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IMPORTANCE OF BRANDING TO A BUSINESS

For some people, branding is this expensive venture which they are not really sure that they need. For others, they confuse branding with advertising.

Branding is actually very different from advertising. Once you have made the initial investment in crafting the right brand identity, your main task is to communicate that consistently across all touch points. These are things you do every day anyway, you just need to do it constantly and consistently across all touch points.

There are many companies today with strong brands that do almost no advertising. Rolls Royce for example does not do any traditional advertising, yet they are a very valuable brand. When you build a strong brand, customer loyalty will follow, and these can be the greatest advocate a business can have. Spreading the gospel of your offering via word of mouth. Your employees too can be great champions of your brand if you have communicated your brand values to them. This strategy will not work for everyone, as some of these strategies will not be enough when you are trying to build a strong brand but it’s important to note that branding is not the same as advertising. Advertising is another tool in the marketing equation that you can use to spread the word.

The main reason to build a solid brand for a business is really to make sustainable profit. Research shows that strong brands can command higher prices, thereby providing greater revenue and profits. Consumers are less price sensitive and like to buy the brands that reflect the same values as them. When we think of the most profitable companies in the world they are also the most beloved brands, think of the likes of Apple, Amazon, Google, Coca-Cola.

Brands also make it easy for customers to select your product or service because a good brand is like a short cut in the customers mind. For example, people will say give me coke, instead of saying I want a soft drink.

Building a strong brand should be a deliberate activity, but some companies seem to expect it to happen inadvertently. To build a strong brand, the brand experience must be consistent at every point of engagement. Small businesses can build a strong brand, they don’t need a huge budget, they just need to keep their brand promises, be consistent and focus on a core message and communicate it in multiple ways. The management and staff must be committed too, so that the brand can be indoctrinated deep into the organization because they are the resources that will deliver the brand experience. In all cases, you have to give it time, planning and perseverance, these are the essentials for building an enduring and successful brand.

At Platform we are all about supporting Nigerian Businesses. It is usually difficult to evaluate the impact of your own brand this is where we come in. Our branding strategies are designed to differentiate you in the marketplace and increase your bottom line, we help develop or refine your branding strategy to ensure your brands support it.