7 Ways Branding Boosts Your Business
If you’re a business owner and you want to increase your profit and keep your customers around for longer and get more of them, there’s really a simple answer: branding. The complicated answer is what we’re going to get into today. We’re going to talk about seven ways that branding can legitimately help your business grow and why you should invest in building a brand for your business. Let’s get down to it.
The following is a transcript of the above video.
A question I get a lot when it comes time to having the first meeting and introducing myself to new potential partners is why would we spend money on branding when we have plenty of other business needs? Now, it’s a completely fair question and deserves a fair answer. The first thing that I tend to do is I tend to level set. So, first and foremost, branding is not about logos or colors or patterns, or anything like that. What we’re really talking about here is that branding is a combination and a strategic way to bring forward culture, clarity, and to increase cash.
Using those three Cs to describe branding definitely changes the entire way that we think about it. We’re not just here to look good, we’re here to speak well, we’re here to be smart, we’re here to be strategic. Now, when we get into the short answer of it, a strong brand will help fuel your business and really help you solve business problems before they even occur. It becomes an asset and a tool to running your business, not just a pretty flyer or business card, or anything like that.
1. Branding creates clarity of vision and purpose.
So, let’s start off on the first thing that branding can do. The very first thing branding can do is give you vision and clarity. Now, what do we mean by that? Now, if we work on and define what your brand is and actually get it to a place where you’re happy with it, it feels true, it feels genuine, now, all of a sudden, we have a clear idea of where we want to go.
Think of it like building a house, right. We need to know the blueprint, we need to know what the house is going to look like before we start to build it. Otherwise, you’re going to run into cost overages, issues with labor, issues with the house, a whole bunch of stuff, the foundation, all of that. We need to know what the end result is going to be and where we want to go before we get there. So, it helps give the business a plan; it helps create a sort of… Think of it like a yard stick. You’re able to ask yourself does this feel on brand? Yes? No? If the answer’s no, then we’re not going to do it, and so now branding, in that very simple example, is used as a business tool. It’s used as a way to help you decide what makes sense for your business and what doesn’t make sense for your business.
The other aspect that it does, aside from internally getting people moving in the right direction and being sort of an asset for you to use as you build up your business, is the fact that you’re able to connect with customers. So, the reality is that 64% of customers cite shared values as the primary reason they have a relationship with the brand. Isn’t just me saying it, this is from some smarty pants over at Harvard. I think they’re pretty good. But that’s a very important thing to keep in mind. 64% of customers want to know the values so that they can have a relationship with a brand. Those are some really key words that we really want to hone in on and grab on to.
We want to have a relationship with those customers because they’ll keep coming back for more. We want to convey our values to our customers so that they know what the heck they’re associating themselves with. If you’re just a business and you’re just selling something, anybody can sell that thing; it doesn’t necessarily matter. But if you’re adding value to the interaction and to what a customer goes through when they do buy from you, now we’re starting to get somewhere; now we’re creating opportunities to stand for more than product. We’re creating opportunities for you to stand for relationship-building and to share the values that your business has with your customers, because at the end of the day, people who share those same values are going to flock to you.
That’s part one of seven of the different things branding can do. Since we’re changing the conversation of how people buy and purchase by adding in these other elements that your business provides in the form of your brand.
2. Branding increases revenue.
What else can branding do? Branding can increase your revenue as a business. Like we talked about, branding is an asset that your business can use, not just something to make something look pretty. It’s an investment into your business. Where does that come from? Well, the first part is that, remember, a branding solution is a business solution at the end of the day. We’re designing, creating not to just make something look pretty. We’re not artists, we’re business people.
So, if we’re going to take the time and rethink the story and narrative that we’re telling through marketing, through our website, through our brochures, then let’s make sure that it’s strategic and on point. Now, we also want to make sure that it’ll make us money in the long run, so let’s take a look at that. Here’s a real interesting statistic, that 72% of purchase decisions are based on brand vision. Like we talked about in the previous little segment, that when it comes to branding, the whole purpose of it is to provide clarity and vision, so now that we’re providing clarity and vision, we know 72% of our customers are going to make a buying decision based on that, so already, from this one change of bringing your vision and what you think a bit more to the forefront, you’re now appealing to 72% of your customers who are now starting to align with that.
The other interesting thing is I know we don’t talk about logo and color and things like that, because that’s brand identity, but 23% of customers also feel that presenting yourself consistently aids in the overall perception of the business. So, if everything you’re doing looks buttoned up, you have a 25% chance of giving a little bit of a lift to your sales. Not bad.
3. Branding creates customer loyalty.
So, now that we have clarity of vision and revenue sort of checked off and we’re moving in this direction, let’s talk about customer loyalty. Any business person knows that the lifeblood of the business is referrals and word of mouth. The customers that you have, talking to other customers, recommending you, saying, “Oh, you definitely got to go with X, Y, and Z.” That is the lifeblood of any business.
