What is branding and why it is important
You've probably heard a lot about brand, and that it is fundamental to your business , but why is it so important?
Let's clear this up. Branding, often misunderstood as the visual identity of your business, is much more than that. It is not only the visual identity (name, logo, design, color palette…), but it is also, the essential representation of who you are as a company and how you are perceived by customers.
What brand is NOT:
It is not a logo or a color palette. These form only part of the whole brand and are not the first aspect to focus on when building a business.
It is not marketing. Here is the difference explained: the brand is the essence of the business, while marketing is the way you promote this essence.
What is the brand:
Brand is the idea, the image it evokes in people's minds, the feeling people has about your product or service.
However, too many people still underestimate the importance of defining and clarifying their brand before starting their own business , and I don't want you to make this mistake.
Branding is essential to your business, large or small. For this reason, your business should have a defined brand, that is, create and define that identity that distinguishes it from the others.
Businesses with a clear brand communicate a direct message, so people are more willing to buy from them. On the other hand, if you are not consistent with your message, people will be less likely to buy from you because they will not understand what you offer and what you represent, risking that they will opt for others'.
Having a clear branding helps you connect with your audience: your audience will be more than happy to buy from you rather than opting for competing products or services.
So why is branding so important?
Here are the reasons why having a clear branding is essential.
• Consistency: Having a defined and clear brand helps you and your employees to stay focused on core values, brand communication and visual identity in order to communicate with the public
• Recognition: Having a clear, coherent and defined brand, both in oral and written communication and in visual communication, helps your company to be more recognizable to the public and people to become familiar with your business.
• Connection: Having a good brand helps you connect emotionally with your target audience. People will perceive your business as aligned with their desires and difficulties and, they will see you as a solver of their problems.
• Trust: A clear brand will communicate what the customer should expect from your business and the benefits and solutions you can provide them.
But what are the elements within a brand?
Branding includes all of the following:
• Core Brand Values - Ask yourself why you want to take these passions to the next level and what motivates you. Then identify the values that will form the foundation for your business
• Brand naming - If you don't have a name for your business yet, make sure you have a clear idea of the message you want to communicate with the chosen name
• Brand positioning - Study your market competitors. You need to research and understand your target market and audience, see what your competitors are doing. What makes you different from them? What are your strengths?
• Brand personality - Define what is your personality traits so that you can better attract your customers. Remember: people tend to choose a brand based on their feelings and perceptions
• Brand communication - Decide how to communicate to your audience and the tone of voice you will use.
• Visual brand identity - It's time to translate all the previous elements of the brand into the visual part by defining the color palette, font, logo, packaging
If you're multi-passionate, multi-potential, and confused about how defining your brand when you have multiple projects to pursue, subscribe to the the pop up that appear and download the Brand Clarity Workbook.