10 Reasons Why Branding Your Company Is Important
77% of B2B marketing leaders say branding your company is critical to growth. Also, 82% of investors say brand strength and name recognition guide them in their investment decisions. The more you research, you realize all business authorities share the same mindset about branding.
It’s a must.
No matter the size of your business or the scope of your portfolio, branding will take your business to the next level. Read on to discover how.
1. Branding Your Company Creates Links
Building your brand is the first step to becoming your own advertising agency. You begin to streamline the message you’re sending. That cohesive message gives people the signal that your name, logo, website, blog, and social media profile all belong to the same business.
It also signals that all your products belong to the same business. Now, this is big. Studies show that given two equivalent options, humans will always choose the one they know over the one they don’t.
If people buy one product from you, they’ll prefer your other products over the competition. Remember, we’re talking about customers who’ve never even seen your other products. That link you created tells them “hey, all my products are similarly wonderful”.
2. Your Brand Is an Asset
When the Four Seasons Hotels, sold to Bill Gates for $3.8 billion, what exactly did he buy? Restaurants? Locations? Staff? No, he bought a name. He bought a brand.
Bill Gates can use that brand to start from scratch. He can build new hotels in cities around the world and maintain a steady influx of customers. Why? Because they’ve already built a trusted impression of the brand.
It’s not the new hotel. It’s not the staff. It’s the brand which attracts them.
That brand is the secret ingredient for which investors will pay big money.
3. Branding Creates Emotion
Part of branding includes the creation of a cohesive message. Marketers do this through the art of story.
Humans are naturally drawn to stories. Society has built up the art of storytelling, first with books, then plays, then radio, and now the cinema. You have a market primed for your story.
A good story elicits emotion, and, as any marketer will tell you, emotion drives sales. If you’re still unsure of the importance of branding in marketing, let us spell it out for you. On average, consistent presentation of a brand will increase revenue by 23%.
Build your brand; increase your sales. It’s as simple as that.
4. Branding Humanizes
Why is branding important to consumers? There are multiple reasons. One of the most important to keep in mind is a customer’s inclination to anthropomorphize.
It’s a big word that psychologists made up. They use it to describe our tendency to attribute human characteristics to objects. We think of them as if they’re human. If you want to grow your business, use it to your advantage.
Your company need not be an enigmatic building located far away. You can give your business a face. You can give it a personality.
Do your research. Find out how your target customers behave and what they like. Then build a personality to match. Then they’ll consider you a friend.
5. Branding Reinforces Preference
When a buyer is given choice of two items of equivalent value, they’ll choose the name they recognize. It’s an odd quirk of human behavior. That makes it a perfect target for marketers.
All you need do is let the world know who you are. That’s what branding is all about.
When you develop your brand, you develop the image you’ll present to your market. When you dive deep and do your research, you’ll know your customers likes and dislikes. You can use them to create a presence they connect with.
When they’re on the fence about purchasing your shoes or other gadgets, that presence will sway them. Simple as that.
6. Branding Improves Recognition
Do you wonder about the importance of your brand name to customers? Good. It’s crucial.
In a previous section, we spoke about how buyers will choose one product over another based solely on recognition. If you market digitally, we can put it into other terms for you. Brand affinity increases click-through rates by a factor of 2x-3x.
That’s 2 to 3 times higher CTRs simply because they know your business.
When you brand, you build consistency in through your choice of colours, logos, products, and stories. That uniformity bolsters recognition. Then bingo! You’ve increased your CTR by 2 to 3 times.
7. Branding Develops Loyalty
Did you know that 64% of consumers said shared values were the main reason they maintained a relationship with a brand?
Well, that’s what branding is all about–giving your business a persona. People can relate to other people. They make friendships and develop loyalties.
We already spoke about branding humanizing your company. Guess what? That opens up the option to build loyalty.
80% of consumers say “authenticity of content” remains the most influential factor to becoming a follower of a brand.
When people see your business as a person, one they like and trust, they’ll stick with you. But be careful. The opposite is also true.
If you make a bad impression through poor customer service or faulty products, they’ll reject you. 91% of consumers say they’re more likely to buy from an authentic brand than from a dishonest one.
8. Branding Builds Authority
In the digital age, a huge part of building your brand will happen online. One of the most popular routes is through content creation.
First, you research your target customers and their problems. Then you perform more research to find the solutions to their problems. Finally, you post those solutions on YouTube, your blog, or wherever.
91% of marketers said they use content marketing regularly to promote brand awareness.
Afterward, your target customers will find your posts. They’ll connect your brand with the answer to their problems. The more you gift them a solution to their problems, the more they see your company as a wise, insightful, person.
Over time, they’ll value your opinion and consider your brand a trusted authority. You create a promise to deliver. But be wary. If you get it wrong, you’ll begin losing customers.
Focus your posts on your customers’ solutions, not your own promotion. 45% of consumers will unfollow a brand when the brand’s activity is dominated by self-promotion.
9. Branding Inspires Employees
We talked earlier about creating a cohesive story. This storyline tells the public what you’re business is all about. It can also be used to tell your employees what you’re all about.
When you create a brand, you have to think deeply about what makes your business unique. What sets you apart? What drives you? Why do customers remain loyal?
This analysis naturally evolves into a mission statement. When you create a mission statement for your business, you answer all the above questions in a succinct line or two.
Employees digest this information. It gives them a guide by which to measure all their work-related choices. A strong brand, a strong statement, will both drive and inspire them.
10. Branding Discourages Copycats
When people try to copy your stuff, they can’t. Sure, they may imitate your products. They may build exact duplicates of your award-winning sports drink or truck tire.
But they can’t copy that nebulous ingredient that makes your products distinct. That special something comes from your brand. It comes from all the preconceived notions your customers have about you and your company.
Remember, we anthropomorphize stuff. Your customers attribute the qualities of your brand onto your products. Consider how branding will affect your business goals and objectives.
It’ll protect you against fraud.
Conclusion
Will you follow the advice of the experts? Or will you branch out on your own? Let us leave you with one last idea to contemplate.
Whether you realize it or not, you’re already branding your company. Each time you speak with a customer, update your webpage or place an ad, you’re doing it. Anytime a part of your business interacts with the outside world; you create an impression.
That’s all branding is. Experts ensure those impressions carry the same general message. Rookies ignore the compound effect these impressions have on their company and carry on, willy-nilly.
The choice is yours.
