Power of the BRAND: Why You Should Brand Your Small Business
Coca-Cola, Apple, Nike, and Starbucks. These are some of the greatest brand managers of our time. Time and again, these companies have demonstrated how effective branding can be used as a stepping stone to improved consumer loyalty and profits.
In 2008, two sisters started a small business that sold jewelry, shoes, and handbags to women in New York. By simply leveraging strategic branding and powerful storytelling, the duo was able to graduate their startup from a mere startup to a successful enterprise within just a few years. Today, Dannijo.com has over 148,000 Instagram followers and thousands of active customers.
There’s no understating what branding can do for your San Diego business. A well-thought-out brand allows you to cut corners and play the invisible game while your competitors splash thousands of dollars into awareness advertising.
What is branding?
I interact with clients every day at my San Diego branding agency. Surprisingly, most of them have no clue how they can use digital branding to control the narrative and put their business out there. Decades ago, branding was defined as a name, symbol, design, or sign that identified a company or its products. The rise of digital media has rendered this definition useless. Today’s branding is a lot more complex.
It is not just about creating an identity for your business or service. You have to focus on changing the perceptions consumers have of your company, products, or services. At a time when a negative online review can mean bad business for you, our branding San Diego service focuses on creating the perfect façade for your business.
Why Branding Is Important
Many SMEs make the mistake of thinking of themselves as Businesses and not Brands. In reality, nothing can be further from the truth. Branding is important regardless the size of your business because it increases value, gives employees direction, and makes it easier for customers to associate with your firm. Here are seven good reasons why branding is a must-do for your San Diego business.
1) Create trust
Branding can help you build trust between your business and its customers. People find it easier to trust businesses that present themselves in a professional way. Statistics show that up to 81% of shoppers like to research online before they purchase a product.
When there is social proof that your products and services are actually good, consumers will feel more comfortable paying for them. As one of the top marketing firms in San Diego, I’ve seen firsthand the importance of branding to create trust and loyalty. Nearly half of our customers find us through the internet.
When asked, more than three-quarters of these say that our presentable website, proof of work done (portfolio), and personalized social media presence compelled them to settle for our service. That’s just a basic example of how branding can work to increase your bottom line.
2) Improve recognition
Your logo should not be the sum total of all your branding effort, but it is certainly an important part. Your logo is a powerful identifying symbol for your business. It should be powerful, memorable, and unique. Customers view dozens of logos and brands every day but they only remember a few of the very best. When working with clients at our digital agency in San Diego, we focus on developing logos that communicate the desired impression.
3) Provide competitive advantage
Whether you are a startup, a medium-sized enterprise, a large firm, or a nonprofit, your organization needs to be able to compete for funding, talent, resources, and audience. Every organization develops roadmaps that help it accomplish various goals. Proper branding should mirror this strategic plan to help the organization move forward.
4) Support your marketing
Proper branding should guide and hold your entire marketing operation together. People need to see the same logo and brand identity whether you’re running an ad on Facebook or sharing a video on YouTube. This kind of consistency makes your marketing cohesive altogether and reinforces the same brand impression across channels.
5) Set expectations
Ours is a world of promises. The restaurant promises to offer fresh food that’s made in a clean environment. The mechanic promises to do a thorough job when fixing your car. The teacher promises to educate and protect your children. This moral and ethical code must be put into consideration when designing your branding strategy. Whether through the use of color psychology or storytelling, you want to subconsciously reinforce your promises to customers. Great branding can achieve this.
6) Motivate employees
You only need money to hire and pay employees, but only a great brand can motivate employees to follow through with its vision and mission. Your employees will take after your brand. If your brand has pride, your employees will follow suit. If your brand attracts ridicule and negative rhetoric, you will have a hard time maintaining high morale within the company.
7) Generate revenue
Proper branding makes it easier for your business to get word-of-mouth referrals from its customers. Your logo, brand name, and marketing must work cohesively to create a lasting impression on the consumer’s mind. People aren’t going to tell others about the great products or services they bought from you if they can’t even remember your brand name. That’s why it’s important for your organization to leverage a solid branding strategy that communicates the same message.
San Diego Branding Service
Our San Diego branding service focuses on developing and implementing a highly effective branding strategy. We’ll start by asking the following questions:
- Does your brand relate to the target audience?
- Is your brand unique?
- Does your brand reflect your unspoken promise to your customers?
- Does your brand communicate the values you want to portray to customers? So many small businesses use boring logos, unoriginal fonts, unimpressive colors, basic website templates, and stock images. Our goal is to revamp brands to make them memorable even after that initial contact. We work with both startups and seasoned businesses exclusively in the San Diego area.
If you’re a small business in San Diego looking for a logo or a branding professional, contact me about my branding services today.
