Over the years, brand marketing has grown into an important part of any business’s success, including mine and the success of a wide range of companies I have consulted. As a marketing expert with over half a decade of experience working with cutting-edge startups, I can’t tell you enough how powerful and effective brand marketing strategies can be.
To save you the stress of figuring everything out all on your own, this guide is based on my many years of experience planning and carrying out successful brand campaigns, as well as research and case studies from leaders in the field. In this article, I will go over everything you need to know about brand marketing.
I will also explain the basic ideas, tried-and-true methods, and new trends that are shaping brand marketing now and in the future.
Without further ado, let’s get started
Key Takeaways
- Branding enables businesses to express their distinctive stories and change perceptions by offering customers something to believe in
- Strong brand equity enables brands to innovate and expand their businesses with the support of a devoted consumer base
- A brand can be considered as the company’s personality, expressed through an identifying mark, logo
- Raising brand awareness increases the likelihood that someone will think of your organization when they make a purchase
What is a Brand?
A brand is how a corporation distinguishes itself from competing businesses. A brand can be considered as the company’s personality, expressed through an identifying mark, logo, name, tagline, voice, and tone. Some of the oldest and most known brand names in automobiles, toys, and food and beverage have been around for decades, with some going back over a century.
Brands are classified into three types: company/corporation brands, product brands, and personal brands. Brand marketing standards apply regardless of the type. Now that we know what a brand is, what then is brand marketing?
What is Brand Marketing?
Brand marketing is the process of developing and growing a relationship between a brand and its customers. Rather than showcasing a specific product or service, brand marketing promotes the entire brand, using the products and services as proof points to back the brand’s promise. Brand marketing aims to increase the value of a brand and, as a result, the value of the company.
Companies often use the same channels for brand marketing that they do for product marketing, such as digital, social, and paid search advertising.
A great technique I and a wide range of marketing specialists employ is to combine multiple channels to produce a media mix that reaches a large audience. For example, this means using a brand advertising strategy alongside email and content marketing initiatives to increase brand awareness and attract potential customers across numerous digital marketing channels.
However, before deciding on the best messaging for the relevant audiences in these locations, we must first examine brand qualities.
Here is a checklist that can help you streamline your efforts, maintain consistency, and maximize the effect of your email marketing campaigns.
Email Marketing Campaign Checklist.pdf
Why is Branding Important?
Branding may be more crucial than ever as markets become more saturated and it becomes more difficult to establish true connections with customers. Branding enables businesses to express their distinctive stories and change perceptions by offering customers something to believe in. It piques clients’ attention and invites them to discover, learn about, and build a lasting relationship with their company. Rather than specifications and features, branding is about a company’s basic values and who it is.
Branding is about making customers feel good about supporting a business and creating an emotional connection. Those that effectively brand leave a lasting image, which helps to increase customer advocacy and loyalty over time.
There are various reasons why establishing your branding is an important step for your business.
#1. Branding Sets You Apart
Your branding is what others think of you; thus, it stands to reason that, when done well, it can be utilized to make customers think more highly of you than your competitors. Customers prefer to become devoted to brands rather than things, so creating and maintaining an emotional connection is critical.
#2. Branding Drives Value
Consider one of the world’s largest brands. Now ponder about purchasing them. Is the price you’d have to pay consistent with the price of all their actual assets? Probably not, because their market value is far more than the sum of their parts; it is also the total of their brand identity, brand awareness, and overall brand value, as viewed by the general public.
#3. Branding Can mobilize People
Defining your values and beliefs is an essential component of any successful branding campaign, and it can make both employees and customers feel like they are a part of something unique.
What are Brand Attributes?
Brands have distinct features, just as people do. Attributes are identifiers that people recognize as part of a brand. These can include the name and slogan, colours, and even music or noises that are commonly associated with the brand. In addition, characteristics might be the emotions that a brand elicits. Examples of “feeling” traits are authenticity, innovation, dependability, honesty, and transparency.
What is Brand Equity?
Brand equity is the worth of a company’s brand or the measure of how people perceive the brand. Strong brand equity is determined by how well people understand the brand, their choice of it over others, their level of connection with the brand, and their loyalty to it. Strong brand equity enables brands to innovate and expand their businesses with the support of a devoted consumer base.
Examples of Brand Marketing Strategy Tactics
If your brand marketing strategy is your overarching plan for achieving your goals, brand marketing techniques/strategies are the tools you’ll need to get there. Here are some tried and established strategies to increase brand awareness among your target demographic.
#1. Identify Your Brand’s Mission
Begin by asking a few basic questions: What is your firm attempting to accomplish? For whom and why? What differentiates you? You’ll immediately notice that the answers to these questions, even in bullet point form, begin to shape a picture that you may share with others.
#2. Engage Brand Ambassadors
Humans are social animals that enjoy being recommended items and are easily swayed by people we consider to be aspirational. So, strive to establish an army of ambassadors, either through sponsored influencer programs or customer loyalty incentive programs, who may publicly represent your brand.
#3. Create Brand Engagement
Similarly, it’s important to note that a customer who makes a purchase and then leaves is less likely to stay brand loyal than one who believes they’ve fully interacted with your company. So reach out to people on social media, thank customers, and establish new avenues for discussion – just make sure you retain consistency in tone and style throughout those touchpoints.
#4. Celebrate Your Brand’s Story
Sometimes, the trip is just as essential as the destination. Start informing them about your company’s rich past, family background, extensive industry experience, or sudden success story.
