A guide on branding in layman’s terms.
Every successful organization or person achieve accomplishments with their handwork and persistence. Their contribution towards solving a problem or providing what is needed with their products or services is commendable. But is that enough? Is that all that’s needed to be successful? The short answer is no. Our today’s blog answers exactly this question briefly. So, let’s begin.
In today’s times, a significant chunk of success earned by any person or organization has a lot to do with branding. Although branding is not a new phenomenon, it’s heavily misunderstood and misinterpreted by the masses except for professionals working in the field of advertising and marketing. Let’s begin to understand the fundamentals of branding one question at a time.
What is branding?
A complete package of your identity, branding is a set of practices that establish the image of an organization or individual in their respective business domain.
Why establishing and marketing your brand identity is important.
Branding defines the motive, morals and values of your organization. This in return makes you appealing to the potential customers as branding is a play of emotions going beyond the notion of just being an organization and adding a human touch to your identity. After all, what appeals to everyone is emotions and not just the products or services. For customers, how your product or service is fulfilling their needs is vital but apart from that, how it makes them feel is also equally important. Depending upon the audience you are catering to, their complete satisfaction is one of your biggest responsibilities. It is then, that people recognize your company as an entity, although an intangible one, it makes space in their hearts and brains. People recognize a brand not merely as a company but as a personality that has its thoughts and aura. When an organization or individual has forged a meaningful relationship with their potential audience, it is then people start believing in them and help them cover bigger markets, boosting their business substantially. Furthermore, branding sets a direction, for the future growth of your business as well as the employees and associates.
What are the brand elements that establish and define the identity of an organization or individual?
Name: Brand name is very crucial. When a brand gets established and becomes the top service provider, it gets familiar with the product itself. Bisleri is a fine example of how a company has become synonymous with the product itself. During travel or dining out, you must have seen people ask for Bisleri instead of asking for mineral water.
Logo: As one of the most recognisable aspects of your brand, it is one the most important element in transforming your organization’s or individual identity into a brand. Logos are either based on images or text. It is present in your every communication whether it is your website, outdoor ads, print ads, product, packaging, emails, social media posts and social media ads.
Tagline or Slogan: A Tagline or Slogan is an important element from the marketing point of view. It not only conveys the brand motive but also, its philosophy. It helps you remain in the mind of your target audience. Some of the best examples are Nike’s slogan ‘Just do it’ or McDonald’s ‘I’m lovin it’.
Colour Scheme: Colour Scheme plays a crucial role in branding. While it may not be a part of your brand communication directly, it is a big deal because it is an important element when it comes to visual communication. A peculiar colour scheme could help you build your brand image subconsciously in the consumer’s head.
Typography: Typography is the selection of fonts used in your brand communications. This element is also used to hammer your style into the minds of consumers. Typography helps people recognize your company when they come across fonts related to your brand. It eases up for you to maintain the same theme across all content created for your brand.
To sum it up, the combination of all these elements makes your brand unique. So, studying your target audience and recognizing how you would like to come off to them will help you create a unique brand identity.
