How Branding Can Make Your Business Grow
Invest in a specialty-specific brand for your business to engage with a greater audience. Access greater growth and profitable opportunities
How Creating a Strong Brand Identity Generates Profit
As a small business, it’s easy to get wrapped up in creating quality products. It’s even easier to assume that the product alone will generate sales and drive rapid growth.
However, it can be clearly seen in the market that this is not the case.
The brand is what the customer connects with on a deeper level. It is what they find value in. As more startups launch, it’s becoming more difficult to distinguish products from its competitors without proper branding.
What is Branding?
Most people assume that branding is just a nice logo, good colors, and maybe a unique font.
Even the definition by Cambridge dictionary states that branding is “the act of giving a company a particular design or symbol in order to advertise its products and services.”
Consequently, such outdated definitions are why branding has been deemed merely an aesthetic component or a visual symbol people associate the product with. While it may have been sufficient to summarize branding this way before, it is not anymore. The meaning of branding has drastically changed and can no longer be reduced to mere creatives.
It is hard to define branding because its characteristics are so varied.
People like Tom Goodwin have defined as the “patterns of familiarity, meaning, fondness, and reassurance that exist in the minds of people.” Others like Seth Godin go even past the underlying principles to encompass the definition of branding as well. He believes that “a brand is the set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another.”
In other words, it’s how a customer affiliates the product with the company. It is also seen in how someone believes the brand is associated with a certain personality type. Branding is the identity that distinguishes itself from competitors. It showcases what the company offers beyond the product alone. The brand represents the expectations it provides and how society will perceive it to be.
Branding as a Long-Term Investment
Creating a personal brand identity allows the company to determine how the customer views their brand.
Think about Harley Davidson, for example. They have built a brand that is centered in community as a way to form connections with their buyers. This leads the customer towards buying a Harley Davidson, despite cheaper alternatives being available. It’s because of the emotional branding Harvey Davidson managed to foster. By branding with a community feel, customers feel like they have a tight knit family bond with everyone who has a Harvey Davidson. This shows how creating a branding identity can spark connections with your audience and increase business value.
Contrary to popular belief, branding does not only apply to large businesses. It is also very helpful for small businesses. In fact, having a brand identity as a startup benefits the company in the long run. Branding services typically includes brand guidelines, the mission statement, brand values, the logo, the website, and any additional assets. Each is all dependent on the brand market and the aim of the personal brand identity.
Additionally, since it involves a mix of different concepts and activities, price also varies. If the team is composed of high-level consultants and it aims to brand internationally, it will be more expensive than creating a brand identity for a local business or a startup. However, small businesses must view branding and design costs as an investment. Creating a brand identity is a critical act and overlooking it can lead to costs far more significant. They must recognize that if they want their business to succeed, brand identity is nonnegotiable.
Branding and Profit: How Does it Connect?
A good brand identity also helps in marketing. “As a general rule, products have limited life cycles, but brands— if managed well—last forever. And once you’ve nailed down exactly who you are as a brand, it becomes much easier to market it.” Brand identity also incorporates value for small businesses and influences consumer choices. If they aim to grow in any capacity, branding is very important for startups. Investing in brand identity allows them to increase value and establishing their place in the industry. When backed up by a strong reputation, the brand is an influential asset.
These qualities go a long way in influencing the customer to make a purchase by giving them peace of mind. In addition, positive brand identity can generate new customers. A strong personal brand generally leads to a positive experience, and continuous positive experiences leads to dependability. This goes hand in hand with trust– branding is a way to properly earn and maintaining the trust between the brand and its customers. The mission created by branding positions the brand in a favorable place that builds up the trust in everyone involved. Overall, branding not only generate sales, it builds the foundation for their reputation and customer loyalty to grow.
Where Can You Employ Branding Services?
Branding services are accessible everywhere. They are found online and in offices; they are geared for the global corporations and the small-town shop owners, and everyone in between. And they all serve different purposes. One company that you must look into is Streamsoft Consulting Inc. They are a business solutions agency that aims to help small business owners realize their vision. With them, a small business owner will be guided by a Streamsoft expert in crafting their unique’ brand identity. They even offer a free consultation! In it, a business owner can see what crafting a brand identity is like and can begin to generate ideas on how they want their customers to perceive their brand. With Streamsoft’s services, they will create a powerful branding identity.