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So, it’s time to start thinking about your business branding?
What is going to make you stand out from the crowd? What is going to persuade your customers to shop with you instead of your competitor? This article will discuss the importance of branding, the elements that contribute to creating a good brand, brand evolutions, reputations, and where you should get started.
To build a compelling brand for your business, sufficient time and resources should be invested in branding.
Authentic - To engage with brands, consumers expect them to communicate their vision, mission, and core values accurately and authentically. Showing customers and clients the true purpose and passion behind a business can differentiate you from competitors!
Reaches the desired audience - An essential factor of any business is reaching the relevant audience; therefore, targeting the look and feel of your demographic is key. For example, children's toy brands are often colourful and eye-catching, perfect for younger generations – They are designed specifically to gauge the reaction of this age group.
Distinctive - Be distinctive so your brand name captures and keeps your audience's attention. Be bold, be brave, be unique!
But what is branding exactly? Branding is the process of giving your organisation and its products and services meaning in the minds of your customers. It's a strategy used to help people quickly identify attributes associated with your brand, such as value, quality, and standard of customer service, amongst many others.
Often businesses evolve in their branding over time as market conditions change, technology advances, and consumer demands change. A company may undergo a complete rebranding, redefining its core values, and reworking its logo, tagline, or tone of voice. Still, some companies simply adjust aspects of their branding to reflect their growth.
If we look at Starbucks, for example, many different versions of this logo have been since the original was launched in 1971. Now, the most recent version of the brand features a global level of familiarity and now does not need to feature the brand name to be recognised.
Its recommended rebranding should occur once every 7-10 years for most businesses. The goal of rebranding is to elevate your visual identity. Whether through the redesign of your logo, the redesign of your website, or the switching of your brand colours. Changing the look and feel of your brand periodically will ensure you stay ahead of your competitors.
A brand's reputation is what customers, employees, partners, and others perceive the company. As the brand's reputation improves, consumers will become more trusting and advocate for it.
Reputations crucially are built through several channels:
The user's perception can be shaped both directly and indirectly by experiences and factors external to the user's experience. Therefore businesses often implement branding strategies throughout a customer's journey. People's perception of a brand can be influenced by things like the internal employee policies and the reputation of the company's partners. It's also possible for consumers to be affected by the buying behaviour of their friends, family, and other influential people.
A brand's reputation can evolve, both on an individual and societal level. Because of this, it's essential for companies to closely monitor and manage it.
In recent years, customers and consumers have become more conscious of the products they use and their environmental impact. Consequently, small sustainable businesses attract customers more than big brands, while big brands are now compelled to adhere to sustainability standards.
The beauty and skincare industries, for example, need to make conscious efforts to make cruelty-free products. Vegetarianism and veganism have also become more popular, consequently impacting the food industry to adopt certain ways and promote sustainable eating habits – An example of this is the popular fast-food chain McDonald’s and their recent venture into vegan meal options. They have also pledged to have net-zero emissions at their restaurants by 2030. This company is changing its brand while the world around them also changes.
Updating your business branding can be overwhelming, but if you are not getting the engagement your brand deserves it’s time for a change. Your products and services can be given new life by updating the look of your company's digital and external appearances.
We would always recommend getting a professional opinion when it comes to big changes to your business. Make sure you are on the track to success by contacting our expert team to start your company rebranding.
