Branding is important, not only for big brands with limitless budgets and a global presence, but also for small businesses and start-ups who are seeking customer loyalty and business success. Branding always gives your target audience (aka prospective customers) the opportunity to see who you are, what your purpose is, and ultimately determine if they trust your message which translates to your products or services. Branding allows you to define your business, what you do, what you believe in, and how you hope to be perceived. For your organization, large or small, your brand is more than an eye-catching logo but the face of your company, it’s your character, personality, and values, it’s every facet of your business.
A Competitive Advantage: Branding Helps Your Business Stand Out
Branding isn’t merely the foundation for gaining prospects, but also so much more. Branding should be designed to help your business stand out, delivering your message clearly and addressing the needs of your potential customers. The goal of branding is to allow your target audience to see you as a credible influencer and thought leader, one who generates good will, loyalty, and genuinely connects with them, motivating them to choose your product or service.
Your branding also showcases your intent to keep the promises you make in regard to meeting their needs. It should provide a common thread through all you do – from promises to delivery and beyond. In accomplishing that goal, you are already on the path to standing out in the midst of your competition, whether it be on a local, national, or international level. Even if your business is small, your branding should indicate your ability to compete on a global level, appealing to universal audiences. By successfully building these messages into your branding, you give your target audience reason to choose you over the competition.
Branding Builds Trust and Loyalty
Your branding then, not only captures the attention of your target audience, but allows potential customers to get to know you and your business. With that knowledge, trust should follow. You have to proclaim the message that your brand is about quality and service, and ensure your customers can testify to that fact. With an overwhelmingly positive customer experience, online reviews and social media presence, this will speak to your brands trust and ultimately build loyalty. As you continue to focus on pleasing your customers, they’ll keep coming back for more as they spread the word about your business.
Branding Harnesses the Power of Emotions
With quality and service comes trust and loyalty, compete with a powerful emotional attachment to your brand. The transaction touch points of your brand transpire before, during, and after the transaction is completed. If your product is as promised, served its purpose, and came with exceptional customer service, you will build an emotional connection and a trusted relationship with your customers for years to come.
This is branding, the face of your business, a face that engages your audience, pleases your customers at every touch point, and earns their trust. This brand identity is how you spread the word about your business.
The Effect of a Brand on Consumer Behavior and Purchasing Intentions
Your brand, when it makes a connection, has the power to influence consumer’s behavior. Your advertising becomes symbolic for what your brand represents as well as what your target audience hopes to experience when engaging with your brand. Every exposure of your brand – packaging, social media, advertising – to your potential customers generates perceptions about your brand. When your brand meets or exceeds expectations, it can become part of your customer’s life, and is in turn shared with their family, friends, colleagues, and social media followers. Peer influence follows, as research has shown, when family, friends, or acquaintances trust a brand, that trust is extended, which can lead to increased brand recognition and greater sales.
The perception of the quality and benefits of your brand by consumers directly affects your brand image. If positive and trusted, your image is stronger, and, in turn, further strengthens the perception of your brand. Of course, the opposite is also true. If brand perception is poor, your brand image suffers, resulting in increased perceptions of few benefits and poor quality. Brand image also affects price perception. Should your brand have strong brand image, consumers judge your product less by the numbers than they would a brand with a weak brand image.
Digital PR Strategies Can Enhance Brand Perception
Branding should, in essence, establish your message in the minds of your target audience. As the gain knowledge of your brand, trust can grow, along with the adoption of your brand. Your brand perception can be cultivated though the use of Digital PR strategies. If you are ready to explore new strategies to enhance your brand perception, reach out today.
