Brands can be a confusing subject. Is it a logo? Is it a colour? Is it the name? Is it a bird? More importantly, whatever it is, is it important for your business? This article demystifies the subject of brands and addresses the topic “what is a brand”.
This article also shows how crucial brand is for a business. Of any size. Small, medium or large.
What is a brand?
Sometimes, it is easier to understand something and its importance by imagining a world without that thing in it. Let’s imagine there are no brands. You are thirsty and you walk into a shop to buy a bottle of water. This is what you see:
What do you do? You don’t know how to decide which one to pick. You randomly pick one and pray the water is good.
What happens today when you walk into a store? You see this:
Your hands automatically reach out for the Himalayan bottle as you believe their water is the purest. Or you pick Bisleri because it’s the most familiar. Or Kinley because you know the Coca-Cola company makes it and you trust the water to be good.
So, what is a brand? A brand is something that helps consumers choose.
How did this business of brands begin?
The Oxford dictionary tells us that the word ‘brand’ is of Germanic origin, related to the German brand, means to burn. This originally meant anything hot or burning, such as a “firebrand”, a burning stick.
By the European Middle Ages, it commonly identified the process of burning a mark into stock animals with thick hides, such as cattle, to identify ownership. The practice became particularly widespread in nations with large cattle grazing regions, such as Spain. These European customs were imported to the Americas.
In the American West, a “branding iron” consisted of an iron rod with a simple symbol or mark, which cowboys heated in a fire. After the branding iron turned red hot, the cowboy pressed the branding iron against the hide of the cow. The unique brand meant that cattle owned by multiple ranches could then graze freely together on the open range.
It also meant that when cattle from different ranches were taken to the market to be sold, buyers could identify which ranch each was from. The buyers knew which ranch owner fed his cattle properly and took care and who didn’t. The ‘brand’ on the animal helped them choose the ranch they bought the cattle from. Because they were better looked after that ranch brand got a better price for their animals.
Now that we understand “what is a brand”, let us look into how businesses benefit from branding.
The five ways businesses benefit from branding
Businesses benefit from branding in the following 5 ways:
- A strong brand makes it easy for customers to choose your offering
- Brands help people recognize your product
- Brands help in driving up pricing
- Strong brands reduce marketing costs
- Strong brands attract talent, partners, and money
We will next discuss each of the above points.
1. A strong brand makes it easy for customers to choose your offering
As we have read above, a brand developed well and imbued with the right attributes help consumers make up their minds.
Mental availability is a well-established concept which implies that the human mind stores only that many brands per category. The number hovers around three, depending on the research. What does that mean for a business?
You need to be constantly investing in your brand to ensure it’s top of mind or instantly recalled when someone is thinking of a category.
2. Brands help people recognize your product
To choose your offering, your prospective customer needs to immediately spot your offering if it’s a physical product or recall the name if it’s a service. You may be thinking: ah, got it, that’s why we need an attractive logo, a strong brand name and a catchy line. It’s a bit more than that.
There are several factors one has to consider while building a brand:
- Visual Identity – logo, website, colours are just a few
- Packaging design – is it distinct, is it consistent
- Pricing – how you price your offering is an important signal to flag your audience. Premium, Mid-market, Affordable.
- In-store experience – the famous ‘moments of truth’ for a brand are usually delivered by a salesperson at the bottom of the rung of the organisation. It can make or break a brand.
- Customer service experience – your policies (returns, extensions, refunds) and how they are delivered online, on the phone or in-person is one of the key factors that lead to valuable positive word of mouth or the opposite
3. Brands help in driving up pricing
A strong brand which their customers love allows prices to be increased as the perceived value of associating and consuming the brand goes up.
4. Strong brands reduce marketing costs
As your brand becomes part of a customer’s life, you need to spend less on retaining them. These loyal customers talk to their friends about your wonderful offering. They write about it on social media. They post pictures of themselves with your brands.
A strong brand’s biggest salespeople are their customers.
5. Strong brands attract talent, partners, and money
One of the biggest challenges of an organisation today is attracting the best human resources. A strong brand makes that task infinitely easier. It also attracts business partners – distributors, financiers, all wanting to be part of your growth story.
For other relevant content on digital marketing, please refer to our blogs section.