Great branding is what will make you stand out and help you to grow, it’s created through your visual identity, your values, your messaging and the experience your customer’s have across their entire journey.

As Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest man famously summarized: A brand is literally what people say about your business when you’re not in the room.

Having worked with companies across my career, that operated in commodity driven markets, with fierce competition, I can hand on heart say investing in your branding is one of the most important things you’ll do, the top eight areas I’ve seen it having the biggest impact, are outlined below.

A strong brand…..

Creates differentiation

A strong brand across all of your touch-points, creates a point of difference for your product or services and ensures you stand out in crowded markets and noisey channels. Differences can be intensified by using a coordinated brand strategy across your customer’s journey, delighting them along the way and solidifying your competitive edge.

Attracts Top Talent

Attracting and retaining the best employees comes naturally with a strong brand, top talent want to join companies with brands that lead their fields, have a strong purpose and values and make a positive impact. People want to be proud of the companies they work for and know that working for strong brands not only adds credibility to their personal profiles but also increases the likelihood they’ll be working with other high caliber colleagues to deliver great things!

Drives Growth

Customers quite simply want to buy from businesses they know, trust and like, when the time comes for new and existing customers to make a purchase, having a strong brand ensures buyers know, trust and like your brand and that you are front of mind, driving sales and helping the business to grow.

Becomes a balance sheet asset

Strong brands are so valuable that they are actually realized as an intangible asset on a company’s balance sheet. To determine brand equity you can imagine a company launching the exact same product into the same market; the same quality, price, promotion etc; the only difference being one is launched under a newly created brand and the other under the current brand; the difference in revenue can be attributed to the brands strength and its value.

Attracts and retains influencers

With demand for influencers across all channels is increasing, there’s often strong competition between competitors to work with them. A strong, purposeful brand will help you to attract influencers who will be proud to be associated with your brand, their reputation lies on what they promote and they will not jeopardize their own reputations for companies that don’t have great product and brand experiences themselves.

Protects you from keyboard warriors!

Digital channels have increased the risks and exposure for negative associates spreading fast across your target markets, the impact of one disgruntled customer’s review going viral can have a large impact. Brand that already have a strong emotional connection with their customers and are positively and consistently engaging with them will be able to withstand this much easier than those who do not.

Increases The Customer Love

Customers are attracted to and want to stick with companies that provide seamless experiences, have brand values that they personally align with and those who they can truly trust to solve their problem time and time again. Combining a great solution with a strong brand creates intimate connections with customers, driving buyer loyalty that will often last a lifetime.

Enables Premium Pricing

Strong brands can command a price that’s on average 14% higher than competitors (Millward Brown), likely due to a brands strength to generate a positive emotional effect on buyers. Brands like Adidas, who have invested into strong branding, can boost their profit margins with higher prices that buyers are happy to pay - of course their products are also good quality, but so are many others in their markets, what sets them apart is the investment they’ve made into their branding and the connection that creates with buyers.