5 reasons to invest in Branding and survive

Branding will serve as canon to build and develop your brand. It acts as an ongoing brand management model, which proves to be vital to the business in difficult times. In this article we will bring you the main reasons for your company to invest in Branding in order to get ahead of the competition.

Branding: from inside out

Billions are spent annually in advertising. However, in most cases a key part to building a brand is left out – the work force. It is quite obvious that employees are responsible for influencing the way the public thinks, feels and interacts com the brand. We have all had at some point an employee who tries to badmouth the company. If your business has any type of flaws, he will talk about them and maybe even to you competitors.

Think about the interactions your employees have at: talking to a customer on the store, through the call center, at the airport check-in or the reception desk of your company. What is the difference between those who follow orders and complete tasks and those who understand the brand’s value proposition and DNA and strives to deliver a great brand experience to your customers?

Understand your customer’s habits

After we have defined the brand pillars in the previous topic, we need to position in for the Market. When we get to this point in the process of Branding, it is essential  to define the target audience and its habits. To solve this problem there is only one way, according to Tony Hsieh business man at Zappos during the National Retail Federation 2016: ‘’Try researching your customers, you will understand what is the best way to continue selling your products’’. This way it is possible to have a more assertive understanding of how groups of consumers behave and what are the motives behind their choices between different brands.

Understanding the habits of who the brand talks to is paying attention to an interactive backdrop, including television. The consumer is everywhere and is connected to many different medias at the same time all the time. To understand their habits is to create a strategic line that will guide the way the brand should position itself.

Integrate the shopping experience

You may not have heard the term Omni-Channel before. This expression is the new tendency when it comes to integrating sales channels on and offline in a way that creates a joined experience to the consumer. After we understand the habits of our clients, it is necessary to identify how they shop: (1) recognizing the main needs; (2) seeking new information; (3) evaluating alternatives before purchasing; (4) the actual purchase; (5) consuming or using the product; (6) evaluation after consuming; (7) disposal. Omni Channel looks to identify the beginning or ending to a relationship between brands and people. In other words, the shopper can start an offline research and make the purchase online, or they can buy it online and choose to pick it up himself at the store – so called click-collect.

A few brands already work based on the new trend of integrating channels, like Apple and Samsung. Both have their own Concept Stores that serve to deliver unique brand experiences. In them it is possible for consumers to interact and experiment the products even though most sales will be done over the online stores. The joining of this new environment must be understood as a backdrop where physical stores open up virtual ones and vice-versa.

The challenge of uniting the different channels is key to having a brand positioning that works. The most important part is allowing the customer to have only one way of perceiving the brand, no matter what channel he is using to interact with it.

A specialized consultancy can provide guidance on how to implement the motives listed above. If your business is looking to create and/or sell products/services that are truly amazing, how about investing in a brand that will leave no doubts about how good they really are?

It is becoming more clear how managing the brand is something done from the inside out of the organization. Companies that are seeking to improve their performance need to understand that having a brand is not just about creating a good looking logo or an advertising campaign. The brand must the looked at as the connection the company has with the public, be in their employees or customers.

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