Branding is one of the most important aspects of marketing any products or services in the modern internet age.
This is the branding that, when handled properly by marketing experts, makes it so the consumers of the world are able to associate a product with the right idea, attitude or need, and associate an idea, attitude or need with the right product. This is not just for big mega companies as you may have been lead to believe, small business more than ever before can benefit from this right now.
As economies around the world continue to tank it is getting harder and harder for small business to make a living. Branding may be the answer to get your products and services in front of the audience you need.
How A Company Starts Branding Products
The way a company goes about branding its products isn’t always going to be the same.
The whole process involves working with anything from an overall physical image, a logo, a concept or any idea the company wants its product associated with.
There even go as far as having third-party companies conduct surveys on their behalf to see what the consumers are thinking about a particular product or service.
Often times all of these things are implemented until the product is branded in so many ways that consumers can’t help but be reminded of it time and time again.
At its best, a company’s marketing team can create a perfectly branded product in a covert way, which is to say they find a way to keep a product in the consumers mind without them even realizing it.
For instance, if a beverage’s branding was designed to make consumers think about it whenever they think about a sporting event, then it’s more likely the consumer would buy that beverage in that moment without over thinking it.
You just have to look at Gatorade to see that in effect and not just locally but worldwide.
When they are overly aware of how the product has been branded and thus marketed to them it makes things a bit harder, though not to the point that it doesn’t still work extremely well.
No matter how they go about doing it though, and no matter how covert or not covert they implement the psychology behind a brand, it is one of the most important things a company and product have going. Without it, it would be incredibly hard to compete in the marketplace with just about any product. Especially today with search engines becoming more brand orientated than ever before.
Understanding How Branding Products Can Work
Using this example. Let’s say it’s orange juice. For the most part, orange juice is orange juice right. While one company can, or at least claim to, use better oranges, delivery it fresher, or a throw in less additives, the basic playing field is still mostly leveled if you accept that it’s just orange juice. So when craving orange juice, in a world without branding, the consumer would have little to shop around for except a good price.
In a fully branded world, consumers have learned that the orange juice that carries the familiar logo is the one that they want, and it’s been proven time and again that that’s the one a consumer will typically choose.
The good thing about this is that it enables that company to expand, offer more competitive prices and become stronger as a whole. The downside though is that the quality of a brand often supersedes the quality of a product, and far too many companies get away with cutting corners because of it.
As a small business owner that has or is planning to develop a brand strategy you need to ensure that not only the brand is good but the service or product quality meets the branding you are doing. If you don’t it can make things very risky or even backfire where your brand is now hurting your business.
Nonetheless, our entire modern market place revolves around branding. It’s essential for keeping a company in the forefront of a consumers mind which is essential for keeping that company of value to investors or the small business owner.If you have teenage children then you are probably very aware of what I am talking about, they only know the big brands and only want to by the brand name products.
When approached honestly, it leads to a more stable and future small business growth, and that’s something that benefits all… except the competition.
