Branding is so called the heart of the Business as it creates uniqueness for any product and gives an ideal platform for an organisation to project their product. The real and imaginary qualities of a product in the minds of the customers create a brand image. Advertising campaigns, advertising channels, distribution channels, communicating the brand message and brand strategy gives a significant and special presence in the consumers’ mind which enhances the brand image. A brand name tells the world about a company’s loyalty towards customers as it represents the market identity.
The brand is a promise to the customers about the quality of the product, the image of the brand they carry and the services that they acknowledge for delivering. Brand gives recognition as it acts as an initiator to the various product lines. Brand strategy differentiates the product from their competitors’ products. Brand strategy is a long term plan in order to reach specific goals.
Strategic branding gives added value to the products and the services which make customers pay more for a branded product, even though there is an identical unbranded product in the market. Higher sales and brand differentiation leads to loyalty towards the product and creates demand for the product.
Branding reflects the vision, mission, values, name, logo, tagline, watermark, design, quality, price, strategy, trust, beliefs, perceptions, symbol, promotions etc. Effective brand identity is achieved by specific fonts, colours, graphical elements and these are called as the visual element which is also denominated as LOGO. Every brand is represented by a unique logo, and it acts as a foundation of a brand.
Tips for brand image
1.Name, logo and tagline:
Name of the product gives recognition to the product and memorable tagline that increases the essence of a brand. The statements & the attractive strategy promoted by the companies pull the world to concentrate on the product. It is always better to learn from others or competitors mistakes & experiences to launch the name in the market. Before launching the product it is always important to organise some surveys in the society to know the pros and cons.
2.Quality:
The main motive of any firm is to inject their product into customer’s brain by delivering highly qualified products and their services and the brand image comes from the standards of the company in terms of quality and price of the product. Quality brings loyalty towards the brand and makes customers be ready to pay the higher prices.
3.Uniqueness:
Better designed innovative, qualitative products and more reliable than the competitor’s products makes your business unique and creates the strong brand image. Maintaining the uniqueness of the product is a very challenging task for any firm fighting with a large number of competitors in the market. Implementing innovative ideas are the only way to reach the customer.
4.Marketing strategy:
Marketing strategy is always drawn from the organisation’s strategy, marketing goals, marketing plan and market research. It acts as a foundation for the brand as it creates potential customers to the various product lines.
5.Consistency:
Maintaining consistency increases familiarity and trust, it creates loyalty in the minds of potential customers. Making a customer purchase the same product shows the consistency achievement by the firm. There could be many reasons why a customer comes for the same brand every time like, the high quality of the product, the high availability of the product and the customer relationship maintained by the firm with the customer.
6. Target customers:
Customers having the ability to pay and willingness to buy becomes target customers. Identifying target customers needs and matching your business offerings to fulfill their needs helps to build a strong brand.
7.Promotions:
Promoting a brand is a very tricky aspect for any firm. Some of the techniques like, using animations or using celebrity icons to promote their product, etc. Various activities which communicate the product create awareness about the product and attract to buy the product. Product awareness is the first step for the strong brand image. Public usually gets attracted to the way you present, the colour combinations used, the elements used. If the company succeeds in drawing the attention of the public during that short span of the advertisement or the frames elaborated, that would be the first success step.
8.Value:
Operational excellence, product leadership and great customer service enhance the value of the product. The value provided should always differ than that of the competitors and the potentiality of any brand is decided majorly using the component so-called VALUE. A firm needs to very confident about their product & should be tremendous enough to demonstrate it. Public usually have a tendency to listen, a firm’s main intention should be to grab their complete attention towards what is being exhibited about the product or the services or ultimately the life journey with the product.
9.Be Active:
If the brand has to be successfully built, one of the most important rules that have to be maintained would be consistently active by improving marketing strategies and with regular customer interaction. It mainly tells the need of existing customers. On the whole, to reach the customers, social media is one of the major mediums to scrutinize themselves about where they stand in the market. This also helps the firm to study, analyse & reframe the skeleton structure if required. This strategy applies especially to the manufacturing units. Though it invests some capital on the survey & analysis before launching the product, the research department still cannot presume few consequences after the launch of the product. In those scenarios, the advertising department has to be very cautious & prepared during the launch.
10.Social Media:
Today customers report to social media about their experiences. Social media helps to know the customers’ experience whether they are happy or unhappy. So, it is a great opportunity to reach the customers easily through the social as they are providing a chance to rectify the flaws. The solution is shown to a single customer via social media never ends there itself, it creates a strong brand image in the minds of millions of other potential customers.
