding. It is basically the face of your company and defines what impression it makes on the customers.

 

Increases Value

Branding is important especially in the long run when you try to generate future business. An established brand can increase a business’s value and establish a good footing in the industry.

 

It can give the company more leverage and makes it an appealing investment opportunity because of its established footing in the market.

 

Improves Employee Pride And Satisfaction

Employees working on a recognized and branded company are more satisfied with their jobs and have high pride in their work. They are more satisfied and enjoy their work as well as find it more fulfilling compared to a normal company.

 

A great brand can cut down its expenses on hiring and training by around 50% when hiring motivated employees as strong branding brings in a sense of pride for the employees. A strong brand increases employee morale and productivity as people like to work for a reputed brand that is regarded as high amongst the public.

 

Creates Trust

Having professional and well-strategized branding can help companies build up a trustful relationship with their customers. Especially for a brand that has been long established, they carry a sense of trust and quality with their name.

 

People are also more likely to do business with brands they trust. Focusing on the brand for your business gives the impression of being industry experts. This helps make your business more trustworthy and increase your business. Around 77% of people buy products and services because of the brand name.

 

Sets you apart

There are various options and alternatives for your target audience to choose over your business. It’s critical to stand apart from the crowd since you are no longer competing on a local stage but in the global context. So, can you really compete in a market with numerous businesses identical to you? It can be very challenging.

 

A strategic and proper branding allows you to not compete in this pool of similar companies. But, rather give you the opportunity to make yourself different and unique from others. You can set your company apart from the rest of the crowd through branding.

 

Moreover, 61% of people are more likely to buy from companies with unique and different content so differentiating yourselves is even more important.

 

We can see why branding is important for a business to grow and get different perks. But, what are some of the branding strategies we can implement for our businesses? Let’s talk about it.

 

Types of Branding Strategies

Different types of branding can add value to your business depending on your audience, marketing strategies, capital, and industry. Here are some types of branding strategies that can build a brand for your business.

 

Personal Branding

Personal branding as the name suggests is branding for a person rather than branding for a business as a whole. It’s used to establish a person or their work as the brand. It’s the most often used form as branding for celebrities, leaders, and athletes to showcase their best version to the public.

 

Example: JK Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter book series, is a brand in herself. People like to hear from her rather than associate her with any company or business.

 

Product Branding

Product branding is one of the most popular types of branding which promotes a single product to make it recognizable and keep it in focus. Symbols or designs are very important in product branding as it helps to identify the product easily.

 

Example: Mobile phones and soft drinks which have distinct logos and packaging to help identify the product.

 

Corporate Branding

Corporate branding is how an organization presents its core business value to the world and its own employees. Corporate brands often display their mission and business values with their customers to make them clear and recognizable.

For example, Nike presents itself as a brand for all athletes, and its core business value is “To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world.” which is recognizable across all platforms.

 

Service Branding

Service branding develops as companies move to deliver services from manufacturing products. It promotes the service a company provides as a world-class service to their customers. They leverage the needs of the customer and aim to use excellent customer service to provide value.

 

Service brands are characterized by the need to maintain a high level of service delivery. This category includes:

• Classic service brands (example airlines and hotels)

• Pure service providers (example member associations)

• Professional service brands (example management consultancy)

• Agents (example travel agents)

• Retail brands (example supermarkets)

 

Co-Branding

A co-branding is a form of branding connecting companies together where two or more businesses form a marketing partnership. This allows the brands to help each other grow business, spread awareness, or break into the new market together.

 

For example, Apple and Nike introduced Apple Watch Nike+.

 

Online Branding

Online branding, also known as internet branding, is a branding of a company through its website, social media platforms, blogs, and other online content. It’s a very cheap form of branding and covers the largest range of audiences. Companies publish consistent content to position themselves as part of the online marketplace.

Almost every company is using some form of online branding in today’s market.

 

Conclusion

Branding is a very important aspect for small businesses to flourish and grow. It can be a game-changer for either new or existing business. Proper steps and processes for brand building can transform a small business into a successful organization.

 

Branding can help you develop more recognition for your business and come off as a trustworthy business in the market. This can help you exponentially increase your customers and pick up a good growing pace.

 

We hope this article helped you understand what is branding, brand building process and why it’s important.

Check out our article on why Instagram is important for a business. A closer look at Branding.

 

Also, follow us on our Instagram. Falcon Tech Nepal

 

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