How is branding important to your marketing strategy?
By Tom Radburn
Where does branding sit?
Branding may seem to be one of the less important things in an overall marketing strategy, particularly when there are pressing priorities such as website design and development, corporate identity, product and service promotion and numerous other things to consider.
Branding, however, is one of the first and most important elements to consider when putting together an effective marketing strategy.
Branding is about more than just a company name, and it is not the same as a corporate identity. A brand helps to identify a company’s services and how they are differentiated from their competitors.
An effective brand must also interact with the services provided by the parent company as well as how customers relate to the company – the experience they get when they come into contact with the company’s products and services. The brand should enrich this overall experience and build further loyalty. A brand has a lot of work to do!
It is, of course, pretty important, and the place of branding within a company’s marketing strategy is equally important. One of the main functions of a brand is to create and increase customer loyalty.
Brand recognition
Too often, businesses examine branding after they have completed the bulk of their marketing strategy
A brand is also part of the recognition process for a customer, and an effective brand creates a positive, consistent and lasting emotive experience within the heart and mind of a customer.
For example, one of the world’s most well-known brands, Nike, is stunningly simple. A tick design and the words ‘Just do it’ have encapsulated this active, fashionable and global brand for years.
If you asked 10 people to recreate the Nike brand visually, it is highly-likely that nine out of ten would be able to do so by drawing the tick logo. A truly effective brand, and one which has translated many countries across the world.
Branding is essential for companies already in the marketplace when they launch new services and products, but is also equally important for new firms looking to enter their particular sectors and make their mark. Too often, businesses examine branding after they have completed the bulk of their marketing strategy, and then wonder why they are not making the impact they should be.
Corporates value branding
We’ve worked with a number of large, multi-national brands over the years, and the importance of branding has been evident throughout all of their marketing strategy.
It is a key pinnacle point in the marketing mix, and without it, a company may as well be a ship traversing the commercial oceans without a rudder. But how do you identify and develop branding into your marketing strategy?
There are key points to remember:
A brand is about more than a name, a term, a symbol – it conveys an experience
An effective brand will underpin and add value to a company’s products and services. Poorly-executed brands will undervalue and undersell a company’s offerings. And as the saying goes, it is always easier in business to lower your prices than raise them.
An effective brand will underpin and add value to a company’s products and services.
Branding talks to customers
Branding, then, needs to be at the start of the marketing process and not as a bolt-on at the end. Good branding will be well-researched, within strict guidelines, and will work with other elements within the marketing strategy to support the overall offer, such as tone of voice of marketing literature. The brand directs the messaging of marketing communication – directly and indirectly.
For example, as an online marketing agency, we adopt our clients’ brands and brand values when working in partnership with them. This seems like an obvious point, but if you’re being pitched by two different agencies on a project, you shouldn’t be able to identify which agency produces work for you – both should be consistent with your brand values and identity.
Conclusion
A good brand will be the following:
Are you making your branding as important as this in your marketing strategy?
Can we help?
Branding, however, is one of the first and most important elements to consider when putting together an effective marketing strategy