Yesterday in speaking with someone the topic of "Branding" came up. We discussed why "Branding" your business is important to your customers and to you. If you are a business owner and are unsure about what "Branding" actually means then this article might help to shed some light on the importance of creating your "Brand".

What is a "Brand"?

Successful branding efforts build strategic awareness where people not only recognize your brand, but they also understand the distinctive qualities that make it better than the competition. Branding is more important today than ever due to ever-increasing advertising clutter, media fragmentation, the commoditization of products, and the seemingly limitless choices we are offered in just about every product category.

As business owners we are also marketers, we need to work hard to ensure that we are offering our customers a clearly defined mark that seperates us from the others, we are professional and we are here to stay. The need for branding your business has never been greater.

My Father back in the early 90's told me that the importance of his brand was so great that it not only defined his business but his delivery, more so than just the name of his business. He would say a brand had to be simple but identifiable, it had to be unique yet easy to remember. Below I wrote ten ways branding can help your business. 

Here are ten benefits you will enjoy when you create a strong brand:

1. A strong brand influences the buying decision of your customers and shapes the ownership experience.

2. Branding creates trust and an emotional attachment to your product or company. This attachment then causes your market to make decisions based, at least in part, upon emotion-- not necessarily just for logical or intellectual reasons.

3. A strong brand can command a premium price and maximize the number of units that can be sold at that premium. Case in point Nike over Kirkland

4. Branding helps make purchasing decisions easier. In this way, branding delivers a very important benefit. In a commodity market where features and benefits are virtually indistinguishable, a strong brand will help your customers trust you and create a set of expectations about your products without even knowing the specifics of product features.

5. Branding will help you "fence off" your customers from the competition and protect your market share while building mind share. Once you have mind share, you customers will automatically think of you first when they think of your product category.

6. A strong brand can make actual product features virtually insignificant. A solid branding strategy communicates a strong, consistent message about the value of your company. A strong brand helps you sell value and the intangibles that surround your products.

7. A strong brand signals that you want to build customer loyalty, not just sell product. A strong branding campaign will also signal that you are serious about marketing and that you intend to be around for a while. A brand impresses your firms identity upon potential customers, not necessarily to capture an immediate sale but rather to build a lasting impression of you and your products.

8. Branding builds name recognition for your company or product.

9. A brand will help you articulate your company's values and explain why you are competing in your market.

10. A strong brand can create foundation, your customers may see your brand as one that they can trust to be around for a long time. Identifying with your company's brand as an established local leader in your area can have lasting effects on your customers and how they do business with you.