In the first in a series of posts on the crucial role played by branding in influencing client choice, we take a look at what brands are exactly, and the most successful businesses are strongly branded.

What is a brand?
A brand is an amalgam of associations that a person or group of people makes with a company, product, service, individual or organization.

These associations may be intentional – that is, they may be actively promoted via marketing and corporate identity, for example – or they may be outside the company’s control. For example, a poor press review for a new product might ‘harm’ the product manufacturer’s overall brand by placing negative associations in people’s minds.

What is branding?
If a brand results from a set of associations and perceptions in people’s minds, then branding is an attempt to harness, generate, influence and control these associations to help the business perform better.

Any organisation can benefit enormously by creating a brand that presents the company as distinctive, trusted, exciting, reliable or whichever attributes are appropriate to that business.

Why strong brands speak loudly to clients and customers
Branding is a way of clearly highlighting what makes your offer different to, and more desirable than, anyone else’s.

If you view the two images on the right you will see that Rachel’s Organic Butter, for example, chose black for its packaging design so it would stand out from the typical yellow, gold and green colours (representing sunshine and fields used by competitor products).

The result is that the brand appears more premium, distinctive and perhaps even more ‘daring’ than its competitors. This ploy of differentiation can be adopted by all companies, whether they produce products or services, or whether they are customer facing or client facing.

Effective branding elevates a product or organization from being just one commodity among many identical commodities, to being something with unique character and promise. It can create an emotional resonance in the minds of consumers and clients who choose products and services using both emotional and pragmatic judgements.

Brands add value for clients and customers
People are generally willing to pay more for a branded product or service than they are for something that is largely unbranded. Plus, a brand can be extended through a whole range of propositions too.

Brands help you connect with clients and customers
Creating a connection with people is important for all organizations, particularly in today’s Web 2.0 connected world. A strong brand can embody attributes which consumers and clients will feel drawn to.

This blogpost is drawn from ‘The power of branding: a practical guide’, a special resource for small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) produced by the Design Council, the national strategic body for design in the UK.

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Brands and branding explained

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How to manage brands successfully

Sector specific branding techniques

Branding is seen as luxury by too many SMEs

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Being different is better than being best

Brand differentiation: Be prepared to invest