Most people already know the general concept of branding and what it encompasses. But there are different elements of branding that are important, and good to know how they work and why. Whether you’re starting a new business or rebranding your current one, branding is a key factor to a successful business. Branding isn’t just slapping your logo on everything. There should be much more thought that goes into your company’s overall brand, like defining your brand identity and your brand image.
When you have consistent branding, it generates trust for the consumer and presents your company in a professional way. It instills confidence in the buyer when purchasing your product or service. So, to say branding is important is a bit of an understatement – it’s everything and everywhere!
Say you want to start a business and you want to get as many eyes on your business as possible. So, you decide you want to push a good quality advertising campaign to direct people to your website to buy your product.
The first step to creating a successful advertising campaign for your business
In order to optimize the success of your marketing campaign, you should start with a consecutive and strong brand identity that then helps determine your brand image. If those aren’t determined before you publish an advertising campaign, the consumer could get confused on who your business is and what you do. BCC can design, manage and analysis your advertising campaign but to get the best results possible, let’s back up a step.
For starters, let’s define what brand identity is in marketing terms
Brand identity is how a business or corporation presents itself to the public. This includes the basic elements most people think of when they think of the term “brand”. A logo, name, tagline, colors, fonts, tone of voice, are all segments of what make up a business’ brand identity.
If you’re a new business wanting to have a strong and unique brand identity, contact Big Corner Creative.
Whenever a consumer thinks about your industry or product-type you want to be top of mind. For example, when you have a runny nose you need a Kleenex – that’s a brand not the actual product – a disposable nose tissue or handkerchief. Kleenex has created such a prominent brand image with their brand identity (logo, name, etc.) that their company name is now the name we call the product. This should be the ultimate goal for your business.
How to create a strong brand identity for your business
If you’re starting your own brand, answer some of these questions to help guide you in the direction you want your brand identity to go:
- If your company was a person, what would they look like? What hobbies would they have? What would their personality be like? This helps in identifying the tone of voice for your company (Examples: playful, educated, complex, honest).
- Now establish who is your target audience. What hobbies do they have? Can you identify a certain profession they would have? How old are they? Where do they live?
- What feelings do you want your brand to correlate with? Calm? Joyful? Confident? Welcoming? This helps determine your tone of voice and what type of words to include when writing about your business on your website, TV ads, or social media posts. Also note that this can help determine the colors you use for your brand. Certain colors correlate with different emotions. (Examples: Red = passion, Blue = trust, yellow = happiness).
See some good examples of powerful brands here.
Lining out these details may seem tedious, but you want to be very clear to your potential customers on what you do and how you can help them. Staying consistent and identifying these items helps your marketing stay cohesive and helps your employees all stay focused on the same goal.
How your brand image and target audience coincide
We’ve mentioned brand image several times, but what is it? Brand image is how consumers perceive your business or corporation.
People love brands they connect with. They’re more willing to share their positive experience with a company if they feel drawn to their story – you share that story through your branding – this is KEY to the importance of branding.
Answering the above questions should give you a good start on how best to share your company’s unique story. If done correctly, using the elements of brand identity can lead you into the right step in controlling how the consumer views your business/your brand image.
Whether you’re a local business or a corporate operation branding is important no matter the size. Once you have executed the items listed above, it’s time to put your money where your mouth is and show who your company is by the actions you take, and how you take care of your customers.
The importance of branding is everything and creating a powerful brand takes time. So be patient and with this guidance hopefully we can push you further along on your journey to having a successful business. For more information on all things marketing, make sure to check out our other blog posts.