BY George Bennett, Creative Director | Journal | 20/02/2023
Great branding ensures that the way you look, sound and behave align to inspire your customers and your team. But why is that alignment important?
No matter what sector you’re in, the way you look, sound and behave matters. Also the more your product or service costs, the greater your customer’s expectations.
A quick illustration for you. We’ve all heard the phrase ‘first impressions count.’ Look at the ads below – which business would you instinctively choose?
Branding is not just about looking the part though. Great branding inspires your customers and your team to keep coming back.
And if that wasn’t enough of a reason to get started, here are our top 10 benefits of great branding.
One of the biggest benefits of branding is differentiation. When so many businesses in the same sector say similar things, the way you look and feel can be the biggest difference that influences your customers to choose you. ‘We care about our customers’, ‘we’re family owned’, ‘we’re industry leaders’, ‘we offer unparalleled service’, are all great things to be able to say, but it’s likely that all of your competitors are saying it too.
Likewise, every industry can be guilty of a cookie cutter approach to their brand identity. You’ve probably seen it – the same corporate colours, similar stock photography, industry standard icons. If you think your brand is at risk of being lost in that sea of sameness then you need to consider how you can positively differentiate it.
Effective branding ensures consistent representation in every interaction you have with your customers and your team. Think about your customer touchpoints; the website, brochures, social media, your customer service and more. Are they consistent? Could any of them be improved?
A coherent customer experience leads to increased customer loyalty and trust, which is fundamental to growing a tribe of advocates who promote your products and services for you, without you even asking.
When someone is deciding whether to choose your brand, the way it looks and feels goes a long way towards influencing that decision. Even if they’ve never heard of you before, if your branding is falling behind your competitors then your credibility will fall behind too.
Trust is vital for conversion and when you’re looking to convert potential customers the quicker you can build that trust, the better. There are plenty of techniques to build trust, such as reviews, experience and case studies. But first impressions count and this is where branding comes in.
The way your business presents itself has an instant effect on how it’s perceived – if your branding feels outdated and underinvested you’re already stumbling at the first hurdle. While we tell ourselves we buy based on logical criteria, we’ve all judged a business on that first impression.
Great brands inspire loyalty in your target market, and we all know it’s easier to continue working with an existing customer than going out to find new ones. Once you have loyal customers prepared to wear your logo and perhaps even pay for the pleasure, you know that you’ve built a successful brand.
Whether you’re wearing a Nike logo on your t-shirt or carrying a tote bag branded with your favourite local deli, you’re signalling something about yourself and you want to share that with others.
Great branding isn’t just about the way you the look and the way you sound. Before you get anywhere near that stage, as a business leader you have to be clear about why your business exists, who it’s for and why your target audience should choose you above your competitors.
This clarity ensures alignment across your business and inspires everyone to pull in the same direction. A good brand keeps this clarity front and centre.
A brand isn’t just for people outside looking in. People want to feel proud of the businesses they work for and a strong, authentic brand gives them the emotional connection to do that. An investment in branding is also an investment in your team.
Following on from that, the best people want to work for the best brands. Great branding is about inspiring your team, just as much as it is about attracting new customers from your target audience.
Once you have been through a successful branding process, decision making becomes much easier. With every aspect of your business considered and agreed you can confidently make decisions about the direction you take.
Great branding builds customer recognition and should make your organisation identifiable (and not just because of your logo). If people can recognise your brand from the way you talk to the way you look, you know you’ve built a brand identity that is uniquely you.
At Spring we’re here to make things simple, so we use a three part branding framework to guide our clients through the branding process.
1. Brand Heart – Every brand should have a set of guiding principles that inform everything they do. Sometimes known as brand strategy, we call this Brand Heart.
2. Brand Voice – Once you know where you’re going and why, we must understand the personality of the brand to develop an engaging tone of voice.
3. Brand Look – With the Brand Heart and Brand Voice defined we can now create the visual aspects of the brand identity to bring it all to life.
If you’d like to find out more about how Spring can help you with your branding, give us a call on 01502 726161 or email studio@agencyforchange.co.uk
