The Merits of Brand Investment
Although marketing professionals understand how essential it is to invest in a company’s brand, it is difficult to form a correlation between the strength of a brand and how it affects a business. In recent years, several ideas have evolved that show how a strong brand can enhance the success of a business. The word “brand” does not refer to just a logo or a tagline. A brand is how a company or product is perceived. A brand is not the name of the business, it’s the experience you have when you buy their products or use their service. The impact of a strong brand is not only seen through marketing metrics but in the bottom line. It is crucial that you shape those perceptions properly. Branding should never be seen as another random expense in your marketing budget. Branding is a vital investment — it’s an investment that once done properly, will continue to produce returns as long as your business is in existence. Still wondering why you should invest in branding?
Here are 5 sure returns that come about from focusing on building a strong brand:
1. Attract the kind of customers you want
When you take a deep dive into your company’s brand analysis, you get to know and understand your customer types it’s easy to see what sort of clients are in line with the culture and goals of the company. Once you know your target audience, you need to understand their persona (more info on personas — https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/buyer-persona-research). In doing so, you can easily craft specific marketing collateral that resonates with them. This makes your products or services highly personable and ensures clients stay loyal to your brand.
2. Sell at a higher price
It’s true that people don’t buy products, they buy trust. This works for a brand too, and of course, people will pay for expensive stuff, as long as they’re sure that they’re getting a high-quality product or service. Building a strong brand helps your value stand out against your competitors. Brands that stand out succeed in establishing their competitive edge over other companies in their field, and therefore, having the ability to sell their products at an increased price.
3. Close sales easier
There is a difference between trying to market or sell a brand that is boring and outdated than trying to sell a brand that is cutting edge and current. The uniqueness and superiority of the products and services offered have been clearly defined through a smart strategic brand planning. A strong brand makes a salesperson’s job easy.
4. Reduction in the cost of marketing
When a brand is properly structured, marketing initiatives become more effective and efficient. With brand cohesiveness, every effort made for better marketing will be integrated into the broader branding campaign. Every initiative you come up with will strengthen the pre-existing campaigns. The templates and guidelines that spring off from the process of building a strong brand make sure that you aren’t bringing back the wheel on design each time you come up with a fresh marketing initiative.
5. Strengthen your company’s value
Brand equity is a form of strength in its own right, allowing you to add to the price point of your services and products alike, but it also greatly impacts shares. The way customers perceive a brand will affect their behavior. The financial state of your business is highly dependent on customer behavior. In the long run, the brand itself becomes a force that makes the company more marketable and valuable.
The bottom line
If you’re looking for a way to improve your bottom line, improve your brand. When a company makes the decision to invest in building a strong brand, it continues to yield more return over the company’s lifetime. Allowing you to take on the customers you want, and selling at a higher price point. In addition to this, market leadership, customer loyalty, and brand equity are sure to place you in position for an exponential return on investment. If there’s a way to go about securing a sure-fire method of investing in the future of your company, you know the answer — look at your branding and ask some hard questions.
Branding a company does NOT need to break the bank! Family and Friends is our answer to the question “can my budget afford this?” It’s a monthly design retainer program that allows us to dedicate design time to your company. We’ll meet with you over coffee and hash out a plan of attack for the coming month. Because we do this on a regular basis, we’ll get to know and understand your brand, fine-tuning and getting better on every pass.
We have a limited amount of spots available. If you’re a small to medium size business wanting to take your branding to the next level, email us and we’ll send you some examples of our past successes.
