Branding Definition: What is Branding? What Does Branding Mean?
In order to have an original and successful brand and to take all the necessary steps correctly, first of all, you need to understand “what does branding mean?”
Primarily, it should not be forgotten that the branding process is valid for a product or service as well as for a person. After explaining the definition of branding, we will also talk about personal branding.
When it comes to the answer to the question of what is branding; It is the process of creating a unique identity for that brand in the eyes of consumers. It could also be called finding yourself a noticeable place among countless products, people, services and companies.
Branding means differentiation. It can also be explained as giving people enough reasons to choose you. If people know who you are and what you are doing by just seeing a name, logo or symbol, it can be said that you are in the right branding process.
It is also very important to understand the importance of branding after identifying what branding means.
What Is The Importance of Branding?
The importance of branding for your business cannot be denied. In this manner, you can stand out from your competitors and create awareness. Branding helps to increase sales figures with purchasing behavior, reduce promotional costs and simultaneously helps the company to resist against competition. We can briefly explain the importance of branding in a few titles as follows.
Being Noticable
One of the most important effects of branding is to become known. For example, by seeing your logo, people know what brand it is and what you are doing. Therefore, it is crucial to have a professional logo design in terms of creating awareness. This, of course, directly affects the purchasing process.
Being Trustworthy
One of the other benefits of branding is to create a reliable image in the eyes of potential buyers. People don’t want to buy a product or service from a brand they don’t know and trust. If you are the brand yourself, then people have to trust you and the truth of what you say. The reliable strategies you choose while developing your brand will strengthen your position in the market.
Being More Valuable Financially
A properly positioned brand will also be more financially valuable as it promises a future.
In other words, the more you strive for your brand to grow, the more understandable your loyalty is and the more financial return you will earn.
Providing Privilege to Employees
It is flattering and motivating for employees to have a strong impression of the brand they work for. Working for an engaging and respected brand also directly affects the respect people have for them, so they can work more enthusiastically.
What Are The Types of Branding?
Branding is a very complex process. Before determining the strategies to follow in the branding process, you should know that there are many different types of branding. These branding examples vary depending on your target audience, on which platforms your brand will be visible, campaigns and many other factors.
Branding types are as follows.
Corporate Branding
The effect of branding is very important for a company to succeed. What is meant by the branding of the company is not just advertising campaigns or its logo. Factors such as the target audience, the quality of the products it produces, and whether the employees are happy to work in that company are vital.
The strategies chosen by each company can also change during the corporate branding process. For example, two brands that produce the same product may appeal to completely different target audiences, and their pricing may be completely different. Some brands want to appeal to a certain segment of the market by producing only luxury products, while others want to be preferred because of their affordable products.
So for a successful corporate marketing, you need to determine the needs of your target audience. Then it comes to how an outside eye sees you. All details are very important, from the URL you choose for your company to what kind of impression you make on the internet. You should keep in mind that making choices suitable for trends will keep you one step ahead.
Personal Branding
Personal branding is a very common concept today. It would not be wrong to say that people in front of the public are also brands. Especially in these days when the number of social media influencers is increasing, personal branding is one of the most important factors that differentiate the person.
When it comes to personal branding, reputation is also involved. This reputation is what causes you to gain new customers or followers. If you position yourself well, you can be more successful in the product or service you want to market or sell. After you introduce people to what you are good at, you can improve yourself and be successful in this field.
Product Branding
The most common type of branding we see around us is product branding. There is also differentiation, but this time it is the product that needs to be put in a good position in the eyes of the target audience and of course, it is necessary to choose the right marketing strategies for this.
These marketing strategies consist of many different elements such as colors, music, design, logo and so on and support the product. Thus, the product stands out from its competitors in the market and becomes preferred. You should remember that the needs of the market affect the success of the product.
Employer Branding
For a company or brand, what impression it makes on its customers is crucial to its reputation and success. Likewise, for an employer, the impression of their employees is equally important.
Especially in today’s job market, your employees need to have a long-term relationship with you and think that your company is a place worth working. Of course, to achieve this, besides leaving a positive image of your employer branding, you should also be giving your employees reasons to be motivated. For example, a good salary, decent working hours or additional benefits.
Digital Branding
It can be said that a brand that does not show its presence in social media and digital platforms cannot be successful today. Now, brands need to get rid of traditional branding methods and be under the influence of digital transformation. In the digital branding process, brands that include current developments such as content marketing and SEO copywriting in their branding programs can distinguish themselves from their competitors in the market.
The concept of digital branding is briefly called the stage of creating your brand with the help of social media, websites, apps and videos. You can make digital branding by using methods such as brand messaging, SEO consultancy, social media presence and online advertising.
So you can be more accessible, reach more customers and make them feel closer to you.
