Be it a startup, small enterprise, or even the big shots
of the businesses world, all do and require consistent branding.Branding is like painting a picture of your business for
the world to see. Through which prospective clients will judge your product,
service, loyalty and everything else that matters. So, it’s essential to
include right colours coupled with perfect strokes, and timely touch-ups,
making sure your brand identity never goes out of style.
Branding is important, as it portrays everything that your band is or aspires to become in future. Such is the power of branding that if all the right notes are hit, one doesn’t need to bother about the competitors.
What does branding do for you or how it actually benefits a business?
Customers these days like to remain informed and do thorough research before settling for a product. Here, your strong social media presence can play an important role but that’s not enough to please the customer as its all self-promotion. Enters influencers, they have a loyal following and can promote your product and spread the word about it, ultimately helping create a strong brand image and helping you meet the end goal of earning profits.
Wrap up
It goes without a doubt that branding is essential to business success and helps it maximise profits. In addition to the above-mentioned pointers, take a note to remain original, consistent, and respectful of your customers to create a brand of the status of the established counterparts.
Author's Bio: Prince Kapoor is an Independent Marketing Analyst and Blogger. While not working, you can find him in gym or giving random health advises to his colleagues which no one agrees on :D. If you too want some of his advises (on health or on marketing), reach him out at @imprincekapur
Branding is important, as it portrays everything that your band is or aspires to become in future. Such is the power of branding that if all the right notes are hit, one doesn’t need to bother about the competitors.
What does branding do for you or how it actually benefits a business?
·
It creates trust in people mind for your product or service
·
Gets you a loyal customer base
·
Intrigues prospective customers towards your business
·
Brings in unquestionable goodwill
·
Helps employees stay focused on company's goals, as they are very
well understood
Being such an
essential aspect of business makes branding a tricky subject. As one wrong move
can push your profits down the hill. The history of the business world is stocked
with examples where companies like Pepsi, Guess have incurred millions of
dollar of loss due to a branding blunder. While the well-established reimburse
for their mistakes in millions, startups and small business can be killed
forever as a result of unchecked poor branding.
Therefore, when a big business house makes a branding
mistake, it pays for it in money and bad publicity. But very soon it is seen
back in the race with same level of energy, thanks to all the right things done
in the past and a strong customer base. Best example that fits the situation is
Maggie, that was banned in India by the government on account of detection of
unhealthy substances. After a ban of few months, when Maggi came out clean it
was back in the game, all thanks to its strong customer base that it has
created over the decades.
However, when a startup commits a branding mistake, it is
not forgotten quickly and many times never. Do you know 9 out of 10 startups
fail? Marketing studies show that customers cut-off
from a brand if their initial customer service experience is unpleasant. So,
they need to be a little more cautious than their established counterparts.
Helping you in this tricky branding game, here are five mistakes that should never be committed. Check them out and make sure your brand never suffers on account of a branding blunder.
Helping you in this tricky branding game, here are five mistakes that should never be committed. Check them out and make sure your brand never suffers on account of a branding blunder.
1. Start right;
rushing would do no good
This is an important point to be considered by all
startups planning to land in the business field. Marketing experts suggest that
a business should build its brand over a solid foundation that is before
starting off with the whole branding process create a firm set up. It can be in
the form of a website, social media, or offline means.
Brands are often seen jumping straight into marketing with a hope that it will catch up instantly. As expected, it never happens, and as a result, all efforts go down in the drain.
Do the necessary market research, competitor’s analysis, perseverance, and create innovative strategies. A brand is built over a period, and once established it’s difficult to alter. So, take time, think it through as customers will recognise your product via its brand image.
Brands are often seen jumping straight into marketing with a hope that it will catch up instantly. As expected, it never happens, and as a result, all efforts go down in the drain.
Do the necessary market research, competitor’s analysis, perseverance, and create innovative strategies. A brand is built over a period, and once established it’s difficult to alter. So, take time, think it through as customers will recognise your product via its brand image.
2. Focus on your
target audience
A product or service cannot suit all; it has to have some restriction in regard to its client base. It is crucial for a startup to understand this factor. It is always wise to do some research and figure out your favourable customer base.
Businesses that fail to zone it down end up with massive losses and many times incur irreversible damages. Don’t think about pleasing all, instead focus your branding to a set audience. With a focused goal, you’ll be able to engage your audience better, and as an advantage, via right publicity, your product or service acquires more clientages.
It is often seen that business adopt wait and watch practice, wherein they wait for the response and then work on future strategies. Though experimentation is necessary every once in a while when the business is in its initial phase, you should work on creating a brand around the target audience.
A product or service cannot suit all; it has to have some restriction in regard to its client base. It is crucial for a startup to understand this factor. It is always wise to do some research and figure out your favourable customer base.
Businesses that fail to zone it down end up with massive losses and many times incur irreversible damages. Don’t think about pleasing all, instead focus your branding to a set audience. With a focused goal, you’ll be able to engage your audience better, and as an advantage, via right publicity, your product or service acquires more clientages.
It is often seen that business adopt wait and watch practice, wherein they wait for the response and then work on future strategies. Though experimentation is necessary every once in a while when the business is in its initial phase, you should work on creating a brand around the target audience.
3. Not sticking to
core brand essentials
We have long been talking about creating a brand, how it is vital for business success and lastly the mistakes that should be avoided. But in this process, let's talk about the essential elements, or we can say the defined guidelines for creating a brand. Though it’s true that a business should not stick to rules and be innovative, however, few essentials form the base of every brand campaign.
We have long been talking about creating a brand, how it is vital for business success and lastly the mistakes that should be avoided. But in this process, let's talk about the essential elements, or we can say the defined guidelines for creating a brand. Though it’s true that a business should not stick to rules and be innovative, however, few essentials form the base of every brand campaign.
●
Create a visual identity with a stunning logo
●
Add a catchy tagline
●
Think of fitting colours and typography
●
Suitable voice for promotional activities
Though the list can be further extended depending on the
nature and scale business. However, what we have mentioned are the basics for
branding. In case, you are a small business, start with a logo that’s catchy
and easily recognisable as it will go on every promotional material. Free
designing tools like Canva can be used to create a logo and other business
material.
4. Not using social
media effectively
Using social media for branding is not just about having a brand page on channels like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and others depending on the targeted audience. To create a strong brand effective operation of social media is essential, the list includes
Using social media for branding is not just about having a brand page on channels like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and others depending on the targeted audience. To create a strong brand effective operation of social media is essential, the list includes
●
Regularly posting engaging images, text & videos
●
Promptly replying to customers comments and queries
●
Keeping the page interesting, not going overboard
with self-promotion
●
Never participate in unnecessary political or controversial discussions
●
Beware of any negative publicity, it is one of the
biggest con of social media and can prove dangerous.
5. Underestimating
the power of influencersCustomers these days like to remain informed and do thorough research before settling for a product. Here, your strong social media presence can play an important role but that’s not enough to please the customer as its all self-promotion. Enters influencers, they have a loyal following and can promote your product and spread the word about it, ultimately helping create a strong brand image and helping you meet the end goal of earning profits.
Wrap up
It goes without a doubt that branding is essential to business success and helps it maximise profits. In addition to the above-mentioned pointers, take a note to remain original, consistent, and respectful of your customers to create a brand of the status of the established counterparts.
Author's Bio: Prince Kapoor is an Independent Marketing Analyst and Blogger. While not working, you can find him in gym or giving random health advises to his colleagues which no one agrees on :D. If you too want some of his advises (on health or on marketing), reach him out at @imprincekapur
