Five Reasons Brand Matters

What can a well-developed brand do for your business or organization? The perception can sometimes be that brand development is for big corporations – the Apples and Nikes of the world – and that for smaller businesses, brand doesn’t do much heavy lifting beyond a name, website URL and maybe a business card.

But the short answer is: a lot. A well-defined brand provides value to businesses at any size or stage in their lifecycle, and brand building will pay off in a number of important ways. Here are several key reasons that brand matters for your business.

1. Brand allows customers and prospects to build an affinity with your business

First, the obvious. Brands are the catalyst for building trust, making connections, and engendering loyalty (when they’re done well, of course!)

Brand is what your customers think you are, as much as what you say you are. To create the closest alignment between the perception and the intent, the three C’s of branding are great to keep in mind - Clarity, Consistency and Constancy. Presenting a clear and well thought out brand, reinforced at each touchpoint, will help ensure that your customer’s perception of your business is aligned with your vision. And it will build affinity with your prospects and customer base, as they interact with your business in predictable and expected ways.

Just as important as what your brand is, is what your brand is not. The goal of effective brand development is not to be everything to everyone. It’s to define clearly the unique value your brand offers, and then tailor materials to the audience(s) that will find value in that offering. The willingness to recognize who is not in the market for your product or service is a very valuable part of the brand process.

2. Brand lays the groundwork to charge a premium (and avoid competing on price)

Once your business has a strong and consistent brand, you have a solid basis for communicating the value that your product or service offers, and to charge a corresponding premium for this. Without a brand to set you convincingly apart in your audience’s eyes, price competition is a bigger factor.

Brand is the basis for painting a picture in your audience’s mind of who you are, and whether and how they will relate to you. And once your brand has convincingly communicated the calibre or uniqueness of your product or offering, and once an emotional connection is established with your audience, your products are positioned to command a premium.

3. Brand enables consistency across your business

While brand can be thought of as the external face of your business, it is just as relevant and meaningful internally.

Your brand character and values dictate how you conduct your business, and sets the tone for your interactions with customers and prospects. A well-defined brand is a critical tool that enables the team to not only present a unified, consistent front, but to understand their role in relation to the customer and each other.

4. Brand is a necessary platform for effective marketing (and by extension, for business growth)

Not all small to medium businesses have robust marketing programs in place, but most undertake some level of marketing and many are considering which additional channels can serve them best.

In order to undertake any sustained, effective marketing initiative – and to trigger growth in the business – a well-defined brand is essential. Brand gives your marketing a cohesion and focus that will otherwise be lacking. In the absence of a strong brand, businesses generally utilize opportunistic marketing tactics that don’t work synergistically to grow brand awareness.

We emphasize brand exploration and definition as a necessary first step to website development because, without a clear idea of the brand behind your business, there can be no unified core from which cohesive messaging, design or tone can be developed for the site and downstream marketing.

5. Brand builds equity in your business 

Once your brand has been put into motion, serving as a catalyst for a thriving business, you now have brand equity - consumer recognition and affinity that has value in the market. Whether you plan to keep your business at a steady state, to grow or to sell at some point in the future, that earned, established value will provide substantial returns.

In summary, if you plan to grow your business, if you want to charge a premium for your product or service and not compete on price alone, if you want to undertake marketing, even if you want to provide a clear and consistent service to your clients, then brand development is essential for you.

All of the above then begs the question of how much time and resource to put into brand development! How much is enough, and when will you know your brand is complete? Which is the subject of our next post.