Brandingbuilding: be conscious and unique!

The brand is the unique identity that distinguishes a company from its competitors. It is made up of many elements, including the logo, design, use of colour, customer experience and even the name itself. Like a solid house, a brand needs to be designed and then built systematically, step by step, brick by brick. But why is brand building so important, what types are there and what are the stages to go through? Read on to find out!

Brands are all around us. They're on our clothes, our phones, our cars, everywhere we look we see branding. They all have a story to tell, a message to tell, carefully designed by someone and then brought to life. That's what we call a brand. How can it be built?

What does brandbuilding mean?

Branding/brand building is in fact nothing more than a conscious activity aimed at developing a brand. The emphasis here is on awareness! Brand owners set their goals, what they want to convey, and in the process of brand building they make others think of the product or company exactly as they did at the beginning.

It's important to understand that any product or service we offer in the marketplace (or even ourselves) has a brand because it presents an image to the outside world. When building a brand, we don't let this image get distorted, as we consciously make sure that all messages convey the same message.

When building a branding strategy, the aim should be to ensure that the brand is easily identifiable and not confused with competitors. It is important that the brand conveys a promise, one that is important to the consumer and with which he or she can identify.

We can only win with brandbuilding!

There are so many arguments for brandbuilding, here are the most important ones.

Differentiates you from your competitors

The basic function of a brand is to differentiate a product or service from other market players. This is not easy, given that the number of competitors can be very high. However, with the right attention, a unique and memorable brand can be built.

Create a credible image

If brand building is done consciously, a coherent, cohesive image of the company will emerge that conveys professionalism. This in turn contributes significantly to building credibility.

It justifies a higher price

The more professional and credible the image, the higher the quality of the product, the higher the price range and the more customers will pay. This can increase profits.

Increases loyalty

If the brand name can be linked to trust, then customers will be happy to return, will be loyal to the company, and will not switch to the competition, because why should they if they are satisfied.

Support long-term building

If the company has long-term plans, it cannot afford to put brand building on the back burner. In the absence of conscious building, focus is lost, brand equity stagnates and ultimately this will be at the expense of operations and sustainability.

It becomes embedded in the public consciousness

Consistent communication is part of brand building. It has the effect of increasing brand awareness, brand familiarity. And if customers are satisfied, they will be happy to tell their friends.

Supports the marketing strategy

A well-built brand also supports the implementation of marketing plans. It also helps to make more efficient use of your marketing budget, saving you money overall.

Brand awareness

One of the most important elements of branding is brand awareness, which refers to how easily a brand is recognised, whether consumers can identify the company without seeing its name. To make this a top priority, special attention should be paid to the following branding tools:

Logo

A good logo is expressive, unique and perfectly suited to your company, product or service. Often the simplest logos are the most successful - think of Nike's pipe or Apple's apple!

Colours

Colours can also become intertwined with a brand name. They have a meaning, they convey a mood, which ideally harmonises with the company. Let's give it a try! Purple? Milka! Magenta? Telecom! Red? Netflix! It works, right?

Tagline

The slogan actually boils down to the name, complements it, supports it. A good tagline helps to deepen brand awareness, is easy to remember, playful but not too complicated, rather short and pithy.

Packaging

If it's a product rather than a service, packaging is an important factor in brand recognition. Here you need to pay attention to both design elements and quality, as there are few things more annoying and depressing than poor packaging! Packaging is therefore essential and must be consistent with the brand image and message.

What types are there?

As we wrote above, it is not just products that can have a brand, but also companies and individuals. Let's get to know these three types.

Corporate branding

Corporate branding is all about building a corporate brand, under which you can have multiple products. The aim here is to create a positive image of the company itself, which will naturally have a positive impact on the branding of the products.

Product branding

The essence of product branding, as the name suggests, is to increase the awareness and popularity of a product. The ultimate aim is to get consumers to buy that product rather than another.

Personal branding

At the heart of personal branding is a person. The aim is to create a positive image of that person in people's minds. Personal branding is typically needed by experts, managers of large companies, entrepreneurs, sportsmen and sportswomen, but it is a fact that every individual builds his or her own brand by the clothes he or she wears, the music he or she listens to, the books he or she reads, etc.

Employer branding

Employer branding aims to create a positive image of the company as a place to work, to attract people to apply for open positions and to enable the company to select the best people.

The steps of brand building

Brand building is a process consisting of the following steps:

Selecting the target audience

This is the first step that needs particular attention, as it will be the basis for the rest of the steps later on. The central question is: who do we want to reach? It's easier if you already have customer data to draw on. If you don't, then you should be flexible with the concept of the ideal buyer, the buyer persona. You have to start somewhere and keep track of the results.

Defining the mission

It is the brand message, the mission, that the audience will identify with. It's worth thinking in terms of missions that are not too general but not too specific, so that you are concrete but not too narrow in your immersion.

Identifying the USP

USP, or unique selling point, means what is the plus that makes us different from our competitors. This can be very diverse, for example, personally delivering the vegetables grown in your garden, or undertaking on-site installation of an electrical appliance, etc. The key is to know what it is that sets you apart from the competition.

Designing the image and visual identity

The next step is to design the branding and visual identity. The importance of this has been discussed above. What the most important is consistency and harmony. It is worth creating a brandbook in which you set out the most important elements, this can be particularly useful in the application process.

Application

The final step is the application, i.e. delivering the messages you have created in the form you have designed to the intended audience. Particular care must be taken to ensure consistent application of the visual elements, and a visual identity manual is a great help here.

As a digital agency, Meraki Marketing offers a full range of services for companies. We offer solutions for all phases of branding and the entire process for both large companies and SMEs. 

You know what goals you want to achieve, we will show you the way! Ready?