#5. Get Smart with Naming Standards
While branding is much more than just your name, people want memorable naming standards. Great, consistent naming is why many people refer to every smartphone as an ‘iPhone’ and every tablet as an ‘iPad’. Both of these examples are tactical brand marketing triumphs for Apple.
How to Develop a Brand Strategy
A brand strategy is a road map that companies use to develop their brand. A well-defined brand strategy is essential for building a powerful brand. All brand strategies should include the following elements:.
#1. Research
A company’s brand-building strategy must be based on research that defines the competitive landscape and how the brand addresses a specific demand within it. This allows the brand to set realistic growth objectives and learn how its competitors position their brands.
#2. Rollout Timeline
A brand marketing strategy should include a rollout timeline that specifies when aspects such as a complementary web presence and supporting digital advertising campaign will be launched. Remember that if you’re rebranding, everything from email signatures to social assets, newsletter templates, and signage must be modified.
#3. Brand measurements
It is critical to incorporate precise measurements that show how a company will monitor and measure both short-term and long-term brand success. The Net Promoter Score, which measures consumer loyalty and enthusiasm, can be used to assess brand satisfaction, as well as brand recognition and awareness, relevance, and distinction.
#4. Goals and Objectives
Goals and objectives include measurable brand and marketing KPIs, as well as an overall brand goal. What is the brand promise? What can consumers anticipate from each brand interaction? Working backwards and answering these questions first will assist a company in establishing who it is and what role it serves for its customers.
#5. Define Messaging and Positioning
What messaging will the brand utilize to promote its brand promise? How will the brand be positioned in comparison to other brands? Define internal and external brand messaging, with the former focusing on communicating with employees and stakeholders and the latter on engaging with customers. Be careful to identify the company’s purpose, vision statement, values, and brand positioning statement—what the brand does, who it serves, and how it fulfils its brand promise. When done well, these parts of brand storytelling will last far longer in customers’ memories than the actual things they purchased.
#6. Audience Definition
Every brand and marketing plan should target clearly defined audiences based on internal and external data. Create buyer personas—fictitious representations of ideal consumers—that include demographic and behavioural data to assist in guiding the brand’s tone of voice, media buying, and audience targeting approach.
Goals of Brand Marketing
Brand marketing helps to secure the vision you have for your company. But in practice as I have seen over and over good brand marketing campaigns can aspire to achieve the following headline objectives:
#1. Develop Your Brand Identity
Effective brand marketing methods can install and repeat the instantly recognized building pieces of your business’s identity through consistent graphics, such as logos, marketing videos, audio, and tone of voice.
Our Brand Identity Checklist below is a thorough tool for establishing, creating, and maintaining all aspects of your brand’s identity.
Brand Identity Checklist.pdf
#2. Increase Brand Loyalty
While superior products can inspire brand loyalty, it is often the case that individuals are most devoted to a company’s personality, story, and beliefs. Brand marketing can help to build that link and boost income as a result.
#3. Increase Brand Recognition
Marketing yourself continuously, rather than just your products, will help to establish your organization and its principles in the public consciousness. Raising brand awareness increases the likelihood that someone will think of your organization when they make a purchase.
Things to Avoid in Brand Marketing
Any successful brand marketing plan must feel genuine and earned, but there are some common traps to avoid when you develop your company’s identity.
#1. Greenwashing
We’ve discussed how consumers are increasingly drawn to brands that prioritize sustainability and ethics. At the same time, people are cautious of corporations pushing green agendas that appear to be misleading or dishonest—a practice known as ‘greenwashing’.
Greenwashing is easy to detect and causes more harm than good, so we encourage making sustainability one of your brand’s core beliefs, but only if you can do so honestly.
#2. Forced Virtue-Signalling
In a sketch from Bo Burnham’s Inside Netflix show, he poses as a social media guru and states, “The question is no longer, ‘Do you want to buy Wheat Thins?'” ‘Will you support Wheat Thins in the fight against Lyme disease?'”
The sketch serves as a sharp satire on the growing tendency of brands seeking to fit high goals into their brand marketing, as well as a clear admonition not to go overboard with your sense of purpose.
#3. Following Trends
The key to successful brand marketing is consistency. It’s a long-term, hard-fought game, but you’ll lose ground if your brand constantly flip-flops to chase new trends.
What is an example of brand marketing?
Brand marketing is the practice of promoting a brand’s values, mission, and identity through an intentional connection with customers. It’s a means to establish customer relationships and trust, as well as establishing characteristics for a brand.
What is the difference between marketing and brand marketing?
Branding is the essence of your company’s identity and character, whereas marketing is the process of increasing brand recognition. Branding is your strategy, whereas marketing includes your tactical aims. To identify your brand identity, ask yourself a few questions.
What is a brand marketing plan?
A brand marketing plan is a strategy for promoting a company’s products and services while emphasizing its identity, personality, and core values. The idea is to establish a relationship with the audience, encouraging them to discover more about the company.
Conclusion
An effective brand marketing plan raises awareness among prospective customers and allows them to learn about and trust the brand over time. Brand marketing has the potential to present your brand as a valuable resource for customers.
Essentially, brand marketing is a long-term plan that distinguishes your product or service from competitors and assures that people will think of you when they are looking for the product or service you provide. Your brand marketing strategy should guide every ad campaign you create.
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