“Branding” is one of those terms that is often misunderstood – but it’s crucial that you get it right in order to make it work for your business.

People often mistake branding for simply having a logo or mark that identifies your business. But, while a logo is part of your brand, it isn’t your brand itself. Your brand is actually emotional rather than physical. 

As one of the most important factors to your business’s success, branding is the promise you make to your customers. More specifically, your brand is the set of emotions and perceptions that you intentionally cultivate around your business, which you constantly communicate to your customers through a series of visual and verbal cues. 

That’s all fine, but why do you really need to spend time to developing your brand? 

Because, branding helps to identify your products or services, distinguish you from competitors, and create a persona that your customers can connect with. In other words, it’s not just the physical products or services your business provides; it’s also the emotions your audience feels when thinking about your business – emotions that you can help to create. 

Ask yourself: What do people say, think, and feel about your business? That is your brand, and you have the ability to form that impression.

“Good branding (or brand identity) effectively communicates a business, service or product’s truth. When I see a fantastic business represented with a poor brand identity it’s really quite upsetting, it’s an imbalance, confusing and most importantly untruthful” 

Ryan Stanfield, Design Director at Kaizen Brand Evolution

Why branding is important for business success 

Branding is one of the most important things in a business. It is basically a marketing strategy under which the business creates a name along with a symbol or a design that is easily identifiable as belonging to the company. It is very important for all the businesses to understand the value of the branding as it helps in identifying a particular product or service and comparing it against competitor products and services. Through the branding, the customers get attracted to a particular business and it makes the client know what actually they are expecting from your company. 

Brand identity is actually one of the smartest ways through which you can distinguish yourselves from your competitors and under this, your business can clarify about the different things that they are offering. Your business can explain to various people about how they can make a better choice by choosing your business over others. 

The brand you are making for your business will be the true picture of who you are as a business, and how you want your business to be seen

It is true, that branding is one of the most important parts of your business as it makes an overall impact on your business. There is no doubt that branding can definitely change how people will see your brand. Through this, you can actually make people aware of your business. In order to have a professional branding make sure that you take the help of the professional brand design agency who are experts in their field.

How to grow your business through branding 

Your brand is more than selecting a few colours and deciding upon a font that you like, your branding is the gateway to your business. It tells your audience and your customers who you are and what you stand for. Whether or not your customers decide that they want to spend their time and money on you, will always in some way be determined by the relationship that they have with your brand. In essence, your brand is all-important. Here’s our top tips on how to use your branding to help successfully grow your business;

Branding to be proud of

Before you can go about growing your business from your brand, you’ll want to make sure that you are not only 100% sold on the branding that you have decided on, but that it has been designed to function effectively across multiple different devices, platforms and print runs. Once you know for certain that your brand can be taken into the market without any issues then you can rest assured that you won’t have any hiccups, embarrassing mistakes, or unprofessional branding letting you down.  

Stick to the brand guidelines

Calling them “guidelines” can sometimes misconstrue the purpose your brand guidelines are intended to fulfill. They’re not really guidelines in that sense of the word at all, they are clear and unbreakable rules that can damage your brand perception if they are not kept to. As much as your brand is all important, it is also easily damaged if you are not strict about the ways in which it is used. 

Set out your objectives

Once you are both clear on your brand and how to use it, then you’ll want to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve with your branding. Are you running a lot of events? Do you want to get your name out in the local area? Would you like to improve your relationship with existing clients and customers? Do you want to keep front of mind with your existing clients or customers? Do you want to help your sales staff to seal the deal? How you choose to use your branding can help you in all of these areas. 

Get your name out there

With your objectives in mind and your key target audience to impress, it’s time to get your name out there (quite literally). Here’s a few examples of uses for your fantastic new branding;

Sales Collateral

Smart and professional looking branding is great for creating a good impression with your clients and customers. If you want to help your sales staff look the part when it comes to their sales pitch then branded Business Cards, branded Booklets & Brochures, and branded Presentation Folders, is a fantastic way to do this. First impressions are everything, and by ensuring that you have high quality sales collateral to offer to clients and customers you can rest assured that they are armed with everything they need to seal the deal. 

Advertising Materials

So you’ve just completed your rebrand and you want to show every man and his dog. And why wouldn’t you? Well, what better way to get that great looking brand out there than with branded posters, flyers, and plotted stickers? Investing in branded advertising materials is the perfect way to raise awareness of your new brand and to get people talking. 

Events

If you do a lot of events but never quite manage to do as well as you’d like, it might be that your branding is letting you down. Beautifully designed and professional looking events collateral can be the difference between success and failure at your next event. Branded events materials such as roll up banners and selfie frames are a great place to start. 

Branded Merchandise

Want to keep front of mind with your clients & customers? Why not try branded notepads & desk pads, or branded wall calendars. Providing your customers with high quality branded materials that they will use every day is a fantastic way to ensure they never forget about you. 

Our Kaizen Brand Evolution team have developed have worked with businesses right across the UK and Ireland. If you would like to speak to our team about your brand identity, simply contact us through our contact form, call our team on +44 (0)28 9507 2007 or email us on studio@kaizenbrandevolution.com