Branding is the key to a successful business. The term might appear as a mere logo or company name but it plays a crucial role in the success of any business irrespective of high competition within the market. It is the process of pushing customers to perceive a business in a particular way that goes beyond a tag line and colors. Good branding leaves lasting imprints in the customer’s mind. Branding becomes the identity that differentiates one company from another and ensures the customer’s repurchase. On the other hand, the ineffectiveness of branding keeps the customers away which might result in the decline of the brand prophesying the downfall of the business
Good Branding: Growth Strategy for a Successful Business
The growth of a business can be both organic and inorganic growth. Organic growth refers to the growth achieved by a company by increasing output and sales internally. On the other hand, inorganic growth is the growth achieved from expanding the business from buying other businesses or opening new locations. Branding acts as a catalyst to the organic and inorganic growth strategy of any business. Both types of growth need acclaimed customer recognition which is brought out by good branding. Hence, branding becomes one crucial tool among the market development strategy.
Good Branding in the Virtual World.
As the business and the market world shift from physical to the virtual world, the whole global market is now available at a click distance to consumers all around the world. With more available options customers can now surf through various brands all at the same time and can change their choices. The digital marketing guide refers branding as the best technique to nourish the virtual business. In the virtual world, branding is achieved through market automation. Brands use market automation techniques to interact and keep the customers engaged with their products. Recently, with the introduction of the metaverse, the market is at the point of a massive change. The metaverse simply means a network of 3D virtual worlds focused on social connections. Recently Facebook changed its company name to “Meta” and created buzz; it became a metaverse company from a social media company. The CEO Mark Zuckerberg comments on the introduction of metaverse as “It’s the next big breakthrough in technology. It’s a joke. It’s a marketing strategy. It’s a techno-dystopian nightmare. It’s the metaverse — defined most simply as a virtual world where people can socialize, work, and play”.
Strategizing Branding using Google My Business
With the introduction of automation and metaverse in the marketing field, it has now become important for brands to have an upper hand in the virtual world. Brands have to now ensure their branding by having an upper hand in the search engines. The chance for your brand to prosper now depends on the position you holds in the search. Google has introduced a new tool for entrepreneurs called google business as “a free and easy-to-use tool for businesses and organizations to manage their online presence across Google, including Search and Maps. To help customers find your business, and to tell them your story, you can verify your business and edit your business information.” To use Google My Business one has to create a Google My Business account which is a free account created to get a dashboard to manage and enhance your Business Profile. Those with the business profile are listed in the google business listing. To qualify for a Google business listing, a member of staff must be available to interact with your customers during the business hours mentioned in your listing. Hence Google my business allows you to appear online in several ways:
- Search engine optimization SEO depicts the organic search results, the appearance of the search results when someone uses a search engine like Google. The results depend entirely on different factors such as the relevance of your search. Hence by analyzing and strategizing different techniques one can bring out their brands to the forefront.
- Search engine marketing, or SEM, refers to ads that can be bought to show up in search results. Advertising of the brand through Google’s online advertising program.
- The Business Profile also maintains local results, which show up in Maps and Search. The results are based on the location and help users find nearby businesses.
In short, the tool Google My Business improves your online presence and helps in branding your business.
Advantages of Effective Branding
- Recognition: The crucial aim of any business is to stand out from other competitors and attain customer recognition. Good branding guarantees recognition. Hence, branding acts as a catalyst in the growth strategy of the business.
- Loyalty: Any brand is successful only if the customers from their purchase experience a constant positive personal experience, physical attribute-based satisfaction and value accompanying the brand. The loyalty of the brand would bring in more loyal customers.
- Fame: The fame of any brand is a result of the product and branding strategy. But the frame provider is none other than the customers. Hence, there is no better brand ambassador than customers.
- Advertisement: Another strategy for proper branding is an advertisement. The newness and the message from the advertisement call the attention of the consumers to its brand. Often the brand is referred to and remembered by the advertisement. Hence the best way to establish a brand is to provide an eye capturing advertisement.
- Price: An efficient branding provides the power to raise the prices as the brand strength. The better the branding, the hike in prices doesn’t bring in losing customers as long as the experience of the brand improves.
Approaches to an Effective Branding
- Incorporating the details of the brand into effective, consistent and high-quality content provides the best impact on the customers than any other technique. A consistent brand message is one of the significant factors to determine the growth and success of a brand. Writing the brand details in a unique yet identifiable voice, tone, and style could buy the trust of the customers.
- Constant articles related to the brand can also consume the attention of the brand. An article works as a means to keep the audience engaged with your brands. The brand article writing can be of the milestone a brand has achieved or an innovation that is about to be marketed or a simple thank you note to your loyal customers. Similarly, the articles that never gained attention can be edited with proper keywords and published as a rewritten article with new updated information to rank higher in the search algorithm.
- Another important aspect of branding is color psychology. It is the study of how colors affect perceptions and behaviours. In branding, color psychology focuses on how colors impact consumers’ impressions of a brand and whether or not they persuade consumers to consider specific brands or make a purchase. It is to be considered when creating marketing assets, building a new business, or rebranding an existing one.
- Data analysis is another concept of branding. It is important to check how the brand is affecting the customers. Data analytics can be used to improve a company’s marketing experimentation process. With digitalisation, big data analysis is possible and a must. As the author Geoffrey Moore tweeted, “Without big data analytics, companies are blind and deaf, wandering out onto the Web like deer on a freeway.”
- Business Analysis is another disciplined approach for introducing and managing change to organizations, whether they are for-profit businesses, governments, or non-profits. It is used to identify and articulate the need for change in how organizations work, and to facilitate that change. As business analysis provides the solutions that will maximize the value delivered by an organization to its stakeholders, it is one of the best concepts to be explored to improve the branding of a business.
