WHY Brand Matters AND The Real Reasons You Need One

Say you’re about to launch a new company or a new product. Say you want to start with a strong brand. Or maybe you’ve been around for a while, and , just like in your house, you’re about to do some touchups — maybe change the drapes, a bit of brand repair here and there, brand extension, rebranding.

No matter your starting point, if branding action is on your agenda, this and the subsequent articles we plan on publishing should point you in the right direction. It will be an overview of the why does brands matter, why you need one, and how establishing a brand is actually a value multiplier for your product.

What Is a Brand, anyway?

Simply put, a brand is used to declare something. In a way, brands are promises you made, and your clients believe in. Hopefully. Later on there will be a more in depth definition of what brands and branding are, but for the sake of brevity, you might want to remember just these little words — a brand is a promise.

As we delve deeper into the world of branding, remember this:

• A brand is established by building trust in a unique promise about who you are, what you stand for, and what one-of-a-kind and meaningful goods or services you deliver.
• A brand is built by living up to that promise every single time people come into contact with your name, your message, or your business. The means by which they come into contact, be it through advertising, publicity, word of mouth, the buying experience, customer service, billings, returns, or ongoing communication, bears no relevance.
• A brand gets stronger be constantly reinforcing that promise. If contact with your brand is less that consistent or not in line with what people expected they could count on, you essentially break your promise, breaking the brand and risking the reputation of your business as a result. Building brands takes hard focus, strong passion, relentless persistence, and quite a bit more than just due diligence. Brand building requires time and money. On the flip side, the payoff, and it’s a big one, is that strong brands build business and equity for their owners

What do you see? Vase or Faces?

Perception is everything

Many mistake the logo for the brand, but, in fact, the logo is just one of the many facets of a brand. Your brand isn’t how you look or what you say or even what you sell. Your brand is what people believe you stand for. For example:

• Starbucks sells coffee. It stands for daily inspiration.
• Apple sells phones. It stands for thinking differently.
• Disney sells animated motion pictures, amusement parks, and family entertainment. It stands for family values, and making dreams come true

Your brand doesn’t live in some ad or in your website. It lives in consumer minds. Branding is the process of manipulating consumer beliefs and perceptions, towards a more accurate and representation of what you want your brand to be.

What brands MUST do

Brands create consumer trust and emotional attachments. As a result, they nurture the relation between consumers and products that withstand pricing wars, offers from new competitors, and help overcome rare lapses in product or service excellence.

Great brands aren’t just recognised and trusted. They’re loved. For examples of such brands, next time you take a stroll, look at the logos you see displayed around you. Each time you see one, try to think of that brand’s main competitor. Then ask yourself “What’s the chance that a buyer of the competing brand would ‘wear’ the brand’s logo with such pride?” Only brands that strike deep emotional chords with customers make their way into hearts, minds, car windows, ball caps, etc!

As for the benefits of a well developed brand?

Brands make selling easier

Brands are big powerhouses because they make selling easier in person and online. People prefer to buy from companies they feel they know and can trust, and brands reinforce that promise.

Whether you’re directly selling products, investment opportunities, job opportunities, or ideas, a brand opens the door to success by making people aware that you made a unique and meaningful promise before you even meet your would be client.

When consumers are aware of your brand, they’re aware of the positive characteristics you stand for. And the negative ones, don’t forget. Long before they get ready to make a purchase, they feel they know who you are and what unique value they can count on you to deliver. As a result, when it comes time to make a sale, brand owners can concentrate on the wants and needs of the consumer, rather than take up valuable consumer time trying to explain themselves and their unique attributes.

Without a brand, you have to build a case for why you deserve the consumer’s business every single time you get ready to make a sale. While brand owners are closing the deal, those without strong brands are still introducing themselves.

Imagine you’re setting out to buy a new phone and you see one emblazoned with a known logo.

It’s likely that your next step is to dive into a discussion with the salesperson of how much memory the particular model has, what operating system is it running, what software is included, will it support software updates 3 years down the road, etc. On the other hand, if you see a no-name model — even at a dramatically lower price — you’re likely to first try to establish trust with the manufacturer, it’s history, asses the quality.

In short — something to make you relate with that manufacturer. Selling a no-name item takes time and patience. It’s a costly route to a sale in a retail setting, and it’s nearly impossible online, where there’s no one standing by to offer explanations, inspire confidence, counter resistance, or break down barriers for your consumers.

Brands are added value

Brands with a huge reach and an established client base got there by delivering on some important customer benefits. It was those customer benefits that translated to higher sales, higher profit margins, and higher added value. Consider these brand advantages as proof:

• Consumers are willing to pay more to buy brands they know, based on the belief that brands deliver long sought benefits.
• Consumers stay loyal to brands, buying them more often, in greater volume, and without the need for the same amount of promotional incentives.
• Retailers provide brands greater store visibility because they know that brands drive sales and result in higher store revenues.
• Brand owners don’t need to launch new offerings from scratch. They can grow their businesses by leveraging their brands into product and line extensions.
• Most brand owners find it easier to attract and retain good employees because applicants believe in the quality of the workplace based on advance knowledge of the caliber of the brand.
• Brand owners run more efficient operations because they align all decisions with the mission, vision, and values that underpin the brand promise.
• Brand owners benefit from increased market share, increased investor support, and increased company value.

Brands trump commodities

When it comes to marketing, you have either a one-of-a-kind brand or a one-like-a-million-others. When it comes to creating a marketing success story, there’s no question that brands fare better because

• Brands are products defined by and chosen for their unique distinguishing promises. People buy brands because they relate to and trust their distinctions and attributes. Consumers are willing to spend extra time and money in order to obtain the brands they believe in.
• Goods and services are easy to substitute and hard to differentiate. Goods are bought simply because they serve a purpose. Sugar, coffee, flour, and eggs are all goods. Consumers buy them because they meet their standards and are available when and where they’re needed and at the lowest price.

One more thing to remember — brands do increase the odds of business survival. New businesses and new products are being launched at an unprecedented pace. You could have tens of thousands of new products launched every year. Only those that brave the market by hailing from a well-established brand, or those building a name for themselves fast can capture consumer awareness, understanding, and preference fast enough to survive.