Business Dictionary terms branding as “The process involved in creating a unique name and image for a product in the consumers’ mind, mainly through advertising campaigns with a consistent theme.” Through the process of Branding, businesses aim to establish themselves uniquely in the market amongst their competitors. This is achieved by constantly engaging with customers through marketing campaigns and advertisements and that is also called the brand marketing strategy.
Marketing campaigns, target audiences and budgets influence the process of choosing the right brand marketing strategy. The process of brand marketing should support the brand and also help consumers understand the mission of the company/brand. Given below are a few strategies for brand marketing. Goals for brand marketing involves identifying and distinguishing what the company/brand desires to be known for and then curating a strategy to best suit the goals set.
If your brand is already a highly established one, all it needs is its own name to brand under. The market is aware of its name, logo and story, which makes it easier to expand its business. The customers of these brands have immense trust in their products and services, which have enabled them to grow, develop and expand. They are also highly loyal to the brand, which makes branding their newer products under their own name that much more effective.
This strategy can be seen employed by Google, Amazon, etc. Brand marketing is important to nearly every business, be it renowned or developing. Brand marketing influences the decisions of a variety of customers, be it B2B or B2C. It is most effective for developing the concept of re-branding and helps in repeat business scenarios as well. Always keep in mind that a brand marketing strategy cannot be alike across all brands and platforms; they do differ based on their unique identities and needs.
Another way of sketching a strategy for branding is to directly use the market. This process involves the participation of the customers who are either paid or unpaid to give in their input. It is done using various online portals and social media platforms. Using customers has its perks as you get first-hand information of the wants, likes and dislikes of the target audience.
This showcases your business as a customer-centric one and keeps the customers excited and interested, as they will want to witness how the product/service turns out. A good brand marketing strategy will also teach you how to acquire information, which will help you understand the choices, decisions and perceptions of your customers. Apart from communicating with different sections of customers, brand marketing also consists of communicating across different mediums such as audio and visual, verbal and non-verbal, one-way and two-way communication.
Individual branding is a concept where the parent brand creates new names and identities for its newer products and services. A brand must always be consistent and needs to be coherent with all aspects of the business, thus paving the way to create a good brand marketing strategy. By employing individual branding, each brand can use different marketing strategies. If the parent company has a more serious tone of voice, they can always launch a product with a more quirky tone by employing individual branding. Individual branding also enables serving similar products with different qualities to cater to different target audiences. If the lower quality brand fails, it will not affect the reputation of the premium brand though they are under the same parent brand. This ensures that the business’ global reputation is still intact.
Brand extension is when a business decides to venture into a new market using the parent name. The major advantage of doing this is that the brand will already be established. An established brand that has a name of its own already has loyal customers. So for example when a brand that is into computers ventures into producing mobile phones, two things happen; One the mobile phone will cause a lot of curiosity in the target audience as they will like to witness what the new product is and what its features are and secondly, the already loyal customers will not need much convincing to buy their new line as they’ve established the superiority of the brand and its products. This can be seen employed by Apple. They started with computers and ventured into mobile phones, iPods, iPads and MacBooks. A good brand marketing strategy always opts for a mutually beneficial plan via communications, sales, products, and services.
A third-party manufacturer or contractor manufactures a private label product and this is sold under a retailer’s brand name. Private label products/services are also called phantom brands. The retailer has control over various factors like how the product should look, what goes into it and how it should be packaged. The retailer pays for the production of the product and its delivery. The advantages of branding this way are plenty. The retailers have control over the pricing, which means they can sell their products with a profit margin for themselves. They also have control over the production, which enables them to call the shots on the quality of the product. Retailers can also control the branding like naming the product and designing the packaging.
Sometimes, to get better results, a business tries more than one brand marketing strategy and by doing so, if one method fails, they always have a backup. Brand marketing strategies are employed to build brand equity. This helps to increase the value of the brand exponentially and increased brand equity aids to establish the brand. Effective brand marketing requires a good communication medium with a clear message along with authentic data that supports that message.
Consistency even in minute strategic moves is essential as it could turn your entire course of action to a direction remotely related to the purpose of your brand. Hence careful and consistent plans are required to sustain your brand success and longevity. For instance, if you post a picture on a social media platform and if it does not align with the purpose of your brand or product, then the entire progress is pointless. Your branding strategy should always align with or relate to the message that the brand resolved to communicate to the audience. Any information sent out to potential customers must be coherent. This will contribute to brand recognition and will ensure trustworthiness.
The purpose of your brand is important to define your goals. Identify your customer, realise their pain points, your brand should solve their quest, know what customers think of your brand, create a brand story, gain customer’s trust, your brand should contain a unique identity or personality. All these elements will help create the right brand strategy. These steps will appeal to potential customers, as it depicts pure commitment to provide value beyond the just sales and profits. When you define your business’ purpose, keep these perspectives in mind. While it is important to make money, functioning only under that notion does not sustain your brand success for long in the industry.
While consistency and stability help set the standard for your brand, adaptability will ensure to make alterations that will build interest and will provide a distinct approach from that of your competitors. The key is to stay on top and to stay relevant. When your brand has been well established, do not stop right there. The brand has to reach beyond generations, hence adapt to varying changes and trends but with consistency and care. Make sure to not overdo alterations and the brand should acclimatise to the change that you propose and it should not stand out all alone in an incoherent manner. Brand Adaptability predominantly assists your branding strategy techniques.
Don’t know which brand marketing strategy to use to catapult your business? Contact us at Tablo Noir to guide you with this process.
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