Why Branding is as Important as Ever
Branding has always been an important part of a business. Montgomery Ward and Sears built their brands around their mail-order catalogs. Wells Fargo built theirs around their Wells Fargo Wagon delivery.
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Branding is just as vital today. It is not only crucial for those old companies, but it is also important for all existing companies; brand new companies and start-ups must learn the impact of branding on the success of their business.
What is Branding
In the old days, when someone talked about branding, what always came to mind was a herd of cows, a fire and a hot branding iron. Although this has little to do with branding in business, there are still some similarities. A brand is what makes the company unique.
Every business has a brand, whether consciously developed or not. It’s everything from the name to the color scheme to the graphics used in their logo. It’s also who the business is and what they stand for. When a customer comes into contact with your brand, you want them to remember something specific thing about your business: “they were super fast” or I loved working with them” something positive that brings them back.
A brand that does not stand for anything in a customer’s mind can be detrimental. Branding is the product, the mission, the quality of service, etc. A brand is built one transaction, one customer at a time. The brand is what customers think of when they think about the product or service you supply.
It does not matter how old your company is, building a brand that will last in a person’s memory is essential to the progress of your company. If your brand has painted a positive picture in the mind of the user, they are likely to go with you because you’re already familiar with them.
Importance of Branding to a New Company
One of the first items of business when trying to develop a customer base for a new company is your brand. You need a brand to answer all of the “why” questions—like “Why choose us over the competition?” Your audience needs to know exactly what your business can do for them. If they cannot get a good picture of this, then they will continue looking elsewhere.
Your brand is your business’s first impression. If you don’t build your brand you will have nothing to attract new customers. A complete picture of the quality, availability, and necessity of your product or service is necessary to attract your audience’s attention.
By developing your brand, including a consistent logo, good customer service, and association with certain high-quality products and services you will have answered the “why” questions. Then it’s all about consistency—providing the same level of service over and over again.
If this is achieved you become a luxury for your customers, giving them one less thing they have to think about, and instead giving them a trusted resource they are likely to tell others about.
Importance of Improving an Existing Company’s Image
Again, every company has a brand, good or bad. Take a look at our Nike eCommerce design project for example. If you take a good look at your brand, it is likely you will find some things are outdated or have never been well-established. Your image could be improved by changing up your advertising messaging.
Customer service can almost always be improved. Someone once said that every company should be Disney Friendly and FedEX fast. Pretty high bar, but certainly something to consider, given the success of these to business behemoths.
We live in a world driven by expense. If your product is more expensive, you will have to convince your target audience that it is worth the extra cost. Maybe there is a longer warranty or maybe your product is superior in ways that cost more to build and your customer needs to understand this.
This approach often indirectly points to the lack of quality in cheaper competitor products and therefore kills two birds with one stone. If your design is inconsistent, you will want to make changes to achieve consistency.
Maintaining consistency in your design in every digital and print format will also help draw customers to you while improving brand recognition. You want your customers to know who you are, no matter where they hear about your product or service, whether in written form, TV, radio, word of mouth, or the Internet.
Importance of Branding to a Well-Established Company
Even a well-established business can lose customers to a newer business with a brand that is well thought out and marketed. There are many businesses out there. More and more of them are gaining an Internet presence. Because of this, it is essential to continue progressing and improving your brand.
Just look at some of the oldest companies out there. They are continually changing, upgrading, and improving their brand according to their ever-changing audience. However, many old companies are slowly fading because they have not figured out how to keep their brand relevant and competitive.
Try altering your color schemes, targeting different audiences, or reframing your logo. Your target audience may be women during their childbearing years. However, what attracts a woman today is likely different from what attracts women of this age 20 or 30 years ago. Your brand may not change much, but how you present your brand to the world needs to.
A well-established company that wants to remain competitive in our evolving world will understand the need for an ever-progressing brand. Their competition is changing. They not only have the old existing companies they have always been competing with but also many, many new companies. They must maintain old values while speaking to new audiences. Through their brand, they must convince this new audience that they are still a good company.
Conclusion
It does not matter who your audience is or how old your business is, a brand is important. Building your brand, getting it out there, and maintaining it will make a difference. Your brand will need to catch the eye of your potential customers, but even more importantly it will need to keep their attention through the quality of service and products you supply. The only good news is for branding experts: your services are always going to be in high demand, and as our digital world evolves, the need to control and manage the brand experience is as important as ever! Fuselab Creative UI/UX design agency can provide the best branding services and digital product design services.
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