The importance of brand development
Introduction
Developing a strong brand has become increasingly important in this digital era, as the marketplace is more accessible with low barriers to entry and more competition.
If your brand can differentiate itself from your competition you’re much more likely to achieve long-term success. If you have a strong brand that is easily recognisable and easily recalled, your customers are more likely to come back again and again.
Brand development can be defined as a set of activities that help to strengthen and differentiate a brand from its competitors. Brand development is not the same as brand strategy; it is much broader than that - it includes both the brand strategy (the non-visual emotive component of brand development) and the brand identity (the visual component of brand development).
In this blog article, we examine the importance of brand development and brand strategy.
Firstly, we explain why brand development is so important for your business, and then describe the differences between brand strategy, brand messaging, brand identity, brand positioning and brand development. We also highlight the benefits of having a strong brand identity.
And, lastly, we conclude with why it is a valuable investment hiring a brand strategist or brand strategy expert when it comes to developing your brand.
What Is Brand Development? The Basics
Brand development is the process of creating and nurturing a brand via two key brand activities;
1) effective development of the brand strategy and;
2) the strong development of the visual brand identity.
Together the ‘thinking’ of how a brand is to be perceived in the marketplace together with how it presents itself visually play key roles in developing a strong brand.
When an organisation invests time, resources and money into developing their brand, they reap the rewards financially, now and into the future.
A strong brand also ensures the long term sustainability of a company as it engages its audience at all stages of the buying process, ensuring they are consistently top of mind when consumers make a decision to buy.
With strategic brand development, businesses grow by attracting and acquiring new customers and retaining more of their existing ones. By developing and implementing an effective brand strategy, a business’ creates a unique and differentiated brand position, that is the space they occupy in the minds of the consumers, in comparison to their competitors.
Put simply, brand development is a strategic exercise that ensures your brand stands out from the competition leading to stronger growth and revenue.
What are the three components for successful branding:
According to brand experts, there are three key components for successful branding:
1) what you say about your company or personal brand
2) how you present your brand and;
3) how you make others feel.
These three components, which cover brand messaging, brand identity and brand strategy, together, create an impression in the minds of consumers and your target market. All three are key components to brand development.
Is a re-brand the best time to develop a brand?
You don’t have to be undertaking a re-brand to develop your brand. Brand development should be a key focus for all businesses and engrained in everything you do.
When a re-brand is undertaken it can be very expensive as all marketing collateral, signage, the website, stationary and all marketing communications need to be updated. Therefore a re-brand doesn’t need to be undertaken to develop a brand. A re-brand should only be undertaken to signal a change to the market.
What is brand identity?
Here we’ll explain the differences between brand strategy, brand positioning, brand identity and brand messaging.
The brand identity element of branding covers the visual components of branding, including the logo, colour palette, typography (fonts), photography style and design elements such as patterns.
How a brand looks gives off a certain impression to consumers in regards to the organisation’s services, personality, professionalism and quality. Having a slick, polished and professional looking brand is vital to attracting new customers. But looking good isn’t the only thing companies need to focus on. How they make people feel is just as, if not, more important.
What is brand strategy?
Your brand strategy defines what you stand for, a promise you make, and the personality you convey. Brand strategy is the thinking on how you articulate your point of difference and how you want to be perceived in market.
We like to think of brand strategy as the invisible thread, behind the scenes, that structures what impression you want to make and how you want to be seen. What qualities do you want to be known for? What personality do you want to exude? What values drive your business? How are you meeting the needs of your customers and what’s your brand promise?
Whilst your brand identity, the logo, slogan, fonts and colour palette, create an impression of your brand, the brand strategy is the non-visual components of your brand that are developed to emotionally engage your audience. If you have a polished looking brand without strategic thinking behind it, you are at risk of not achieving your brand goals and coming across different to your intent. It’s the brand strategy that gives you a roadmap of what qualities and attributes you want to be known for.
How you position your brand is a key component of brand strategy development.
What is brand positioning?
Brand positioning is the set of mental associations that people have for a company's product or services.
Brand positioning covers the brand associations you want to to be known for, such as quality, value, service, reputation, and leadership. When consumers feel a strong affinity with a particular brand they are more likely to be attracted to that brand and become a paying and loyal customer. They will overlook other brands of perhaps better quality in favour of the brand they feel most aligned to.
