A strong brand is a base of the functioning of the company. It’s its identity, it influences its recognizability among the customers, the sale of products and services but most of all – incredibly facilitates further development. In times when the competition is rather huge, a strong brand is a guarantee of profits.

Let them recognize you – what is a brand

Branding was (and still is) falsely understood and brought to an aesthetic part: visual identity. For many people branding is still only visual identity – a name, a logo, a project, packaging etc. All the more while the concept of branding and its understanding evolved throughout the years, not everyone follows the most recent knowledge of marketers.

Branding is important as it not only makes an unforgettable impression but also lets clients know what they can except from a company. It is a way to make a mark within the competition and to explain what one offers, which makes the given company the best choice. Brand was made to reflect what is the company and how it should be viewed.

There are a lot of areas which are used to develop the brand, including advertisement, customer support, social responsibility, reputation and visualization. All of these (and many more) cooperate with each other making one unic and attention-grabbing profile.

Good understanding of the brand requires proper knowledge about the basics of business, marketing and even basics of relationships. Branding is such a wide concept that the correct definition, which really includes everything that represents, wouldn’t itself clarify the topic much. Branding is an ongoing process of identification, creation and management of cumulated resources and actions that create the functioning of the brand in the minds of the stakeholders.

Let them recognize you – what is a brand

Creating a brand is an ongoing process because it never ends. People, markets and companies are constantly changing and the brand has to evolve in order to keep up. There is a structured branding process in which first it’s needed to determine what the company should be for its stakeholders, create a branding strategy in order to properly position oneself and then continuously manage everything that has an impact on positioning.

Positioning must be equivalent to the resources (e.x visual identification, content, products, advertisements) and actions (e.x services, customer support, interpersonal relationships, experiences) which together have an impact on the brand’s perception. Brand’s perception is an association that a person (client or not) has in mind in respect to the gives brand. This perception is a result of the branding proces (or its lack).

Not only clients create in their mind perception of the brand. Stakeholders are potential clients, foregoing clients, employees, shareholders and business partners. Everyone creates its own perception and interacts with the brand consequently. Branding is absolutely crucial for the company because of the general impact which it makes on the sells of the products or services. Branding can change the way people perceive the brand, can power a new business and increase the brand’s value – but it can also has an opposite effect if it’s done wrongly or not done at all.

What’s important, the opinion about the brand is building regardless the fact if the company is doing something with it or not. This can result in good or bad reputation. Understanding and using the branding means only that the company tries to control its reputation. That is why it is important to consider branding at the very beginning of the activity. In contrary to a common belief, branding is not an “expensive marketing tactic which only big companies use”. Quite the opposite – branding has a lot in common with common sense and is strongly associated with the market on which its working and with the level. Branding involves a consistent mix of different competences and activities so its cost can vary a lot depending on the case.

Strong brand – that is what brand?

A strong brand has to be one of a kind and this is a difficult task on the replete global market. Though there are a lot of ways to convey the authenticity. A really unique name has one more advantage – it will be easier to get the trademarks and the domains’ names will be more available. A part of building a strong brand identity is raising awareness among the stakeholders and this can be done practically only by getting to the right recipients. For example, if the target group are young mothers, the brand in a natural way concentrates its attention on websites for parents and internet wellness forums. If the recipients are teenagers, one could buy advertisements on websites with games or sport channels.

Deep understanding of who are the recipients, what is important for them, what are their needs and challenges, should directly shape the brand of the company – from the visual project to development of the basic brand’s values. Neuro-scientific researches in MIT have shown that the brain can process images in 13 milliseconds and the logo provides immediate brand recognition. The most famous brand in the world are recognized just by their logo, which is why companies attach such importance to creating a logo. A logo of a brand should be immediately recognized: simple, inimitable and printed in one’s memory. Most importantly it should convey a clear message. Companies should also take into consideration various sizes and shapes which its logo will take, from the websites headers to products and stationary products.

Strong identity of a brand come from high project standards applies consequently in every aspect of the strategy – from designing the offices to product packaging, designing websites and posts in social media. It is achieved by a guide to the brand’s style or brand book. A strong brand book includes wide range of information that regulate precise image and style of a brand: kinds and sizes of fonts, colours of the brand, projects and the size of the logo, rules of the layout and more. Little discrepancies in the project may weaken the brand’s identity, even seemingly trivial aspects as spaces between the letters in the brand’s name can have a negative impact. Brand book can prevent it.

Stay here for longer

Value that a strong identity can bring into a company translates to very real and measurable business benefits. Brand’s asset allows for higher costs of the product or service because people will be disposed to pay more for a product of a recognizable brand. Is the quality of this product significantly better than the one of the competition? Maybe, maybe not. However the customers are ready to pay more for the brand they trust and value.

Customers are not only disposed to pay more for a product with a strong brand; they are also ready to stay loyal to the company for many years, come back often to buy another product. In fact, some companies build so strong loyalty towards the brand, that even if they meet an obstacle – flawed product or bad impression – their customers stay loyal.

Strong asset of the brand can facilitate the long-term growth of the company. Using the value of one’s brand, it’s easier to add new product to its line and people will be willingly trying the new product. It’s easier to enter new markets and regions. People there recognize the value, will immediately make a positive association and will follow it. Strong brand can give a huge advantage during negotiations with providers, manufacturers and distributors. Once the provides conclude that the consumers enthusiastically search for and buy products of a known brand, they will be willing to cooperate.

Therefore the strong brand is something which one should always pursue, regardless of the market on which the company operates, what offers and what is the budget. Properly recognized brand can become the biggest asset that a company has – not without reason collaboration itself or borrowing a really big brand can sometimes cost millions of dollars.