Branding branding branding: it’s what we are all about! While we love talking about building your brand, however, we know that not everyone comes to the subject of branding with the same level of knowledge.
We also think that it’s never a bad time to get back to the basics! That’s why today we are going to go over some branding terms that you may come across, and what they mean when it comes to building your business.
But before we get into some terms, let’s talk about what branding is and why it’s important in the first place:
Branding is a process of researching the market and developing a distinct set of features for your business that consumers will then begin to associate with your products and services. It is actually the identity that your business expresses beyond your products and services, which can make your business memorable, make consumers want to work with you, or even bring pride to your employees in being associated with your brand.
Why branding is important is that it makes your business memorable. Not only that, but it can be a huge factor for consumers when making purchasing decisions. In fact, in a 2015 global survey from Nielsen, nearly 60% of shoppers said they actively choose to buy from brands they know, and 21% said they buy products specifically because they like the brand that the products come from.
Now that we have laid out a definition of what branding is and why it’s important, let’s get into some more terms you are likely to come across when it comes to branding:
Brand Identity
Your brand identity typically consists of your company values, your products and services, how you communicate, and how you want people to feel. It is the personality that your business expresses, and the promises it makes to consumers. Your identity is what your customers walk away with after interacting with your brand: your face, your name, what you do for people, and how you do it.
Brand Awareness
How familiar is your target audience (or the public in general) with your brand? This is what brand awareness is: whether or not people even know you exist. Brand awareness is obviously incredibly important for your business, as people won’t be able to work with you if they don’t even know you are out there.
Brand Recognition
Tied in to brand awareness is brand recognition. How well can consumers in your target audience recognize your brand without seeing your business name, but rather through your logo, tagline, advertising, packaging, or products? Being able to recognize a brand without even seeing the name is a big component of brand recall: that is, how well consumers remember your business or are able to think about it without a direct identifier.
Brand Trust
Brand trust is simply how strongly your customers believe in your brand. Being able to deliver on your promises as a company goes a long way in building brand trust, along with the level of service you provide for consumers and how you make each individual customer feel like they are important to your business.
Brand Management
Brand management is the process of creating and maintaining your brand. This includes a wide range of elements: from visual assets such as logos, colors, and packaging, to more abstract elements such as how you are presented and come across to your target customer base. Brands are always evolving with our world, and therefore managing your brand should be a continual process.
Brand Valuation
Such as any valuation, brand valuation is the commercial estimation of your brand’s worth based on consumers perceptions, recognitions you have received, and perceived trust in your brand. Having a powerful brand can make your business valuable to investors or potential buyers, which is largely the purpose of brand valuation.
Brand Extension
Are you thinking about expanding your brand into new product lines, or even a totally new industry and market? Brand extensions are when companies use their existing brand awareness to grow their business into new markets as a form of creating new revenue streams or diversifying product lines.
These are just a few of the big terms you may come across when it comes to branding. But the most important takeaway that we want to leave you with today is that branding is not just your name, logo, and products. It is the experience that customers have when they interact with your brand; is the feeling that they are left with every time they think or talk about your business. This is the manner in which big, powerful brands stand out amongst the crowd: they utilize all the different components of branding to connect with their audience and leave them with an experience that builds brand trust and recognition.
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