Good branding is crucial to the success of any marketing campaign. A strong brand can help a company differentiate itself from its competitors and build a loyal customer base.

Here are some of the reasons why good branding is important in marketing:

Builds trust and credibility. 

A well-designed brand identity can help establish trust and credibility with customers. A professional and consistent brand image can give customers confidence in a company’s products or services.

Differentiates from competitors.

Good branding helps a company stand out in a crowded marketplace. A unique brand identity can differentiate a company from its competitors and make it more memorable to customers.

Establishes emotional connections.

Good branding can help create emotional connections with customers. A strong brand identity that resonates with customers can make them feel more loyal to a company and its products.

Increases brand recognition.

A strong brand identity that is consistent across all marketing channels can help increase brand recognition. When customers see the same brand imagery and messaging repeatedly, it can help create brand recall and make it more likely that they will choose that brand over others.

Provides a platform for marketing efforts.

A strong brand identity can provide a platform for marketing efforts. When a company has a clear brand identity and message, it can use that as a foundation for marketing campaigns across various channels, such as social media, advertising, and content marketing.

Okay, you know you need it. But how do you create a strong brand identity? Think of your brand as a person. What attributes would that person have? Would they be extra friendly? Extra helpful? Extremely professional? Casual? Contemporary? If you can “personify” your brand this way, you can begin to get a clearer understanding of your brand voice. 

Ensure that the brand personality you select will resonate with your audience. If it’s older adults, a “hip” approach to everything might not be the right choice. At this point, double check that it truly reflects what your audience will respond to, and not what you like personally, as owners/marketing directors aren’t always representative of their target audience. Create a target market “avatar” that represents your ideal customer. Is it a young man in his mid-20’s? It is a woman between the ages of 35 and 55. Conservative? Liberal? Married? Children? What stage of their life are they? You can’t be everything to everybody – so you need to focus on those people who represent the greatest likelihood to respond to your brand and marketing. Then “talk” to that person. 

What are your competitors doing? Type in your niche on Google and list all businesses that appear on the search results. Alternatively, use competitor analysis tools like Similarweb.

• • Analyze their products or services, pricing structure, locations, and promotion strategies.
  • Conduct a SWOT analysis to determine their strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities.
  • Explore review sites, social media platforms, and forums like Reddit to find the competitors’ main issues.
  • Based on the findings, position your products or services to solve issues and win over the market.

Then you look at your logo, your advertising, how you talk to customers. Does it all line up? If you choose “professional” and your logo is a drawn character, there’s a misalignment. If your brand is “extra helpful” and you have tough return policies or don’t have chat features on your website, that’s a disconnect. It’s imperative that your branding reflect the values and personality of your company.

After you’ve established your brand attributes, examine all aspects of your business for consistency, including the visuals. Get back to the fundamentals. Is your logo expressed the same way every time it’s used? Do you always use the same colors for graphic design? What about the same font? The same tagline? Too much mixing up and your branding gets lost. The look and feel should be consistent across all collateral and every medium. If your logo was removed, someone should still be able to tell that the items are related to each other.

Now to the finer points of messaging. How is your brand different from your competitors? How can you optimize that difference in what you do? Can you capture it with your tagline? Can you educate people more about it? Differentiation is key. The same words as everyone else mean nothing. The word “quality” is way overused. Is there a more creative way to express how you’re different? 

It’s crucial to remember that branding is much more than the visuals on a page or website. It’s every interaction a person has with your company. If you’re a brick and mortar and the person who greets them isn’t friendly, they’ve hurt your brand. If a package arrives that’s been poorly packed with no attention to detail, that reflects on your brand. If you get a bad review online and don’t respond with an apology and appreciation for a customer taking time to point it out, and then making it good, your brand has taken a hit, not just with that customer, but with every potential customer who reads that review.

And of course, employees are part of the message, as referenced above. They are the front line who represent your business. Take care of them, and they will take care of customers. What do you need to do to attract the type of employees who reflect your company’s values and attributes? Can they help you fulfill the promises you’re making to customers? What protocols and policies do you have in place to ensure customers are having a positive experience. Related to this is the customer experience on your website. Is it clear when people arrive what their options are? Do you spell out benefits? Is it easy to find the information they are seeking? Too many clicks and you’ll lose them. Too slow to load and you’ll lose them. Too much “yelling” with all caps and a huge font size and they’ll move on.

And now the hard part – make an emotional connection. Associate yourself with marketing campaigns that make people feel something. Don’t just share facts about your company – make sure you’re letting people know the benefits you bring and how your product or service will improve their lives.

As you can see, good branding is essential for any successful company. It helps build trust and credibility, differentiates you from competitors, establishes emotional connections, increases brand recognition, and provides a platform and foundation for marketing efforts.