A guide to Branding

Branding by itself isn’t a marketing strategy. It is the way by which you create a unique name and image for your company/business in the mind of your consumers,

It is the first thing consumer think when they hear of your company name, product or services. Take Nike for example the company and their product is associated with athleticism, power and fitness, and their slogan “Just do it” signifies bold, taking risk for success. In my next article we will analyze NIKE’s branding model. Other examples include Apple, Virgin Atlantic, Nividia and Tesla.

Base on my examples, you might see a reason for branding, it give a memorable impression about your company which helps you gain a loyal customer base and also make them feel fulfilled using your product. As you continue to grow your business, you need to have such consumers who are always anticipating for your next product.

How do you give your company a memorable impression?

1. Self Discovery — identify your area of strength, what makes you different from your competitor. For example Apple represent classic and luxury. By pursuing scarcity, they tend to make their product high valued, making it beyond reach of an average individual. In the process their product make anyone using it a highly placed person. Your area of strength might not be in making it beyond reach like Facebook and Google which make their product friendly for low-income individual. It might also be in giving nice packaging of your product, how your staff dress, how you treat customers, your price charge etc.

2. Create a Brand message — for Nike its ‘JUST DO IT’ which symbolize confidence, bravery, taking risk. Virgin Atlantic use a consumer friendly approach to present their airline to customer. Just like the first point, it talks about your edge over competitors

3. Digital Branding — This encompasses the visual identity of your company, including logo, color, typography, Ad campaings, flyers , stationeries, website. Its advisable to seek the help of a digital agency.

4. Integrating your brand — Develop a standard for how you want your company or business to be viewed and incorporate it into the employees’ lifestyle. This includes dressing, how you relate with customer, how you answer phone call, how fast customer get their issues resolved.

will discourse more on it in my next article