Now, we say that a lot, but we never actually bring it to life, and kind of one of the themes that we’re going to be going through here is the fact that when it comes to your business and how you present yourself, we need to talk about more than product. We need to create an experience. Let’s take a look at hotels. Hotels are a really good one because, when you stay in a good hotel, you feel it, you know it, and it becomes something a little bit almost magical, I guess you could say, where it goes beyond just the bed, it goes beyond just the room service. It’s the whole shebang of everything that goes into it.
Let’s take a look at W Hotels. W Hotels, not only from a brand strategy perspective, have done a really great job of combining all the things and values that they believe in, but they present it in a really, really interesting way. So, as you go in there and as you step into an elevator in one of the hotels, there’s little bits of messaging that hit you as you go through it, from the welcome email and the signage at the front desk to once you get into the elevator, and then, once you get into your room. Even those little touchpoints where you could just phone it in and just do something that’s kind of blah, run of the mill, typical stuff that you’re used to, if you take a little bit of extra care and bring it into this umbrella of does this fit with our brand, you can create a bit more of an experience.
Toilet paper rolls. Something that most places just throw in the closet, throw in the drawer, and they don’t go back to it, W Hotel made a conscious choice of this is our brand, we have our brand, we want to do something kind of cool, so we’re going to label the extra roll of toilet paper backup plan. It’s fun, it’s cheeky, it has a little bit of humor to it, it fits within the context of the overarching brand, but it doesn’t stop there. If you keep going in through the bathroom, each of the pieces of toiletry have some little piece of fun messaging on there.
So, you may think all those little toiletries and everything, what’s the big deal? The big deal is the fact that all those little toiletries have little bits of the brand attached to them, and when it comes to branding and when it comes to building a relationship, the more times a brand registers in your brain, the stronger relationship and affinity you end up having for that company. That affinity and that affiliation is what really drives those repeat purchases, and then, on top of it, when we talk about, again, loyalty and being clear, let’s take a look at where buying power is shifting. It’s going away from Baby Boomers and moving toward Millennials and Gen X, Gen Y, and down the line.
What’s important about this is how they picture the relationships with companies that they purchase from, because 70% of Millennials and 51% of Gen X actively consider their values when buying from a company. It’s a crazy stat and it’s something that we always have to consider, because if you’re not clearly communicating those values, back to point one, you’re missing out on these giant segments of 70% of Millennials and 51% of Gen X’ers, where you’re not even having the right conversation with them. They want to know what your values are, and if you’re not giving that to them, you’re doing yourself a disservice and actually helping out your competitors.
4. Branding creates a better company culture.
Now that we’re creating a bit more customer loyalty, let’s talk internally. Branding can actually help boost your internal culture. It goes back to that first step of providing clarity about who you are and your values. You’re able to clearly communicate that to your employees. Your employees will then very easily understand the types of expectations that are set for them and how they should be interacting. For example, how you answer the phone, how you conduct yourself with a customer during the sales process, the types of language you use. The different parts that go into building that business and culture, your employees are now going to be able to not only understand it, but if you have the proper way to foster that ownership, they’re able to directly contribute to the business, because really, at the end of the day, it’s not about what you say; it’s not about the words that you put on the page, even though those are important.
But there’s also the element of what you do, and what you do really comes to life through your employees. They are the ones who are on the front lines, really trying to create that experience that we’ve been talking about, and build that for your customers. When it comes to using the brand and the values and the vision to help your employees, what ends up happening is a lift in performance of 147%. So, even though those same values and those same things that you stand for you’re conveying to your customers, if you can convey them to your employees and they associate with it, there’s a potential lift of 147% of employee performance.
That’s huge. That’s huge for just making a stand and really ensuring that you’re not just talking about the things that you stand for, but you actually are making good on them, because if you build a culture rooted in the same values that your customers are seeing and that you believe in, your employees can deliver on that brand promise. That basically means that they understand it. If they believe in it, they can help convey it to your customers.
5. Branding improves customer retention.
Another huge element that branding can help deliver on is the fact that it can improve retention of your customers. So, we’ve been talking about experience a lot, talking about values and all that. Let’s take a step and use a real world example. So, let’s take a look at a brand like Harry’s and a brand like Gillette. Both make razors. Both make razors that are really good. I’m sure if you did a one-to-one comparison you’d be hard-pressed to find… Now, the key is that Gillette has been around forever. Harry’s is relatively new on the scene. Came out with sort of that newer Warby Parker model of how they run business: predominantly online, relatively cheap compared to the big sort of inflated prices that Gillette has been able to get away with for a while.
The other aspect of it is that with all these newer brands, Warby Parker, Harry’s, Allbirds, Away luggage, all those, not only are they providing a product that is a bit more in the affordable side than some of the legacy competitors that are out there that have been around forever, but they’re also bringing in values as a part of their business, an essential part of their model. So, with Harry’s, for example, even though their razors are pretty comparable to Gillette, there is an aspect of the things that they stand for and the experience that they create. They knew that going to the store and going into the big cases was a real pain in the ass. So, let’s make it online. Let’s make it a subscription service model where we’ll just send you the new razors. We’re going to send you the razors and they’re going to be a bit more affordable than the, whatever it was, $20 a pack for four in the case at the Walgreens or the Rite Aid.
