If you pay attention to business news, you’ll undoubtedly hear about brands and branding on a regular basis – especially in regards to "building a brand," "the value of a brand," or even "damage to a brand." Usually, though, these kinds of ideas are being applied to a major corporation, so it might seem fair to assume that branding is something that only the biggest organizations have to worry about.
The
reality, however, is that every business and individual should be aware of what
branding is, and how it works, because it can be such a powerful concept.
Although
there are a lot of different ways that branding is defined, it really comes
down to this: a brand is just the sum of the way people feel about you and the
impressions you make. It includes your visual identity, with things like logos,
color schemes, and marketing messages. But at same time, it also encompasses
your prices, the other businesses you work with, and even your reputation for
customer care and service.
When
you put all of these together, you have an idea of how people think about you,
or at least how you're trying to get them to think about you. That might be
important to huge companies with massive advertising budgets, but it can be
even more important to small businesses, or even individuals, who need to make
an impression on the people around them in their local market or community.
To
get a bit deeper into the reasons that branding matters, consider a few of the
great things that happen when you have strong branding efforts in place:
Great brands tell a long story in a
fraction of a second. Stop and
think about your favorite businesses or products, and then think about the
logos or advertising jingles you associate with them. If you love something
like Starbucks, Cadbury's Chocolate, or Coca-Cola (as many people do), then you
already understand how just seeing the right graphic can make you hungry or
thirsty, and create an instant unconscious impression in your mind. That's the
power of a strong brand.
People like to work with brands they
know and trust. Lots of research
has gone into the reasons why customers prefer established brands, but the
results basically come down to trust. When the company has built a brand that
becomes associated with a certain type of product or service, it's easier for
you to choose them because you know what to expect when you make that choice.
In other words, people like to feel comfortable and unthreatened, and working
with established brands allows them to do that.
Strong branding helps you gain
recommendations. When someone is
looking for a product or service recommendation, they often turn to a friend,
colleague, or family member first. Branding heavily influences those
recommendations, since a person is far more likely to recall a strong brand off
the top of their head instead of a weaker one. That applies to big companies
and products, of course, but also to the people in their lives – personal
branding is incredibly important for referrals and other suggestions.
Branding helps your marketing, but
it also does a lot more. Although a
lot of the discussion about branding focuses on marketing, and finding new
customers, the reality is that a great brand helps you in a lot of different
ways. For instance, your branding efforts could help you secure a new loan,
create relationships with vendors, generate interest from colleagues, or even
create employment and partnership opportunities for your team. Each of these is
possible because good branding builds trust and familiarity, which paves the
way for stronger business relationships.
Whether you're thinking about the apartment business, or
even just your own personal career, paying attention to your brand is a good
idea. You might not have a huge, multi-million-dollar corporate budget to work
with, but your credibility, your reputation, and the impressions you make on
your customers and colleagues are every bit as important to your success as
they would be to the biggest company.
