Filed Under branding, Marketing
Why You Should Consider Branding a Need, Not a Luxury in 2020
Throughout the years, there seems to have been an ambivalence surrounding the importance of branding. Small businesses and startups can struggle to keep up as they make their way through the ever-changing marketplace.
It being 2020, we strongly believe that branding should be considered a need rather than a luxury expense given the way consumers buy these days.
An investment in Branding might fall by the wayside as you wrap your head around every other expense that comes with running a successful company.
But don’t fall into this trap.
The assumption is that branding is something a ‘big fish’ invests in or that you can get away with other marketing efforts to gain the customer base you desire. This is far from the truth.
What do we mean by Branding, anyway?
If executed successfully, your brand will tell your story; it is the way consumers perceive and experience your business. It represents everything that you are and everything you stand for. It is crucial that you take the time to be sure your brand properly communicates what you want it to.
An advantage of it being 2020 is that you can leverage your brand in ways you probably couldn’t have imagined before today…
Establish Credibility
Credibility of a brand is what influences consumers to make buying decisions. Establishing credibility is the trick here, as it needs to be reinforced again and again, consistently.
Here is where you can demonstrate your expertise in a given arena, prove that you can and will deliver.
This is where you make sure you’re attracting the customer base you dreamed of, through your logo, your imagery, verbal marketing efforts, your mission, and vision.
Emotionally Connect
It is widely known that emotion is what drives purchasing decisions of buyers, not logic.
Using your brand, you have the opportunity to tap in to consumer emotion to instill trust and loyalty, not just inspire them to make a purchase with you.
First impressions are everything.
So if you can make your customers feel something, the way you want them to feel, you’ve absolutely won. You’re giving them a reason to care about your business, not just spend money.
The key here is loyalty, loyalty, loyalty.
Competition is Cutthroat
The landscape of the marketplace isn’t the only thing that has changed significantly over the years.
Consumer attention spans have decreased significantly given the increase of advertisements served on a daily basis.
With so many choices, it is becoming more and more difficult to make buying decisions. This puts added pressure on businesses everywhere to remain a part of the conversation, to keep up with the competition. Competition not only applies amongst other businesses, you are now competing for the attention of your consumer.
Not getting lost in the sauce is Branding 101.
Your brand could and should be highly effective in standing out from the crowd amongst all of the noise.
Consistency
One of the things that branding experts will help form is a detailed brand standards guide.
This is a template and guideline for the standards set out by your company. This includes logo variations, usage guides, colors, fonts, typographical hierarchies, messaging guidelines, branded visual elements, and more. A must.
With your brand guidelines established, you can be sure that all content is appropriately curated and aligned with your standards, and that the rest of the company follows suit.
Consistency throughout the brand is a key component in building credibility and trust in the marketplace.
Everything you do should reflect your brand and maintain the integrity of the company.
A brand guide shows all team members how to operate inside and outside of the company, how to apply these standards in all forms of communication, and how to support the overall mission and vision.
All in all, solidifying and perfecting your brand is the way of the future and can ensure you’re telling your story the right way. Things are moving quickly in 2020, so you can’t afford to lose anyone to improper messaging
Or worse yet, be overlooked.
Whether your brand is already established, or you’re looking to rebuild, it’s crucial that your brand is treated as a necessity, not a luxury.
Leave us a comment or contact us today about making your brand come to life!