Start-Up Branding
Are you constantly working on your marketing strategies for your newly established company, but somehow you cannot sell as much as you want? Do you have difficulty reaching your target audience? So the problem is probably not in the marketing part, but with your brand. In order for your newly established brand to be successful, paying attention to some details will take you further than you think.
For start-up branding, a quality logo design is actually a symbol that summarizes the services you offer. It creates a strong first impression, makes you more reliable and makes people feel closer to you. Now they know what you are selling or what service you are offering every time they see your logo. Another important element for startup branding is a proper website. This way you will be more visible and people can contact you directly. Taking these important steps will take you to your desired goal safely and quickly.
B2B Branding
Branding doesn’t just mean designing a logo or owning a website. The branding process is actually a way to reach the customers you want to attract their attention. After determining what your company is trying to offer to the whole world, B2B branding can be mentioned. To this end, every step is related to B2B branding, from how your employees respond to the phone, to the answers they give to customer messages.
In this case, reflecting your corporate identity in a professional way is very critical. It is very important for a correct B2B branding to clearly express the message you want to give, to position your company correctly and to explain your differences clearly, to be customer-oriented and to give interesting messages.
Social Media Branding
Social media has become a very important tool for companies to sell and show their presence in the market. The advertisements that used to be in print media or on television have now generally turned to social media.
Thus, it became easier to communicate one-on-one with the target audience. Now we can say that social media branding is almost a must for a brand to become stronger. It determines the impression you leave on social media and the strategies you will follow to become a strong brand that your customers feel about you.
It would be a smart step to be consistent in colors and patterns in your social media accounts, to use standard and simple templates, and to achieve the same harmony in each profile. After you have a consistent look, you can strengthen the promotion of your products with pictures and videos.
For example, youtube branding is seen as a successful branding strategy. Viewers on your brand’s youtube account will be younger than Facebook customers. Thus, you can determine the style of the videos you will upload accordingly. By creating several different marketing personas, you can appeal to a wide audience on digital platforms.
Emotional Branding
Emotional branding can be briefly called controlling the thoughts and feelings of your target audience. This way you can get customer loyalty. In short, emotional branding can be defined as establishing a link between your customers and your brand. This is possible with the content you create. One of the best books of branding written on this subject is The New Paradigm for Connecting Brands to People by Marc Gobé.
Emotional branding triggers emotions in people’s consciousness that stimulate their desire to buy. Emotional ads are one of the most beneficial factors for this branding model. For example, emotional advertisements about social or environmental events and agenda motivate people. This emotional motivation makes your customers feel close to your brand so you can start persuading people to buy your products more easily.
What Are The Well Known Examples of Branding ?
Today, world-famous brands benefit from the advantages of branding. All of these outstanding branding examples have really worked hard for the position they have achieved now. You can also learn about the branding strategies of these advanced brands and make them suitable for you and help your company grow.
Here, we can take the Coca Cola brand as an example. Although the brand, which was established more than a century ago, has undergone changes over time, it has managed to gain a very important place for itself thanks to its successful branding strategies.
It can be easily recognized by anyone who sees the colors and logo that have not changed since the first day of its establishment. The music used in the brand’s advertisements is always the same, and even when people see a white polar bear, many think of Coca Cola.
Another example is the world-famous movie platform Netflix. Today, the brand, which is a leader in its sector, has many strong competitors. But thanks to its successful branding strategies, it always manages to stay one step ahead.
Netflix has created a brand identity that mobilizes people with its simple but catchy logo, which is known by everyone, and its short and clear jingle. In addition, Netflix’s another successful branding strategy is its active presence in different social media platforms. In this way, it appeals to people of all ages with different platforms and establishes a connection with its target audience.
Now that we have mentioned the world-famous examples, we can now talk about what you can do to determine your branding strategies.
Actionable Tips: How to Make Yourself or Your Company A Brand?
Of course, creating a brand out of nothing is not an easy process. It may require a lot of effort and research. In this process, many questions such as “Which way would I choose? How does this choice make people feel? I wonder if I’m on the right track.” may be stuck in your mind.
You can make this process much easier by following specific steps. The factors that you must pay attention to in the branding process are as follows.
Step 1: Finding Remarkable Brand Name
It can be said that the first step you need to take in the branding process is to find a catchy brand name. Whether you are selling a product or a service or be your brand, it is very important to take the road with the right name. In the branding process, the following methods are generally used to choose a remarkable brand name.
- You can create your brand name by using the name of the founder. For example, Louis Vuitton and Marc Jacobs.
- You can choose a name that describes your business or what service you offer. For example, Turkish Airlines.
- You can use a simple catchy word that has nothing to do with the products you sell. For example, Apple.
You should remember that simple names are always more catchy. But you can also ring the bell if you find a long but creative name. In short, it is up to your creativity.
