4 Prevalent Myths about Branding

I, for one, am surprised that these myths still exist!
Tip: Naysayers should start sharpening their knives before scrolling down.

Building a brand is a long and tedious process. Pretty much like bringing-up a child and imbibing him with character. If you are thinking of taking the leap and getting down and dirty with the nitty gritty, you will first need clarity. If you go around researching a little, you might stumble upon more than a few myths spread by the naysayers.

Here, we, go:

Myth: Branding is Considerably more Significant for Startups.

“Don’t you think all this, um, stuff is more relevant for startups who are trying to make a name?”

Ridiculous! That’s what this misconception is! Most brand agencies have heard the above from several enterprise clients over time.

On the contrary, a proper branding strategy is essential for age-old business establishments to outgrow their stagnation phase and open up wider avenues. Further to that, it can help them appeal to the younger generation and bolster their clientele.

When actually making purchasing decision where customers or clients have to shell out moolah, they obviously have a slight inclination towards brand names that they have already heard about in the past.

A stellar and reliable brand name helps create a phenomenon out of an erstwhile ‘also there’ product.

Branding breathes a new lease of life into any existing business and even old products. It is, thus, important for products to be well-marketed in order to remain prepared before startups rush for a chunk of the market.

Myth: Branding is equal to Website Designing + Brochures + Merchandise.

Oh, come on! How could it be that easy?

Actually, modern-age branding is an all-encompassing process that aims at grooming your brand’s DNA. It basically strives to create a favourable image for your brand. Branding professionals focus on creating a stellar visual appeal for any business that helps it become more popular among the masses. This oozes from every aspect — Office Design & Layout, Website, Logo, Merchandise, you name it! Setting a prior roadmap for effective digital strategies also helps in the creation of an interactive digital ecosystem for the brand.

Your branding strategy needs to be aligned with the product vision. Identifying potential customers and clients, working on brand identity, and charting out a roadmap — that’s what it takes.

Myth: Good Branding Can Even Push an Utterly flawed Product.

NAY!
Product managers, repeat in unison.

While it is a well-known fact that a good product should be complemented with a suitable branding strategy; we have a similar equation vice versa.

Yes, any product needs a tailored branding strategy to gain traction and stay popular.
But, a good product is also an essential pre-condition for branding strategies to pan out as planned. There is not much a brand agency can do to popularise a weak product.

See, higher consumer awareness in the past few years has also led to higher expectations. If your product is good, the customers know that you deserve a cookie. But if it is mediocre, then the customers think that you definitely deserve the cookie.
‘Word-of-mouth’, that’s the fortune cookie we are talking about here.

Myth: Products that Cater to Region-Specific Customers Can Do Away with Branding Efforts.

Demographics are integral to branding, and it goes either way — with search going hyper local, how does this myth even exist?

When it comes to region-specific targeting or local businesses, branding helps them in customer acquisition and awareness, specifically those customers whose decision-making processes heavily rely on brand loyalty based on perceived quality.

That would be all.
Oh, and did I forget to mention that most people who actually believe in these myths refuse to acknowledge it. Or am I the one who has this myth?
Darn it! I need caffeine.

via Brand Unlocked