5 Reasons Why Branding is Important for Your Business
DEFINITION OF BRANDING
noun: the activity of connecting a product with a particular name, symbol, etc. or with particular features or ideas, in order to make people recognize and want to buy it.
This is the basic definition of branding but branding is much more complex. Most people think that branding is just the visual identity of a brand (ie. a logo, name, and website) but in order to create a brand it involves much more than the usual identity.
Branding includes the visual identity plus messaging, plus the experience interacting with the brand. Branding is more intangible and relies more on the perception of people and the reputation of your brand when you aren’t around.
If you are a new business or a business that doesn’t have established branding, you might be wondering “why is it even important?” Do you really need to take that step? Reasons that you should invest in branding your business:
1. First Impressions are Everything
You can never take back a first impression. That first impression can make or break a sale, turn a new subscriber away, or prevent someone from engaging with you. When a visitor comes in contact with your brand, you want them to have an awesome first impression and that can be done through good design and branding. Design communicates your message visually to your customer.
2. Good Design Builds Trust
“If people like you, they will listen to you, but if they trust you, they’ll do business with you” – Zig Ziglar”
Have you ever landed on a website or received an email and the design makes you question if the site is a legit site? Bad design can make you not trust a website or business. If you have a logo, website, business cards, social media, and all of your branding is consistent, you can gain customer’s trust, which is the ultimate goal. Well-designed branding gives your audience visual proof that you can be trusted.
3. Recognizable
Your brand should be recognizable without a logo present, which means you need more than just a logo to make this possible. Your branding needs to be cohesive with all items including logos, social media, packaging, colors, blog post graphics, etc. If your audience is viewing your social media posts, you want them to be able to recognize that it’s your style without even seeing the name. You want people to look at your Pinterest graphic and say “Oh that must be Coby Creative’s blog post”.
4. Differentiation
One of the key ideas when building a business is knowing who your competitors are and how you do things differently from them. This also applies to the branding aspect. What makes your business different? Does your logo and brand design reflect the differentiation?
For example, let us look at Starbucks, Coffee Bean, and Peet’s Coffee
Starbucks, Coffee Bean, and Peet’s Coffee are all Coffee chains, but what makes them different? How are they different from each company?
Have a look at each of their brand guidelines below:
Starbucks Brand Guidelines | Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf Brand Guidelines | Peet’s Coffee’s Brand Guidelines
It might be the design nerd in me that loves looking at company’s brand guidelines but you can learn a lot about a company from looking at them. If you notice, the colors, the logos, the messaging is all different between the brands.
Starbucks and Coffee Bean have their target audiences but also speak differently depending on which group they are talking to.
5. Memorable
Human beings are visual people. You are more likely to remember something after visually seeing it compared to just reading about it. Therefore, if you create a brand that is different from competitors and make it visually appealing you are more likely to be remembered by a potential customer. The more somebody sees your brand the more likely they will purchase. Or if you have memorable package design for your products or provide a strong customer experience, your customer will associate it with your brand.
Branding is More than a Logo
There is a difference between branding your business and asking for just a logo. When branding your business you are creating a full experience from the messaging to the visuals throughout your customer’s journey. This means that you are considering how you are talking to them and what they will feel, see, or touch, at each step along the way. For example, if your customer finds you on instagram and then visits your website and makes a purchase, and receives that purchase, all of the experiences should feel cohesive. Everything from your instagram post to receiving the item should feel like a smooth experience and not like they encountered a different business at each stop. The best way to do accomplish this is through your branding (messaging, logos, fonts, colors, patterns, etc). They should be the same throughout that whole journey.
Epilogue
All of these reasons add up to making your business look professional. This is how you turn visitors into buyers, by creating something that they can trust. If you appear professional, you increase your chances of getting business and creating a strong brand. If you want to take your business or blog to the next level, you are going to need to brand your business. While I highly suggest using a well qualified designer, you might find that the investment can be out of your price range. Other options may include buying a pre-made or semi custom brand kit that fit your brand’s style because they are usually more affordable than a custom one of a kind brand. We have some brand kits available here. You can also learn to DIY your brand following tutorials or purchasing a course