Having a brand strategy enables you to be consistent in how you are perceived across all your marketing touchpoints and channels, including your social media channels, your website, traditional advertising, digital marketing campaigns, brochures and stationary, creating a lasting impression that stands out from your competition.
What is brand messaging?
Brand messaging is how the brand communicates – it’s marketing communications. This can range from formal communications such as the annual report to day to day customer service emails, advertising and social media posts.
A strong brand will have a consistent tone of voice and be clear on how it should make customers and the market feel when they interact with the brand.
Why is Brand Development Important?
Differentiation: Strong and highly developed brands are able to differentiate themselves from their competitors, whether this be their service offering, the value they provide, the quality of their product, location, convenience, etc.
Positioning: A brand that has an effective brand strategy and is engaging in market likely has a strong brand position. This means they occupy a unique space in the market in comparison to their competitors. They offer a unique selling proposition (USP) and brand positioning that cannot be matched by their competitors.
Strong brand recall and recognition: A professional, consistent and slick brand identity projects a strong impression to the market enabling it to stand out and look different to competitors. This leads to strong brand recall and brand recognition in the marketplace.
Emotional connection: A company that invests in their brand development understands the emotional needs of their audience and adheres to a brand strategy that speaks to their audience in a way that emotionally engages them and wins over their heart and mind.
Strong brand equity: Well developed brands with strong brand presence and awareness start to build strong brand equity, which leads to strong financial gains and a higher share price for those listed on the stock exchange.
These are just some of the many benefits of a stand out developed brand over a non-developed one.
The following section looks at how brand development differs from branding, as the two terms are often used interchangeably.
Brand Development vs Brand Strategy: The Difference
A brand is an entity - a name, term, sign, symbol, or design used to represent products or services that a business offers and is used to differentiate them from the competition.
Brand development can be defined as the process of developing the brand design and strategy, both the visual and non visual components of the brand. It encompasses all components of developing the brand.
Brand strategy is the process that leads to the identification and definition of how you position your brand in market, what your brand personality is, what attributes you want to be known for, what your brand values are and what you promise the market.
Brand strategy is the invisible ‘behind the scenes’ thread of your brand. It focuses on your desired position in market and where your brand is heading, while brand development explores how to achieve the brand strategy, whether this is a re-brand, new logo or look and feel to communicate a change to the marketplace.
The main difference between brand strategy and brand development is that brand strategy is a component of brand development. Brand development could also encompass key messaging whilst the brand strategy is the critical and strategic thinking required on how to position the brand in market.
It may be viewed that brand strategy and brand development one and the same; however, they are quite different as outlined above and understanding their differences the role each plays in creating a strong brand image is important.
Why Developing Your Brand Strategy & Brand Identity Is Important
Brands who invest in brand development and have a well articulated and effective brand strategy have a much stronger chance of capturing the attention of their target market and growing their business. With a strategy in place you have an agreed direction you plan to follow. Without investing time, money and resources in your brand, you are at risk of falling behind your competitors and stifling your growth.
Brand development helps companies develop a strong brand presence that aims to differentiate them from competitors’ brands.
A brand strategy that outlines a strong and unique brand positioning and articulates the unique strengths of the organisation, when implemented with brilliant brand design and compelling and emotive brand story-telling and messaging, helps attract new customers, drive growth and even increase the share price of an ASX listed company.
The following sections will highlight the importance of a brand development and brand strategy by highlighting the benefits they provide.
Brand Implications: How Does Developing Your Brand Benefit Your Company?
Firstly, it is easier for consumers to identify a brand when it has a strong brand identity, which is the logo, colours, typography and overall look and feel. Without these brand elements, it’s virtually impossible for consumers to recognise a brand and emotively connect with the brand.
Secondly, well developed brands are more likely to attract customers because they communicate their strengths and USP (unique selling proposition) effectively and emotively.
Developing your brand could also result in a significant increase in the value of a company's share price as it signals to investors you take the marketing and growth of your business seriously.
When companies develop their brands, they are able to retain customers longer than those who haven't developed their brands at all, which can lead to increased revenue.
