The intangible can sometimes be the most important when it comes to business, and brand strategy certainly falls into that bracket. When looking at return on investment (ROI), counting every pound and the success of a campaign is an easy and satisfying process. However, judging whether or not you want to run a branding or brand recognition campaign, isn’t half as simple and can be justifiably overlooked.
BUT… 🤔
All of the biggest and best brands prove time and time again that brand awareness is a priority when it comes to long term success. In this blog, we will discuss how you can solve vital business issues with branding and how branding can speak more about your business than you ever could.
Watch The Gap 🤭
The ‘brand gap’ is one of the most commonly used terms in the business sector. Quite simply, the brand gap exists between where you believe your brand stands and where the customer believes it does. This gap can be a worrying and sometimes fatal flaw for those businesses who don’t quite get it right.
Perception is what drives the brand gap, it doesn’t matter where you believe your product is located in your sector if your customers don’t agree. The general perception of your product will drive all kinds of factors within the business including what type of customer you’ll attract, how much of their hard-earned cash they are willing to part with and even which high-street stores will stock your product.
If you start to see a decline in your predicted sales or a complete change in demographic, it’s vital that you go back to the drawing board and reinvent your brand strategy. This all starts with the current perception.
When perception and branding align, there are some absolutely brilliant outcomes. Take PrettyLittleThing who target the everyday high-street shopper with their fast fashion empire. So where do we see their business branding? In flashes of bright pink painted buses, taxis and billboards up and down the country.
A brand strategy is a challenge that we can’t resist at Create8, and should you need advice, take a look at some of our other blogs or get in touch! We are happy to help.
Breathing Life 🌬️
When it comes to helping your business succeed via your brand, there is no more obvious reason for the complete regeneration of what you have than to breathe life back into a tired and ageing company. A branding refresh tailored to an excellent brand strategy will always generate interest and get your brand noticed. If you find the right business branding, the sales will find their way to you.
It’s often the case that when a business is viewed as successful and is still generating profit, that the owners will choose to sit back and watch the bank statements, rather than reinvesting in the future growth of what they have. This is how businesses are left to stagnate and become irrelevant in the current climate, especially the age of aesthetics in which we live. If something doesn’t look clean and appealing the potential new customers will likely avoid you and choose somebody else.
Brand strategy meetings with employees and key stakeholders to investigate the current brand of the business are a great place to start. Discuss the trends and directions in which you could move and the future predictions of the sector. Meetings like these will often lead to some out-of-the-box thinking, maybe a new product your company can produce or a complete rebrand.
Your Nearest and Dearest 👩💻
The previous point leads us perfectly into the next way your business can benefit from your brand, and that is internal. Not all branding is customer-facing, and your brand stands for much more than the flashy marketing campaigns and the good vibes your business gives off. It’s the whole experience as an entity, for example, if your employees feel empowered and sought-after, if they want to come to work every day, they are going to produce a better standard of work. Employer branding is equally as beneficial, no longer can the large brands of the world hide in the darkness of office blocks and churn out products. Now people want to know what it’s like to work for their favourite company, how they treat their employees and their specific processes.
Branding is not a logo on a screen; it has to stand for something more and be recognisable by the masses as something they want to be a part of. Take the stratospheric rise of Apple. Could you ever mistake the logo? No. And does it only stand for a computing company who have revolutionised the mobile -phone sector? No, it’s more than that. It’s the way the product makes you feel, it’s the technology and the aesthetic intertwined. It’s a product you want to own and a company you wish to understand, and that’s great branding.
The Consumer Doesn’t Like Us 😡
The number of companies who emerge into a sector almost overnight and expect to be liked because of a standout product is countless. So what is it that makes those who pop-up, stay up? Well, it’s great business branding. Because wanting a product isn’t enough to change consumer behaviour, but wanting to be a part of an experience is. Great branding, inside and out, does that to people, it makes you recognisable and identifiable, and that’s how the successful keep coming back year after year.
If you need any further info about branding or the execution of a brilliant brand strategy, we are always here to help. For helpful tips about branding take a look at the posts below or get in touch!
Is your business looking for somebody to give you a helping hand with your branding, look no further, our Manchester based team can help.
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