Importance of Branding - Whats in a Name?

Branding is perhaps the most important facet of any business--beyond product, distribution, pricing, or location. A company's brand is its definition in the world, the name that identifies it to itself and the marketplace. A model may be beautiful, but without a name, she's just "that girl in that picture." Where would Norma Jean be without Marilyn Monroe, or who would imagine Coca-Cola as just a soft-drink manufacturer? A brand provides a concrete descriptor to customers and competitors alike, a name for a product or service to distinguish it from anything else. Bob may run a hobby shop, but trying to advertise as "The hobby shop a guy named Bob runs down the street a ways" is financial suicide. Each customer will have to describe the shop, who Bob is, and what the shop does every time someone asks about it.

This makes the process of recommending a good hobby shop too much work for the average customer, and far too much work for a user looking for hobby shops on the Internet. A customer looking up Bob's hobby shop will have an easier time of it if he or she knows to refer to it as "Bob's House of Hobbies," and the customer can then refer others to Bob's hobby shop by name, increasing the potential advertising exponentially.

Developing a brand involves more than just picking a catchy name and placing an ad in the newspaper--a brand is more than a unique string of letters denoting a particular product; a successful brand is a mnemonic trigger that makes a consumer feel a certain way when the brand is thought of. For those who drink cola-flavored soft drinks, which is more appealing on a hot day: a cold cola soda, or an ice-cold Coke? Coca-Cola has spent 100 years developing their particular brand of cola-flavored soda as a refreshing beverage and a seminal representation of a market segment. Coca-Cola has used a combination of direct marketing, give-away techniques, and multi-product cross-branding to achieve maximum brand recognition and visibility in not only its immediately competitive market, but in markets as diverse as Coca-Cola branded race cars and housewares.

Brand loyalty is an integral part of building a brand, as consumers usually have a choice of products in the same market segment, and so a successful company will come up with a way to keep consumers re-buying their product or coming back to their location rather than going to a competitor. These brand loyalty-building efforts may come in the form of coupons, incentives such as many grocery chains' technique of "grocery discount cards" or "loss leaders," meant to draw consumers into the store, where they will hopefully buy products along with the discounted fare at a higher profit ratio.

In exchange for these discounts and grocery cards, many companies collect information about buying habits and average spending amounts, the better to tailor advertisements and better-focus future promotional efforts. Once a consumer is hooked, brand loyalty tends to result in higher sales volume, as well as loyal customers being less sensitive to price changes of their favorite brands (within reason, of course), as well as less sensitive to competitors' incentives. Studies have shown that it takes 5 times as much money to gain a customer as it does to retain one. That's 5 times as much money as could have been spent on other things.

A brand is who your company is, and what it is selling--it is as important as naming a baby, and should require the same amount of effort to develop it, but if done well, can mature into a successful and profitable adult.

William King is the director of All Wholesale UK: http://www.uk-wholesaler.co.uk , Wholesale Pages: http://www.wholesalepages.co.uk and Wholesale-Canada: http://www.wholesale-canada.com. He has 18 years of experience in the marketing and trading industries and has been helping retailers, entrepreneurs and startups with their product sourcing, promotion, marketing and supply chain requirements.

---

Getting Started in the Mail Order Business. How Much Does It Cost?

INTRODUCTION To get any business started successfully takes many ingredients.... Read More

Branding Your Products Is Important

I was chatting with a couple of friends, all of... Read More

Is Your Logo Helping or Hurting Your Business?

The quality of your logo can mean the difference between... Read More

You Bored Me at Hello - Top Three Strategies for Networking Your Brand

"You had me at hello," those famous words from the... Read More

Living Your Brand on the Web - Part 2

Now that everyone has conformed to Living Your Brand on... Read More

Branding - More Than Just a Statement - A Memory Scar

Conjure up in your mind broad rolling meadows with runs... Read More

Light Up Necklaces Help Promote Red Doors Movie at the 2005 Tribeca Film Festival Awards

June 13, 2005 -- Jane Chen (Producer) of the Red... Read More

Trademark Your Business ? Lessons Learned

Small business owners learn many lessons the hard way -... Read More

Build Brand Identity Through Product Branding

Building a product into a brand leader is not easy,... Read More

Which Of These Words Attract Your Clients

Whether it's your business card, tagline, article title, web site... Read More

Naming Names... How to Name your Business

Sometimes the best inspiration comes from hearing about the deconstruction... Read More

Pressure Washing Companies and Co-Branding

Pressure washing companies often miss what we call 'super niche'... Read More

Brand Image ? Brand Identity Guru

Having a brand image is not a "have or have... Read More

Corporate Internet Branding is only Part of A Business Success

Gaining new clients that are excited about developing a corporate... Read More

Why Should I do Business With You?

It's the question that is on the minds of all... Read More

The Importance of Branding - Can It Really Make a Difference?

As consumers, we don't really think about the importance of... Read More

Brand Identity Company ? Brand Identity Guru

Hiring a brand identity company is very important. In every... Read More

Go Ask Alice

One of fiction's finest marketing minds, The Cheshire Cat, once... Read More

Create a Niche: Stoke Your Market With Affiliate Branding

Propose success, demand performance, and brand your market with appeal.... Read More

Franchisor Policies for Unlicensed or Sold Territories

Franchisors often have issues when they own a brand which... Read More

Brand Identity - Corporate Identity and Brand Value

Companies work hard building the strength of their brands -... Read More

Co-Branding in Automotive Service Businesses

In a world of co-branding, point of destination strategies and... Read More

Why You? -- Professional Identity Branding

You can have first-rate products and services, but if you... Read More

Brand Extension; Going from Consumer to Commercial

As more and more home pressure washers are sold at... Read More

Corporate Branding ? Dont Forget Your CDs!

Companies have been branding their collateral materials such as letterhead,... Read More

Understand Brand

Branding has been defined, explained and examined extensively. There are... Read More

Measuring Return On Investment

...or Is My Brand Working?To measure the impact and effectiveness... Read More

Brand Value Plan - Brand Identity Guru

Developing brand value is critical to every organization and when... Read More

I Hate My Logo! What You Should Get For Your Money and Why

This is not a how-to design a logo. This is... Read More

Brand Value - Brand Identity Guru

Successful Guru marketers have a secret weapon that they use... Read More

Branding Fiasco -- Better Be Who You Say You Are!

Our experience as customers offers great instruction into the concept... Read More

Does Your Message Pass the Test?

Develop an effective benefit message and you're well on your... Read More

Living Your Brand on the Web - Part 1

OK, so you took the plunge and purchased your internet... Read More