Engaging, catchy, emotive and compelling brand messages backed by a well developed brand strategy and strong brand design shows customers who you are, what you do, and why you are better than your competitors.
Brands that stand out become top of mind when consumers need a product or service, enabling them to be ahead of the pack and considered first when consumers are ready to buy.
The following section will provide a clear, detailed picture of the benefits that developing a brand strategy and brand identity can bring to your business.
Brand Development – Key Benefits for Your Business
Having a brand strategy offers numerous benefits to companies, including stronger profitability and growth. These benefits can be grouped under three key areas: strategic benefits, competitive advantages, and financial benefits.
Strategic
A brand strategy helps companies make strategic brand decisions for the future, taking into account their unique qualities, their value proposition, their brand position, competition and customer needs.
By reviewing the current brand positioning, new entrants in the market and competitor activity, the future direction of the business and how you want your brand to be seen by the market, all play a key strategic role for not only the marketing division but for the business overall.
Competitive
Developing a brand strategy and implementing it effectively helps companies develop a competitive advantage that can lead to higher profits for the business.
A strong brand that is recognised by your target market leads to strong brand equity. When your brand has strong brand equity, you are in a position where you can charge more for your products and services, as you’re seen as a reliable brand that’s trustworthy with quality products or services.
Having strong brand equity enables you to reduce advertising costs as you don’t need to invest in raising brand awareness. Your brand is already top of mind.
Moreover, developing a brand that consumers love will create a sustainable competitive advantage and will create long-term benefits, such as brand awareness, customer loyalty and increased sales.
Financial
Developing and implementing a brand strategy that leads to strong brand health and brand equity provides financial benefits as companies are able to save money by reducing the amount of money invested in brand response advertising.
Whilst developing the brand takes time, money and resources, doing so will result in strong returns in the long term. Investing in your brand is a long term strategy that reaps rewards over time, not instantly. This is often the reason why so many companies ignore brand marketing or investing the right amount of time, money or resource in the brand because they think retail advertising or lead generation activities are more important because they are focused on sales. What they forget is that investing in the brand brings in a continual flow of sales into the future and provides sustained income.
Role of Market Research in Brand Development
Investing in market research is recommended for existing brands who want to take a new direction and are unsure of what their current brand perceptions and positioning are in market.
By understanding what consumers think of their brand, how their brand is viewed in comparison to competitors and the strength of their brand in terms of awareness, consideration and associations, they are well poised to develop a new brand by knowing what they need to change to be seen differently in the future.
Who is best to help with brand development?
Brand strategy development is often never developed by an in-house marketing team. It is almost always outsourced due to the specialised nature of the work - a brand strategist, either freelance like us here at Plump Marketing, or a brand agency is appointed to do the work.
Brand identity or design work is always performed by a graphic designer. At Plump Marketing we work with high calibre designers to create beautiful brands.
The best marketers are the ones who see every aspect of business and brand management as a huge opportunity to gain a competitive advantage and exceed their growth goals.
The process of developing a brand requires skills not only in market research but also in uncovering and defining the strengths and capabilities of a brand to develop really compelling, engaging and differentiated positioning against other brands.
In short, brand strategy development an art, using creativity and critical thinking, combined with science in order to achieve the brand association, brand awareness and consideration goals set by each business
If you are based in Australia and looking for a brand strategist that is based in Perth, Western Australia, to help you develop a strong, engaging and emotive brand that stands out from the crowd, get in touch with us today. We can help you kick off your brand development efforts and take your brand places, using the tools we’ve developed to grow businesses all over Australia.
Conclusion
Brands need to adapt and adjust their strategies and identities so that they are not only responsive in a dynamic environment but also resilient enough to withstand any aggressive competition that may enter the market.
Developing and implementing an effective brand strategy is imperative for businesses to be successful. It's important that a company has a differentiated and unique brand position so they stand out and be counted. A strong brand strategy is one that has a roadmap on how to emotionally engage their audience. An emotionally engaged audience will flock to a brand like a moth to a flame.
Brands that invest in brand development and have a well-articulated and effective brand and marketing strategy for their business are much more likely to grow and thrive compared to businesses that don’t invest in their brand.
For more information about our services, contact us today, or follow us on LinkedIn to stay up-to-date with what’s going on at Plump Marketing.