Any entrepreneur who plans to start his own business would think about its branding. Branding has now emerged as a major aspect of marketing and business development, and even major business houses have started to take it seriously.
Focusing on key areas of the business is a good idea for most firms as this will attract the attention of the customers to the positive aspects of your product and hence offer a positive response.
Why is Branding Important?
- Increases the overall value of the business
- Increases employee satisfaction
- Fetches recognition for the company
- Increases the number of customers
- Makes the company reliable in the market
- Boosts advertising endeavors
The corporate sector now puts great emphasis on branding endeavors, and people skilled in the domain earn fat salaries from their employers. Nowadays, branding is no longer a part of marketing.
It has emerged as a major part of the entire business operations. Branding is a broad concept and consists of several underlying procedures to it.
What Does Branding Consist Of?
Branding refers to any term, symbol, design, name, or any other attribute associated with the goods or services offered by any seller. Branding helps the customers to identify with the company and its activities.
Therefore, branding is not only associated with the physical aspects but also the feelings developed by the consumers towards the business and the product.
These physical and emotional features, along with the company logo, name, tagline, and visual identity, create what is popularly known as branding.
Similar products might be there; nevertheless, they have distinct customer bases across the world. This is where branding comes in and helps the consumers to distinguish between two similar products. It gives meaning to a specific business organization and its products and services by creating an impression in the minds of the customers.
Professionals design branding strategies to help customers identify with their favorite brands with ease. They are also helpful to sellers because they give the consumers reasons to choose their products over similar ones available in the market.
What are the Different Types of Branding?
Branding can be of many different types depending upon the types of businesses and the products offered by the company. Here are the different types of branding that are important in today’s business scenario.
Personal Branding
Personal branding refers to the branding of an individual person. This is different from the branding of the whole business. +
This is ideal for politicians, celebrities, actors, musicians, digital marketers, and anyone else who wants to create and maintain a positive image in the eyes of the general public.
Personal branding comes as a great help for furthering the growth of their careers. Social media is an important aspect of personal branding.
This is because it enables the person to reach a wide audience. Speaking on a personal platform on social media, one can reach millions.
For example, Neil Patel and Tony Robbins are entrepreneurs who have done their personal branding perfectly. They have invested in their online presence and have emerged as experts in their respective domains.
Geographical Branding
Geographical branding is especially important in the tourism industry. It emphasizes the characteristic traits of a particular geographical area like a country, state, or city and portrays them in a positive light in the eyes of the people.
This gives the customers reasons to visit that place. Claiming a particular cuisine as being unique to that particular area for highlighting its unique history is part of geographical branding.
For example, Amsterdam has marveled at geographical branding by creating the “I Amsterdam” sign in the city. This has enabled tourists to turn their attention away from the city’s red-light district and focus more on the region’s rich cultural diversity.
Service Branding
As the name suggests, service branding focuses more on companies offering services to their customers than product manufacturers. Customers are emphasized in this type of branding, and companies promise to provide their clients with the best services.
Even though all kinds of branding focus on customer interactions, service branding goes a step further in this aspect and makes all possible efforts to not alienate their clients.
Service branding emphasizes perceived value addition to customer support. Customer service is enhanced with service branding by handing out goodies and extras to the customers.
For example, airline companies give out cookies and other treats to the passengers, and coffee shops offer DIY guidebooks to their customers as service branding.
Activist Branding
Brand strategies that help you to channel a cause for a purpose you strongly believe in are known as activist branding. Also termed as ‘Conscious branding’, activist branding aims to positively impact society with the help of the brand.
The ultimate goal of activist branding is to make the cause you are fighting for synonymous with your brand.
For example, men’s grooming companies like Gillette have used activist branding very well recently.
Online Branding
As the name suggests, this branding mostly focuses on internet-based activities and is therefore also known as ‘Internet branding. Online branding helps to strategize how you should position your business on the internet.
Online branding is concerned with establishing a solid presence on different social media platforms, building a well-designed website, publishing a well-written blog, and anything else that has your brand name and is available on the internet.
Offline Branding
Offline branding deals with the branding operations that occur off the web. Everything from arranging meetings and lunches with important leads and clients to printing professional business cards is dealt with in offline branding.
Offline branding requires a team of people with excellent speaking abilities and good design skills to operate successfully.
Corporate Branding
Corporate branding is extremely focused on reputation as it deals with an entire organization. The clients of the business house will associate the promises of the brand with the company.
Therefore, it is essential for corporate branding to make a good name for the company and to keep the promises they make in the name of the brand. For this purpose, corporate branding is associated with past performance records.
Since customers readily accept brands they are already familiar with, it is essential for corporate branding to depend on brand recognition and goodwill.
Product Branding
Product branding makes consumers pick one product over an identical one just because of the brand name. People prefer a particular commodity brand over others just because they associate it with the product and believe it is ideal for their purpose.
This can be due to the logo, color combination, tagline, or any other branding strategy. All this comes under product branding.
Kleenex has emerged as a synonym for tissues because of its efficient product branding.
Co-branding
Partnerships accompany branding in this case. Co-branding is undertaken when there is a merger between two or more companies and they collaborate to manufacture a single product or service.
Several times, major international brands have collaborated with other brands to market a single product. Co-branding comes as a great help in such cases.
For example, Spotify collaborated with Uber and brought the ‘Soundtrack for your ride’ campaign for their customers, allowing riders to choose their own tracks on Spotify.
Ingredient Branding
Ingredient branding highlights the importance and achievements of a specific ingredient contained in the product.
This becomes the USP of the brand instead of the product or services offered as a whole. Ingredient branding can also be concerned with a particular business branch associated with the brand.
For example, Heavenly Bed by the Westin is perhaps the most important factor for anyone who chooses the hotel for their vacations.
No Brand Branding
Also referred to as ‘Minimalist Branding’, No brand branding tries to convey the message that the product is self-sufficient and does not require any branding to grab the attention of consumers.
It projects the idea that bells and whistles are not necessary for something that is good in quality and efficiency.
Brandless is a food-producing company that focuses on offering quality products to its customers at a reasonable price. The company portrays the idea that they do not have a brand and are unwilling to spend on branding.
This gives the customer the idea that everything that they pay is spent on making the products better.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is a brand?
Anything your customers associate with your company’s name, including the logo, tagline, company name, typography and fonts, colors, symbols, graphical elements, or anything else, is a part of your brand.
Why is branding important?
Branding is important because it emphasizes the positive aspects of your customers’ goods or services.
It helps the consumers to fix certain attributes with your company and make them choose it over similar items available in the market.
Are branding and logo the same thing?
Your company logo is just one aspect of the branding of the company. Even though the logo is extremely important to create a good brand, the entire process consists of many other things. Therefore, just having a logo is not equivalent to having good branding.
What is successful branding?
Branding that can make a place in the customers’ minds and portray the firm’s image in a positive light can be termed successful branding.
Verdict
Considering the above-mentioned types of branding available, it is extremely important for companies to figure out their requirements and decide on the type they need.
Since there are so many variants of branding available, each industry will be able to hire the services most suitable to them and benefit from them.
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Co-Founder of Burban Branding. With 5 years of expertise in Naming, Branding, and Strategy, I’ve empowered 200+ clients worldwide. Let’s embark on a transformative journey together, unleashing your brand’s true potential. Join me in creating a remarkable brand identity that captivates and inspires.
