Branding Strategy Learn When & How To Brand Effectively

Branding plays an important role in differentiating your business, getting competitive edge over your competitors, to have a certain position, value/worth (rational & emotional) in your target market mind that results in customer loyalty, retention, satisfaction, trust so on and so forth.

Most of us know about brand, branding but yet most of us don’t know when
and how to brand effectively. Today I will share my insight and understanding about when to brand and how to brand, the whole approach discussed in this article would work as a template for Marketing Strategists, Marketing Managers and Marketing Students.

So let’s get to it.

When To Brand?!

Companies/Organizations go for branding/re-branding for the following reasons

•  When reputation is at stake

• To give a fresh and new look to their brand

• When brand has little or no identity

When Reputation is at Stake

When overall business/company image is at stake, target market and other stakeholders are asking questions that are causing damage to the perceived brand image, value, worth etc in the target market, or specific products/services (related to the brand) are being questioned in terms of their benefits, value, attributes so on and so forth that is resulting in overall weakening of brand image in target market, with its (brand) various stakeholders.

To Give a Fresh & New Look to Their Brand

Primarily because of the competitors or new entrants as they are branding their business in a way that is damaging your brand position, rendering it irrelevant, obsolete, dead wood, with nothing new to offer.

When Brand has Little or No Identity

Little or no identity or lacking optimal identity like disjointed, illogical, incoherent doesn’t give the target market clear idea what the brand is about, what are its core values, what it delivers and how it delivers, how it connects and resonates with the target market so on and so forth.

Okay now let’s move to the “how part”.

How To Brand/Re-brand

Figure A

Considering the above mentioned reasons that demands branding/re-branding of your business/company/organization. It is more likely that your brand may be facing anyone, couple or all of the situations (reasons).

So What to Do?!

Well analyze, survey, research those situations (reasons) in connection with your target market, stakeholders, competitors, marketing buffs & Gurus (meetings & interviews with them etc), other relative factors.

Next Step?!

Get the clear picture, identify which is the key reason or reasons, where you need to work on, to brand or re-brand your business. Like what is causing the damage to your brand, what are the elements and factors involved in. 

Identified Elements/Factors

Once the elements and factors are being identified it’s time to devise a branding strategy that focuses on minimizing and eventually rooting out the effects, outcomes, influences of these factors/elements.

Remember that your branding strategy should be as such that it speaks to everyone, your internal and external stakeholders so that they know where things are going and how they are required to participate in the overall strategy.

Implement & Assess

Implementing creatively through various target market touch points like at company outlets, through mass media, social media, website, public relations so on and so forth. So that the new brand position is effectively communicated and accepted by target market.

And to know if it really is effectively communicated and accepted, assess the situation, where things are heading, the overall progress and tweak accordingly, taking corrective measures when things aren’t going in the direction they should.

To understand the whole approach more clearly, consider the Figure A.

That’s it, speak your mind, what else do we need to focus on while devising branding strategy, what should we need to take care of before going for branding strategy?!.