Imagine this. You want to buy a car, and you’re clueless about how to go about it. So, you pick up your phone and call a friend of yours who knows about cars. Your friend mentions two brands to consider, the Toyota and the Zotye brands. And you wondered, “Which one is Zotye?” That’s the importance of branding for any business or start-up.
This is exactly how people will wonder what your business is about if it doesn’t have a strong brand identity.
In this article, you’ll find out the importance of branding and why you need to create a strong brand identity.
But first of all, what is a brand, and what is branding?
Table of Contents
What Does Branding Mean?
A brand is the sum of people’s perceptions, thoughts, beliefs, and opinions about your start-up or business. Your brand is what people think of you and what they believe you can do. Branding is the process of creating your desired perception, thoughts, and beliefs in the mind of your audience.
What comes to your mind when you hear Coca-Cola? Colour red? The word “refreshing”?
How about MTN NG? Yellow? “Everywhere you go”?
That’s the power of branding.
There are a lot of elements involved in the creation of a strong brand identity. Some include name, logo, tagline, color, message, medium of advertisement, and customer service.
The good thing about branding is that you control how people perceive your business. It would be best if you leveraged that control.
Don’t be fooled to think that branding is only a tool to be employed by big companies. Creating a strong brand identity is all about building an emotional connection with your target customers such that they can relate to the personality of your business.
Let’s now move to the importance of branding.
Importance of Branding: 9 Reasons You Need a Strong Brand Identity
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To promote visibility and recognition
As explained earlier, without a strong brand identity, people won’t know the core of your business. Branding helps to get the attention of people and make them recognize you. It portrays to people that your business exists and that it has a particular thing to offer.
How do you Identify an Apple product without its logo and the other elements? Branding creates an awareness of your business in the heart of people.
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To stand out in the market
Remember that you’re not the only one in your line of business, so there are many options for people to choose from. The only way to stand out from the competition is through branding. We can differentiate the First bank from Zenith Bank and Guaranty Trust bank because of their peculiar brand identities.
A strong brand identity differentiates you from your competitors and portrays your business’s uniqueness and speciality. Without it, your business will be lost amidst the multitude of other related businesses in the market.
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For consistency
One primary importance of branding is that it aids consistency. Anywhere your start-up is located or seen, both online and offline, there is always this consistency of identity that comes with it. This is what builds an impression in the heart of your customers and makes them remember you. Coca-cola has been using the red color from inception, and this means you’ll get suspicious if you see a green bottle tagged with the coca-cola logo.
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To gain the trust of your audience
Creating a strong brand identity that involves consistency builds trust in the heart of your customers. Branding reveals to potential customers that you’re an established and reliable business, and they know what to expect from you. Everybody wants to deal with known and credible businesses.
The higher the level of trust, the more they’ll be willing to patronize you. That’s one very great importance of branding that you can’t overlook.
Read also: Business reputation management for Nigerian business owners
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To build a community of loyal customers
Another importance of branding is that it helps you build a community of loyal customers. When customers trust you, they won’t patronize you once. They will come back again and again because of the consistency you have placed in their hearts. This develops customers’ preference toward your product, and more often than not, your customers also become influencers of your product or service.
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To aid growth and expansion
When there is a strong brand identity for your start-up, setting up other branches of your business in other places in the world is easier and faster. It saves you the stress of coming up with another name or logo, but you just carry on with the perception and trust that people already have in you— branding results in the growth and expansion of your business.
Read also: Reasons why Nigerian startups fail
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Increase in business value
A start-up with a strong brand identity will undoubtedly command a higher business value than one that doesn’t. Because people don’t just buy a product, they buy the product’s personality as well. And that’s why people buy Apple products, despite the seemingly outrageous prices.
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To make sales
The goal of every start-up is to make sales and good profits. You would agree that once you’ve managed to build trust and authority, amassing profit will be a piece of cake. Your start-up will achieve its financial goal with a strong brand identity.
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Branding strengthens your passion
Branding benefits you as well. One, it gives focus and direction to your business because you already have a system and all you have to do is keep working in that line.
Two, the feeling of joy, pride, and satisfaction that you and your employees get when you get expected results is something you wouldn’t trade for the world. This is the most intimate importance of branding — the stronger the identity, the better the results, and the higher the motivation.
Read also: How to build a business brand and stand out in Nigeria
In conclusion, creating a strong brand identity is a must for every start-up, company, or organization to be recognized and glued to people’s hearts.
The importance of branding cannot be over-emphasized. It is a very effective way to achieve your business goals and thrive if done right.
Would you like to increase the reach of your brand? Sponsor your business on insight.ng today.
You can also connect directly with us on Whatsapp and let’s discuss your brand.
About Author
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Oluwanifemi Akintomide is an exceptional content writer who helps brands come up with impressive content that engages their audience and turns them into loyal customers.
She has interests in personal growth and development, entrepreneurship, and lifestyle.
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