Now, on top of that, they’ve also been incredibly active with ensuring that they’re partnering with people to make exclusive products to where those proceeds go back to that charity or organization, but then they also put out a ton of content. Harry’s has their own separate microsite called Five O’Clock, where… Five o’clock shadow. That’s where they got the name from. But it’s an extension of the brand, and they produce articles and content that go along with what they stand for.
6. Branding lowers price sensitivity.
So, now we’re shifting into a place where, if you’re going one-to-one to use, again let’s say you sell cheeseburgers. Let’s say you’re a restaurant. If you’re selling a burger for $10 and the place down the street is selling a burger for $10, you might have different ingredients and different ways at it, and that will only take you so far, but the key to it is what is the experience that that person has when it comes to that burger? Look at Shake Shack, for example. The fast, casual, everyone does a burger. Bu they’re expanding like crazy because they understand that… They believe in more than just a burger. They have elements of sustainability as part of their message. They try to make sure that all of their stores and locations have a really deep tie to the local culture of where they are.
For example, the Shake Shack here in Chicago has menu items that are exclusive just for Chicago. Same with New York, same with Philly and DC. They have things that are just exclusive for them, so they’re able to connect with the community and the customer beyond just I give you money, you give me food. Same thing with Nike. Nike stands for running, Nike stands for athletics and innovation, and even though the price of their sneakers really only may cost them $3 to create, people line up around the block to get the new pair of Air Max that are going for, let’s say, 170.
They’re a good-looking shoe, they work well, they’re functional, but it’s the brand and the sort of experience that adds to it, because when you go to that Nike store, you’re greeted by those Nike employees. They’re there to help you. You’re in the store and you’re experiencing the manifestation of the brand in all different ways, from the signage to the music to the packaging. All of it feels like a cohesive experience that, “Yeah, I’m willing to pay more for this.”
Same thing with a hotel. Price of a hotel, your favorite hotel, if that, all of a sudden, goes up $10, I don’t care. I love that hotel. It’s worth it because I know that the concierges are great, I know that the service is great, I know the location is great. I know that the products in the rooms are…
All of those things go into how we take and interpret price. If you have a brand that stands for more than just product and it stands for the experience, you’re able to, again, completely change the conversation away from those little increments of price, because now, that $10 cheeseburger that I’m buying, or that $200 hotel room, whatever it may be, I know that those funds aren’t just going directly to the product that I am sort of taking in at the very end. That price that I’m paying is also contributing to the overall experience to get to that point.
7. Branding creates a competitive edge.
Now let’s talk about competitive edge and how branding can provide you a competitive edge. If we’re going apples to apples, let’s say you are a company that creates tools for roofers, for example, and you have your product, and all of a sudden, there comes a knockoff from China that is way cheaper that just basically lifted your parts, because let’s say you’re making white-label products and then, whatever, that company just comes out with it. Now, all of a sudden, there’s another product on the market that is exactly the same as what you make. That’s a problem.
If you have a strong brand, however, not a big deal, because people are buying that experience and that brand. You’re not going to get blown out of the water on price because we’re not competing on price; we’re competing on experience. So, sure, you can go ahead and buy that other product, that sort of knockoff product that’s probably comparable, if not almost exactly the same as the product that we made. Happens on Kickstarter all the time.
But the difference being you’re able to sell an experience as part of the brand and as part of buying the product, versus your competitor, where all of a sudden eh, you buy this thing and have a problem? Good luck. You’re on your own. Whereas us, we have great customer service, we have better packaging, we have people who you know directly who you buy from. You know that we stand for sustainability, you know we stand for the unions and the trades, and that purchasing from us, 2% of our profits go directly to helping out X, Y, and Z.
Whatever it may be, but these are all the different things that contribute to that experience of buying the product. We’re talking about delivering on value, and when you deliver on value and provide value beyond the product, when someone buys that same widget, they’re getting a hell of a lot more than just the product. So, that becomes your competitive edge. Your brand and your experience becomes a thing that you can tout, that you can put out there, that you can really get in front of people, and something you can use to try to keep the conversation away from just price, price, price. It’s now about, well, what else are you getting with the product? Oh, they just send it over to me. Oh, interesting, because we actually have a dedicated customer support team, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. This is our story.
Now, all of a sudden, the product stands for more, because your business stands for more, because you’ve built a better brand than your competitors.
So, let’s recap real quick.
The seven things that branding can do for your business:
- Provide you with clarity of vision and purpose
- Increase your revenue
- Boost your customer loyalty
- Create a better company culture
- Improve your retention
- Lower price sensitivity
- Give you a competitive edge.
Those sound pretty good to me. So, why don’t we get started? You can take a look at some of the other videos that we have of how you can start by building your brand, or you can shoot us an email or give us a call, or hit us up on any of the social media networks (Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook or our website.
This has been the Studio Journal. Good luck building your brand out there.
