Branding is the process of creating a distinct identity for a business in the minds of your target audience and consumers. At the most basic level, branding consists of a company logo, visual design, and mission statement. But the brand is also defined by the quality of your products, customer service and the evaluation they give you.
Yet even if you never invest in brand strategy, you will still have a brand. If you are a company with poor customer service, for example, this will ultimately affect how your customers perceive you. You can be known as a company that doesn't care about its customers just as easily as you can establish yourself as a brand that exceeds the expectations of its customers every day.
After all, what your customers think and say about your brand is reality (not what you want them to think). This is the impression that comes to their mind when they hear the name of your business. It's based on the feeling they have, which is based on their experience with you, good or bad.
That's why your branding strategy and brand management plan are so important.
In addition to your logo and corporate colors, you can communicate your brand message and brand identity through:
Virtually no business starts out hoping to create an unreliable or "bad" brand. Many entrepreneurs start businesses with a grand vision of delivering great products at great value and creating loyal customers for life.
The purpose of branding is simply and easily to help your customers understand what you offer and that they can trust your brand. In the case of branding, what you do is far more important than what you say. If your company's mission statement focuses on your world-class quality service, but you don't actually provide great customer service, it will reflect negatively on your company.
By building a website that describes what you offer, designing ads that promote your goods and services, choosing specific corporate colors that will be associated with your company, creating a logo and featuring it on all your social media accounts, you brand your company. That is, you shape how and what people perceive your business to be.
Branding is the key to a successful product. You may think of your product as your brand, but from a marketing perspective, these are two different things. Your product is what you're selling, whether it's a physical item or a service. There are probably other similar, if not identical, products on the market. But your brand must be unique.
When rebranding, avoid the temptation to "start from scratch" unless absolutely necessary.
Here are some steps you should take to change the customer perspective: