Branding ? Who needs it ?

Branding?
who needs it?

Well, everyone.

Your brand is not just a professionally designed and researched logo and a superb suite of stationery, an informative website and catalogue or brochure. It is so much more than that.

It’s an ethos, a personality of your product or service, and how your audience perceives it.

Although brands can be developed and designed by a good designer, the very core and essence of the brand comes from the service or product itself.

Good designers extract and assimilate this information and drill down to find it.

These are the foundations of a good brand, and, like the foundations of your house, they have to be built first.

It is only then that a good designer will be able to build a brand for your company. It cannot be undervalued or understated.

Building your brand

A good design outfit or agency will not only advise you about the foundations, but will also help you to understand your clear USP and brand objective, plus find a clear direction that the company wants to go into.

Only then will it be the time to create an intelligent and powerful message and develop it through marketing communications and collateral, so that it all seamlessly and consistently conveys that message – in print, as well as digital media.

All companies need to know the importance of branding and not devalue it

The biggest brands in the world understand the importance of branding because it works for them.

But SMEs need to know and learn the values and importance of branding too.

There’s a famous phrase I use often which is ‘If you think it’s expensive to use a professional, just wait until you use an amateur’.

Would you, for example, fix your electrics in your house yourself with little or no knowledge, or hire a fully qualified electrician to do it?

It’s the same analogy as creating a brand for a company, and delivering a brand identity.

Customers make initial decisions in buying on preset perceptions. It’s when company A – with a firm who have invested in building a good brand message to go with their excellent product or service – comes into direct competition with company B – with the same excellent product or service who has taken little emphasis on their brand – that we see the value of good branding. It must not be devalued.

People do make decisions on say, initial contact with a company, upon such things, and this poor branding can be the difference between gaining a life-long customer or just another dead end.

I have seen hundreds of examples of companies or organisations I personally know to deliver an excellent service in their field have no effective brand or marketing collateral, effectively holding the business back.

Ultimately, it’s like a new suit for your business. A brand properly developed or a rebrand will not only make you look better to existing and potential clients, but give you a lift too!

Branding and marketing your company properly really works and if you want any further proof here are a couple of great and famous quotes, firstly from Stephen King who said ‘a product can be quickly outdated, but a successful brand is timeless.’

Your business is something that is both living and breathing. It is something that you are part of and it is part of you.
So, as Charles Darwin once said, ‘It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change’.

If your company wants to make a change, contact Mike Davis of Creative Input.

Mike Davis of Creative Input can help you change and develop your brand.
Your brand, it just looks better.

Mike is based in Solihull, in the West Midlands, and has over 30 years experience of helping companies raise their profile with intelligent, focused branding and marketing communications.
mike@creative-input.co.uk
http://www.creative-input.co.uk
0121 258 0742 or 07956 492259