Brand building is not only about PR activities

A well-known and recognizable brand that brings huge profits is the dream of every head of the marketing department. It facilitates advertising campaigns and is often a guarantee of success or an increase in turnover. Branding, however, is a difficult field and in the era of such huge competition, building a brand requires knowledge not only of the market, but also of the consumers' needs.

Building a brand is important not only for large corporations

A brand is not only the name of a product or company - it is a synonym of a specific lifestyle. Therefore, building a brand does not end with promotional activities aimed at making the logo or trademark of the manufacturer visible. In fact, these are much broader activities, affecting the associations and emotions of customers, so that they begin to identify with a given product.

Branding is not only the domain of large corporations. Even small and micro-enterprises should take care of brand building within their target group. However, you should take into account the size of the market and the fact that you care about your brand recognition in a different way on the local market than on the global one.

Not only brand recognition is important

It should also be emphasized that the mere recognition of a brand does not mean that it has a strong position on the market. Users must identify with the product or attribute to it features that distinguish it from the competition's offer. Just knowing the name of a given brand is not enough to talk about it in the context of branding.

Building a brand is the entire process of coherent image creation from the moment a company or product is named, to its entire life cycle on the market. That is why branding should be carefully planned so that it gives a consistent message that is attractive to a potential client. The power of branding should not be underestimated, as it has a large impact on the level of sales and its continued existence on the market may depend on it.

Building a brand must be carefully thought out

When shopping at a self-service store, decisions are made: which products on the shelf to choose? It turns out that most of the choices are not well thought out and are made on impulse. Unfortunately, it is not rational arguments that guide customers, but their feelings determine what product will end up in the shopping cart. Positive thoughts and emotions evoked by a given thing in customers are precisely a well-done brand building.

The high impact of intangible elements that add value to a brand has long been discovered by social psychologists. This is why marketers try to use emotions when creating their campaigns. Building the brand is therefore carried out in such a way that the brand is engraved in the minds of consumers as much as possible. So that when making a purchase decision, the customer selects this particular product from among others available on the same shelf.

Emotions and associations rule shopping

Effective brand building is a long and costly process. From the perspective of the company: it is also associated with considerable risk, as not always everything goes according to plan. Sometimes, current events can reveal gaps in the plan and make it necessary to change previously set goals and priorities.

The key factors in building a brand are also the actions of the competition, which may destroy the existing assumptions and make branding have to go a different route. It may also happen that the current image strategy will be outdated and will not reach the new generation of consumers. That is why it is important to analyze the current situation and, if necessary, reposition, relaunch or rebrand. The latter is also visible among large corporations such as Pizza Hut or Starbucks, which with the change of the logo have opened up to completely new customers.

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Sometimes you have to change the assumptions of the plan to achieve the goal

However, not in every sector or industry a company needs large investment outlays to build strong branding. Brand building can also be based on creating better customer relationships by acting on prices or expanding distribution channels. Not for every company, building a brand is the overriding goal that has been set for the marketing department.

Often, branding can be co-created with the sales strategy or market expansion. There are many companies that have built a strong brand just because of their attitude towards customers or high quality of products. Currently, however, it is more and more difficult to achieve such an effect in a global market full of competition. Usually such a situation occurs in the local market among small enterprises.

Increased competition forces building a strong brand

Companies that intend to compete in the so-called red ocean must take into account the need to build a strong brand. If gameplay is no longer possible in terms of availability, price levels or attractive packaging, you need to take care of the added value of your brand. Branding based on stimulating the imagination and emotions of customers is an effective tool to gain a competitive advantage.

One of the most effective ways to reach customers is to include your brand in your daily rituals. By demonstrating during an advertising campaign how a given product can improve the quality of everyday life, it is possible to increase the emotional closeness between the brand and the consumer. Entering the brand in everyday life may translate into better communication. For some products, however, the context of use is more important. Not all products can be used daily, such as dietary supplements.

Branding is not only about intangible assets

While branding is considered in the context of intangible assets, the results must be as tangible as possible. It goes without saying that the overriding goal of any branding is to achieve the best possible sales results. Achieving profits is the idea behind the functioning of any enterprise. The main task of a recognizable brand must therefore be to generate income. Secondary goals are increasing the value of products and building loyalty among customers.

A really strong brand can be recognized by how it copes with unpleasant and unforeseen situations on the market. Each major concern suffered a major or minor mishap, but its rank and appropriate reaction meant that it did not upset its market position. Sometimes seemingly strong companies disappear just because of inept responding to changes in the industry.

It is similar when a given brand loses profits and position from month to month due to the actions of the competition. In that case, it's fair to say that it doesn't have strong branding, even if market research says otherwise. Strong brands last for years and sometimes only small changes to the message allow them to increase their competitive advantage. Probably no one can imagine the market without Coca-Cola, Marlboro or McDonald's restaurants.