What is Branding and why is it important in 2022?

What is Branding and why is it important for every business in 2022?

In 2021, in order for a modern business to make its online presence permanent to the public and also to maintain an advantage over the competition, the right Branding is what it really needs.

What is the difference between brand and branding?

How important is branding for my business’ success?

Is branding worth it?

In this article, we will analyze the basic and most necessary data related to branding, the cornerstone for a company’s existence.

“Want a bigger brand? Make bigger promises. And keep them.”

What is Branding?

If someone asked us to explain what branding is in the simplest way, we could say that branding is a company’s identity and personality, if we imagine that it is a living being that is constantly evolving and changing.

However, even nowadays, many people misinterpret branding and all related  processes and details that it entails, with the visual part of a company’s logo.

“It takes more than a designer prattling on about texture to make a brand” says brand expert Seth Godin in one of his attempts to give his own definition of the much-discussed “Brand” and hands down, we couldn’t agree more. 

From a company’s brand name, from the way a business designs and follows management strategies, to the products it sells and the way it systematically promotes them to the customers, everything is branding.

In a world that anything revolves around marketing, branding is the foundation of any business.

After all, according to Neil Patel, “Where Marketing Ends, Branding Begins

Why is branding important?

Competition between companies nowadays is constantly increasing and is undoubtedly more aggressive than ever. Thus, in order for a company to be able to establish its identity, it is required to deal with branding and brand management, the proper way of managing its brand.

A company that manages to combine its product and services with its own brand and also manages to be a customer’s first thought when they are looking for a specific product, then the branding strategy has been proven extremely effective.

At the same time, when the public recognizes a company only from its products, based on the unique identity and the style that distinguishes them from the rest of the market, then again this company has succeeded in the fight for the ideal branding.

Branding determines the customer’s point of view

Welcome to the world of Marketing.

As we have stated before, everything around branding affects the target audience. Branding and the detailed branding strategy that a company will follow, will immediately play an important role in how the customers will behave, in what will be the results of the brand’s evaluation and, in the long run, in the company’s success.

Branding determines the brand’s value 

A business’ recognition is a factor that gets influenced by the branding strategies that will be implemented and  contributes to its success, since it can be easily perceived as the business’ value. The good reputation that promises a successful and dynamic branding, is only the first step to increasing the company’s total value, which is why many experts argue that an economic tone should be given to the brand itself.

Customer trust through branding

Now, think of yourself. You are interested in getting one product, but before proceeding with a purchase, you do the standard market research. The more you search, the more information you receive, the more likely you are to buy the product you are looking for from a company you have heard of before, that you already know its merchandise and you are fully aware of its brand. In short, you trust it.

This is exactly how the majority of consumers think and decide. A company with strong branding strategies is able to receive from its customers a great sense of trust in its products. 

And of course, everything is a circle. A brand that has managed to build relationships of trust with its customers, strengthens its reputation through them, resulting in even stronger branding than before.

Branding and new customers

As long as you have created the first trust relationships with your customers and the process of strengthening the brand begins, the rest is history.

People talk about things they do or don’t like. Thus, a customer’ opinion about a company, whether it is good or bad, can be spread at lightning speed. For this reason, proper branding is the key to the whole process.

Strong branding creates a good reputation and a key clientele, which spreads its positive perception and opinion of the company and brings new customers along. These new clients are more likely to make purchases from a brand that has already acquired positive reviews, rather than from the unknown competitors.

Branding does not end here

You may have already managed to get your company and brand to a successful level, yet nothing ends here. Every aspect of the process related to branding depends on how customers will continue seeing your brand. For this reason, implementing a poor strategy or even neglecting branding, are wrong practices that can be fatal. 

After all, in the world of increasingly intense competition, businesses have no future without branding.