Branding: The Meaning and Importance of Acquiring Your Brand

A brand is essentially a promise. Think about entities like Ford, BMW, Coca-Cola or Apple, and you’ll immediately realize what they promise. In other words, consumers know what they will get from a well-branded business. If they are talking about Ford, they are reminded of speed, efficiency, and safety. When Coca-Cola is mentioned, they think about the sweet, black, carbonated taste in a can or bottle.

But in another sense, branding consists of a special combination of a creatively-designed logo, fonts, color, design, price, service and many more. It could also consist of bundles of attributes. Take BMW for instance. They represent comfort, well-built, Bavarian machines. Above everything else, they represent an attribute of safety.

This combination of promise, look, attributes and personality create a unique patina called the ”me appeal.’ If you’re buying a particular product, it says something about you.

Take the example of the alcohol industry. They manufacture all sorts of wine or beer which consumers can identify themselves with. Brands are simply developed from scratch, and there are very good reasons why that is so.

If you’re questioning your brand or wondering why branding matters, think about the following things:

Creating the halo effect

Edward Thorndike has a scientific concept which is very interesting to learn about. It’s called ”The halo effect”. His concept is psychological and extremely complex. It goes beyond the advice of making your brand stand out.

It is based on the following rationale:

There’s a type of cognitive bias an observer will develop on the overall impression of a product or service. This is entirely based on the properties/character of what they’re observing.

 

To put it in layman’s language, we mean people can either love, hate or perhaps feel indifferent towards your brand based on their initial impression.

 

He is of the view that this tool can be extremely powerful when used to your advantage, though it can backfire on you when not used properly.

You see, as an entrepreneur, you need to ensure that your company, brand, website and all the other aspects of their business is sitting well with their audience. However, this is scientific, and one needs not to guess on how to do it — there are studies that show what colors, fonts or imagery appeal most to people.

Consistency

Consistency brings loyalty. If you’re able to maintain a consistent brand across all your business aspects, whether online or offline, you will gain the trust of your audience. This also works best when married to an attractive design. If your branding is visually-appealing, you will attract the attention of potential customers, and this will work to your advantage.

Statement of Quality

When shopping at the supermarket, you automatically tend to pick products that are familiar to you. It all has to do with familiarity and packaging. If you take time to carefully design your products, you will target your potential buyers, and this is how successful entities do business.

The original cost of branding can be high. However, if you consider a 2% growth in potential customer interest as a result of your branding, you will realize that it’s a win. In the long-term period, it’s worth it then saving the petty cash you’re minding about now.