Copywriter at Classy Writeups
There is widespread ambivalence about the relevance of branding, especially among startups and small businesses looking to find their feet in an innately hostile environment.
For the most part, small businesses remain blinded by the erroneous assumption that brands exclusively signify the ‘bigger’ fish in the bond who have unrestrained access to massive budgets and nationwide recognition.
As a result, they acquiesce to their fate and do precious little other than coming up with fancy-looking business cards or a catchy logo. This is ironic, considering that it is small businesses that need to leverage branding more than their well-established counterparts.
To reinforce this point, research suggests that almost 50% of consumers suggest that they consider becoming more loyal to a brand during their very first purchase.
After all, branding gives your audience a clear sense of purpose and a well-defined roadmap – a credible voice that people want to listen to. But do they really need to, or is there more than meets the eye?
Rebranding As The New Face of Your Business
Companies sometimes need to significantly change their name, logo, messaging, or overall brand strategy. When rebranding a B2B company, one must consider its impact on existing clients, partners, and other stakeholders. B2B companies may need to maintain a more professional and authoritative brand image.
On the other hand, B2C companies must focus on reaching and engaging with a broader consumer base. B2C companies have more flexibility to experiment with creative and visually appealing brand identities that resonate with consumer emotions.
Additionally, B2B rebranding often requires in-depth and informative content that showcases thought leadership and addresses industry pain points. B2C rebranding may involve creating engaging stories, relatable content, and user-generated content that connects with consumers on a personal level.
B2B relationships tend to be more long-term and built on trust and reliability. Rebranding efforts should be sensitive to maintaining these relationships during the transition. B2C relationships can be more transactional, and rebranding might focus on capturing the attention of prospects and acquiring more customers.
While there are these fundamental differences, it's important to note that successful rebranding in both B2B and B2C contexts requires a clear understanding of the company's goals, the competitive landscape, the target audience, and the market trends. Working with experts can help you attain your rebranding goals.
What Should Your Brand Accomplish?
Today, game changers have realized that branding can no longer be viewed as a means to lure your prospects to prefer you over the competition.
Your mission is to get them to see you as a dependable thought leader/influencer who addresses their needs or problems with panache, candor, and hopefully, better than anybody else. Against this overarching theme, your brand must accomplish the following objectives:
• Deliver a message clearly and succinctly
• Reaffirm your credibility
• Build an emotional connection with your audience
• Generate goodwill and loyalty
• Motivate your potential audience to buy or take the next step
Brands Signify Your Intent
Branding reflects a bold proclamation that your business makes. It tells your audience that you mean business (literally!) and are here to keep all the promises made by your company.
Everything that your organization exemplifies should be easily recognizable throughout the brand. Else, your customers will be quick to notice the gap between what was promised and what was actually delivered on the ground. Needless to say, this gap can be catastrophic not just for your brand awareness, but also for the overall well-ebbing of your business. What this also means is that if you’re unwilling to back your intent with appropriate action, you might as well not intersperse it in your brand.
Branding Goes Past Mundane Transactions
The beauty about brand is that it’s not restricted to what transpires before a purchase is made. In fact, it’s got more to do with the kind of experience it delivers to your audience at various touch points in their journey, especially after a business transaction.
• Was the quality of the product as good as you had promised?
• Did it serve the purpose it was supposed to?
• How was the overall customer service experience?
By answering these questions honestly, you give yourself a great chance of creating a loyal customer base that looks forward to trusting you.
Moreover, it also lets you align your marketing strategies with your broader business objectives seamlessly. In fact, an increasing number of businesses are realizing the importance of branding in marketing.
Branding Helps You Outdo Competition
In a market that is now stiflingly competitive, how do you stand out from thousands of similar companies that claim to be as good as you, if not better? The need of the hour is to realize that you’re no longer competing at a local level. With the advancements in online and offline technologies, the entire world is your marketplace, literally.
The proposition that your organization can and should cater to a universal audience clearly implies that your growth potential is only limited by your own imagination. However, the one downside to that is that you need to outdo that much more competition, potentially on a global level.
By establishing your brand and its credibility, you give your customers a valid reason to consider you before turning elsewhere. Research also tells us that people prefer to associate with organizations with a credible, reputed brand than those that don’t.
Branding Builds Trust
As your audience gets to know your business better, they will start trusting you more. However, in order to develop that elusive trust factor, you must shout out loud as to why they should try you out. Here, building a brand helps determine how your first few customers perceive the quality of your services.
Combining subject matter competence with unmatched customer experience and a deftly-crafted social media presence will ensure that you cover all bases. You must relay the underlying message that every single initiative you take is to delight your customers and encourage them to keep coming back to you.
Branding Opens Up New Revenue Channels
Let’s face it. Most people just don’t have the time or interest in figuring out why they should care about your brand - even after you create a website. Thus, the onus is on you to ensure that the brand answers that all-important question on your behalf.
For example, how can you tell your mates about the stunning golfing gear that you’ve found incredibly helpful if you cannot even remember the brand? Every organization needs to have a credible face – and very often, branding becomes the face that engages their potential audience, delights them at every touch point of their journey, and eventually earns their trust – in that order. Building brand identity is arguably one of the most effective ways of spreading the good news about your business. Equally, it is paramount that your marketing efforts, logo design, social media communication, and reputation are congruent with each other to create a resounding impression on your audience.
As that happens, you’re more likely to convince your audience to become your success partners, opening up new and sustainable revenue outlets.
Branding Harnesses the Power of Emotions
If you give your customers a good enough reason to feel strongly about why they should care about your business (which can only happen if you convince them about what it can do for them), they have a better reason to make the transition from fence-sitters to active participants – in other words, get one step closer towards making a purchase decision. This is an important point because, as mountains of research tell us, it is emotions and not logic that drives the purchase decisions of most buyers.
As visceral emotional creatures, humans are fond of ideas, stories, concepts, and even products that touch that coveted emotional nerve in them. Also, emotions score heavily over logic when it comes to developing brand loyalty.