Step 2: Logo of Your Brand
A good logo is the basic building block of the brand it represents. It helps clients understand what the firm in question is doing, who it is, and what it values. Perhaps the most basic function of a logo is that it is a unique sign that distinguishes the company it represents from other companies. This image becomes particularly valuable if the firm competes with its competitors.
In addition to limiting the work of the company, a good logo provides very important information about the company to the customer, it can convey the sector in which the company is located, the service it provides, target demographic information and brand values. It will be useful for you to examine your competitors before creating your own logo. You can easily find and be inspired by their logo with any meaning that expresses brand messages and ideas or shows your personality.
A logo can be as simple as a word or as complex as any symbolic image. There is no exact rule about which approach works best. Consider how logo design ideas will perform in different areas. For example, profile photos of social media accounts. After all these steps, don’t forget to get feedback from those around you and think about it over and over again.
Step 3: Brand Motto
Mottos have a very important place in the marketing strategies and brand identities of companies. For this reason, it is essential for every business and brand owner to be informed about the slogan. A motto is essentially a short and catchy sentence that expresses the important and attractive characteristics of a product, service or organization. It is basically an invitation to people to use the products and services offered by a brand.
This makes it necessary to create the motto with an understanding in line with the brand’s mission and vision.The motto you choose should always be short and clear. According to many studies, you have a maximum of 7 seconds to make an impression on a person. Also, catchy and humorous mottos are very interesting. People are more likely to shop from brands that have the motto they like.
Step 4: Your Brand’s Identity
One of the most important steps in the branding process is to create a brand identity. To put it briefly, brand identity is the way a company shows itself out. While creating a brand identity, many different elements are brought together.
For example, elements such as logo, motto, writing style, website, the colors you prefer, all make up your identity. Completing all these steps consistently allows you to build a strong brand identity.
Step 5: Creating Persona, Defining Target Customers and Segmentation
Let’s briefly define what a persona means. In order for a new venture to continue successfully, it is useful to keep the marketing process tight from the beginning. For this, first personas should be created and target audience characteristics should be defined in detail. Persona can be defined as the examination of characteristic information obtained from different sources and the emergence of the ideal customer profile in the light of this information. We can say that it is actually an analysis process for a persona.
So how do you create a persona?
The purpose of the persona creation process is to collect data of the customer base and to establish analysis accordingly. Processes that affect customer purchasing motivation are among the most important clues about what kind of marketing should be done. During the marketing process, the processes that customers mostly complain about or problems arise are thoroughly analyzed. These problems start with the customer’s access to the product details and continue until the payment problems at the purchasing stage. In other words, possible problems that may occur during the entire purchasing process are also a part of the analysis.
After we understand how to create personas, let’s talk about what the target audience means.
The segment most likely to demand the product or service sold is called the target audience. For example, if you are a brand that sells make-up materials, your target audience will be women. Determining the target audience gives you many advantages in the online environment and success is inevitable when the right steps are taken.
It is very important to determine the target audience in order to have a successful branding process and to be able to do marketing activities. For effective marketing, first of all, the target audience of the product or service to be sold should be determined and a step should be taken. Thus, the marketing studies to be carried out will yield positive results.,
After determining the target audience, segmentation comes into play. This is the name for dividing the market you are addressing into segments where you can grow profitably. Although it takes a lot of effort and cost to influence the whole market, addressing certain segments is a much more profitable step. If you do the segmentation process correctly, you can organize and promote your social media accounts, ads and products accordingly. You are also preferred because the product you sell meets the needs of your target audience.
Step 6: Brand Positioning
A proper positioning makes it easier to facilitate understanding of a brand. It clarifies what the brand is all about, how it is both unique and similar to competitive brands and why customers should purchase and use the brand. There are details that should be known when making brand positioning. These are as follows.
- Who the target consumer is
- Who the main competitors are
- How the brand is similar to these competitors
- How the brand is different from them
If you can make your brand positioning with a single sentence, it can be said that you are on the right track. To give an example; To highly social young adults who are concerned about fresh breath, Colgate Fresh Confidence is the gel toothpaste that delivers long-lasting fresh breath.
Step 7: Value Proposal of Your Brand
Value proposition is what your brand promises to your customers. It also explains the way your company works and the message behind it to the whole market. When your customers see your value proposition, they should understand why they should choose you. The brand, which manages to express itself correctly, manages to stand out from its competitors and convinces its customers that if they encounter a problem, it will solve it.
You can show your value proposition by talking directly to your target audience through your website or ads. You should not forget that at this point you are making a promise to your customers. And when you keep your word, you gain a competitive advantage. At this point, you should think broadly and clearly express the difference of your own brand. Also, it doesn’t have to be a very long paragraph. You can make a value proposition even with a strong sentence or slogan.
Taking all these steps correctly and in accordance with the style of your own brand, explaining why your products or services are different from your other competitors, successfully solving possible problems that your customers may encounter, and keeping your promises will make you the first brand that comes to mind for your target audience.
