IMPORTANCE OF BRANDING FOR SMALL BUSINESSES

What is a brand?

A brand refers to a business’ marketing concept that helps people identify a particular company, product, or individual. Brands are intangible, which means you can't actually touch or see them.

Your “brand” is what your customer thinks of when he or she hears your brand name or sees your logo. It’s everything the public associates with your brand name and offerings—both factual and emotional.

Brands often use identifying markers to help create brand identities within the marketplace. They provide enormous value to the company or individual, giving them a competitive edge over others in the same industry. As such, many entities often seek legal protection for their brands by obtaining trademarks.

What is branding?

Branding provides exposure for businesses so they're seen by more people, turns prospects into customers more quickly, builds trust among current and prospective customers--and it establishes credibility for companies looking for investment opportunities instead of loans or investors/partners.

Branding is the process of researching, developing, and applying a distinctive feature or set of features to your organization so that consumers can begin to associate your brand with your products or services.

Branding is an iterative process and requires getting in touch with the heart of your customers and your business. It’s important for a variety of reasons.

Branding can be the deciding factor for consumers when they make a purchase decision. In a 2015 global Nielsen survey, almost 60% of shoppers said they actively buy from brands they know, and 21% said they bought a product because they liked the brand.

Branding gives your business an identity beyond its product or service. It gives consumers something to relate to and connect with.

Branding makes your business memorable. It’s the face of your company and helps consumers distinguish your business across every medium.

Branding supports your marketing and advertising efforts. It helps your promotion pack that extra punch with added recognition and impact.

Branding brings your employees pride. When you brand your company, you’re not only giving your business identity, you’re also creating a reputable, highly-regarded workplace. Strong branding brings in strong employees.

Reasons Why Branding is Important to Small Businesses

1. Branding Creates Trust
   
   While customer satisfaction and loyalty get more buzz, trust is the foundation of customers trust of your brand. Without it, consumers aren’t likely to interact with your content or make a purchase. According to BrandSpark International, a consumer research firm conducted a survey in 2015, 7 out of 10 Americans place “very high importance” on established trust in a brand when purchasing a new product.
   
   However, trust is difficult to develop and sustain. Customers use many factors to assess whether a brand is trustworthy, from the aesthetics of a brand’s website to their interactions with the customer service department. Just one experience can make or break a customer’s trust.
   
   

2. Branding Differentiates You from the Competition

When you develop your brand identity, you want to differentiate yourself from your competition. Your competition is trying to do that, too. What do you do better than everyone else? Why should consumers choose your brand over ALL of their other options?

Today, shoppers have more options than ever. The primary goal of any marketing effort is to stand out, be seen and have potential customers focus their attention on you. Telling them what makes your company different save time in the sales cycle, and don’t make your customers dig around to figure out their decision. It should be clear and evident on your website what you bring to the table. Don’t be afraid to showcase examples of your expertise and accomplishments!

Differentiating your business is all about being unique and memorable while presenting yourself to potential customers who may value you.

3. Branding Improves Recognition

Branding makes your company more recognizable to the public. Higher brand recognition generally means higher popularity and therefore greater market share, and vice versa.

Having a consistent design throughout your brick and mortar store as well as online, helps people become familiar with the business they are dealing with. Not only should your logo be memorable, it should give the desired impression of your company so when people see it, they instantly think and feel what you want them to think and feel.
 

4. Branding Builds Emotional Ties

According to Entrepreneur, if you give your customers a good enough reason to feel strongly about why they should care about your business (which can only happen if you convince them about what it can do for them), they have a better reason to make the transition from fence sitters to active participants – in other words, getting them one step closer towards making a purchase decision. This is an important stage because, as mountains of research tell us, it is emotions and not logic that drives the purchase decisions of most buyers.

As visceral emotional creatures, humans are fond of ideas, stories, concepts and even products that touch that coveted emotional nerve in them. Also, emotions score heavily over logic when it comes to developing brand loyalty.

This phenomenon was glaringly evident at the ads shown during the 2016 Rio Olympics. The most popular ads were the ones that combined emotions and universal experiences to build an indelible emotional connection with viewers. Similarly, PG&E’s “Thank you Mom” advertisement underpinned key themes emerging out of the stories from the lives of different athletes whose mothers shielded them from potentially fatal situations and raised them in the best possible manner.

Here, branding becomes a means of making an emotional statement every time your customers stumble across your business or something that reminds them about it – through engaging storytelling - which engages your audience’s subconscious mind and builds an emotional bridge between the story and the brand.

The human side of branding is something that will always remain universally relevant, particularly in times when all we have is a few milliseconds to emotionally engage with our audiences.

5. Branding generates new customers

Part of the importance of branding is that a strong brand is essential to delivering the results you need. Strong branding generally means there is a positive impression of the company amongst customers, and they are likely to do business with you because of the familiarity and assumed dependability of using a name they can trust. Once a brand has been well-established, word of mouth will be the company’s best and most effective advertising technique.

Look at Coca Cola, Apple, and McDonald’s to understand the value of a brand. As well as allowing you to keep your loyal customer base, your brand strategy should also allow you to target and attract new customers. And therefore increase sales!
 

Conclusion:

Small business branding helps differentiate a company from others in the industry, making it easier to compete with larger businesses. It also represents an opportunity for small companies to take on new markets that they wouldn't have been able to reach without branding. The bottom line? Branding matters because customers are more likely to buy products and services from brands that they know about, like and trust! What does your branding say about you?

What do we offer our clients at 229Websites as part of their branding process? logo design, website development/hosting, marketing strategy including SEO keyword research and landing page creation - all aimed at increasing conversions by incorporating branding best practices.