The Importance of Branding – How to Build a Brand Successfully

A brand is a powerful thing. It will make you spend an extra $20,000 for a Mercedes even though the equivalent Kia has better features. A brand is essentially a company’s story. If the company is marketing its brand well then customers will be familiar with the company’s story.

We all know and understand Apple Mac’s branding. MacBooks and iPads are for creative people and free spirits. Macintosh’s products act as an antidote in a world of complicated PC’s; they embrace technology and use it to make our lives simpler. Apple’s customers understand this story and they buy into it or at least the bits of the story that appeal to them.

Branding is not just important for big businesses. Any business can benefit from building a brand identity. A clear identity can help you to attract new customers, and build loyalty with existing clients. Creating a brand can put you in a position where you are no longer basing your fees on what the competition are charging. A strong brand can mean that new clients choose to work with you solely on the strength of your reputation and allow you to launch new products knowing that you already have the ear of a large target market.

So how can you go about building a brand for your company? It’s actually not too difficult. Your biggest decision is choosing one that suits your business image, tells your story and also fits and the needs of your clients.

Start by creating a simple sentence or phrase that crystallizes your brand. What story do you want to tell? Have you decided that your company provides exclusive products? Do you want to position your company as a pillar of the community? You can really be quite creative here. Don’t rush the process – once you have established a name, a vision, and a story, all the other details like theme colors and logo style will fall into place much easier.

The next stage is for your business to start living into that brand. Approach the task holistically. In all of your business practices and interactions ask yourself, is this strengthening my brand? The partnerships you form, products you produce, and marketing tactics you use should all reinforce the message of your brand.

It’s only then that your company’s branding efforts and consistency are rewarded by clients respecting and responding to your brand and story.

Branding isn’t something to be taken lightly, and fortunately New Zealand is home to some of the world’s best branding companies. If you are having trouble developing a brand by yourself or are growing frustrated with how slowly customers are responding to your new image then consider exploring the expertise that others have to offer.