9 Reasons to brand your business
Brands begin their lives through brand planning. However, beyond the planning documents, brands reside in the minds and hearts of customers. An effort to evaluate a brand must appreciate what customers think about the brand as well as how they feel when they interact with products/ services.
Customers rely on informational cues to evaluate the brand they would like to associate with. In most cases, customers rely on their memory during the purchase process. Branding efforts and brand form the result of any marketing initiative. Branding explains the values that customers generate in their minds because of the marketing communication activities. This implies that an effort to create a meaningful integrated marketing communication would help create stronger brands.
A bundle of intrinsic and extrinsic offerings blending both functional and psychological benefits
Gardner and Levy, 1995
Branding forms one of the marketing tools that businesses use to create value in the minds of customers. Any marketing personnel must look beyond symbols and names in products for easier identification of products. Findings from research now reveal that customers rely on a set of attributes to determine their favourite brands. In specific, customers do this before making any purchase decisions.
The list below forms several attributes of a brand:
Benefits of branding
Irrespective of the market share of your product brand in the market, you need to acknowledge that branding activities do not just benefit your business alone. Customers also have a stake in what your brand has achieved so far.
When a customer has a brand that she/he knows and trusts, it becomes easier to make choices faster, more easily. Fortune, 1996.
From a customer’s perspective
- Branding provides customers with cues to identify the product faster and easily with little effort.
- It guarantees customer quality
- Increased satisfaction level
- Represents what a customer believes and stands for in terms of social status, needs, etc.
From a business owner’s perspective
Strong brands in the market can also benefit business owners from several perspectives.
- Barriers to entry because of the higher market share of what incumbents enjoy
- Price premium as customers pay more prices
- Higher brand loyalty from customers not willing to switch
- Easier to develop and introduce new products/services
- Protection from cases of counterfeiting
Conclusion
Customers stick to product brands because of the values created in their minds. Businesses need to create strong brands that benefit both customers and owners. Customers rely on design elements, statements, and applications to make purchase decisions.
Contact a research expert to measure the level of your brand equity today.