The Strength of a Brand

Your brand is more than just a logo and colours. It’s more than your brand name and tagline. It’s about who you are and what your business represents. A strong brand will set you apart from competitors and ensure that customers keep coming back. Sounds pretty straightforward and beneficial, right? Let us tell you more! The benefits of creating a strong brand are huge!

Recognition 

The classic Nike tick can be spotted from a mile away, as can the golden arches, the Apple icon, and the Disney font... You get the gist. While the visual look of your brand doesn’t mean everything, it is important to get it right as it will be the first thing customers recognise and you know, first impressions last! Having a set of corporate colours, font styles and standardised collateral is a great starting point for your branding guidelines that will help with the recognition and consistency of your brand. 

Trust

A strong brand will build and create trust with your customers and have them returning for products and services with little work from you. Consumers as a whole are more inclined to trust and buy from a brand that is polished and assured so if you can build this reputation, customers are likely to come to you as a trusted business! Take Apple for example - they released their first iPhone and on the strength of one product have now surpassed all other technology giants because of the trust consumers place in their technology. Customers directly associate the quality of the product with the brand and trust that future purchases will deliver the same quality.   

New customers

A strong brand that provides a positive first impression, will help you get more customers in the door. This will come through marketing material and promotions, and also through word of mouth by existing customers. A happy customer is even more powerful than a billboard on the busiest highway. Your customers act as brand ambassadors - if they are happy, they will tell people how brilliant your brand is! It is human nature to trust our peer’s recommendations, so by keeping your brand reputation and first impression a positive one you will have a higher chance of attracting new customers, and keeping existing ones. 

Happy employees

It’s been shown that a strong brand means happier and more fulfilled employees. If staff feel a part of something bigger and appreciate what the brand stands for, they will be happier at work and more inclined to go above and beyond. Studies have shown that happy employees increase productivity, deliver better customer service through positive engagement, and are more likely to stick around. Having a strong brand also means you are more likely to attract higher calibre, more experienced employees whilst recruiting. (Sounds silly, but would you feel confident working for a company that didn’t live by their motto, didn’t have a clear direction or had a different style of logo and colours on their website, business card and socials? Consistency may seem underrated but is one of the easiest ways to show strength.)

Strengthens ads and marketing

Ads and marketing activities work well on their own, but are only made stronger with reputable consistent branding! When people see ads and promotions from a brand they already recognise and trust, they are more likely to make a purchase or pursue the ad further. Ensuring your brand is strong and consistent will mean more bang for your buck when it comes to your marketing budget.

So how do you create and maintain a strong brand, we hear you ask? Chances are it’s work you’ve already done! A strong brand should be based on a company's mission, purpose and values, and then that same message should be communicated through your branding. Questions to ask when determining your brand are: What is your why? Who are your target market? What feelings are you trying to evoke? What message are you trying to convey? What problem does your business solve? How do you provide value to your customers? 

These are all answers you probably already know so it is just a matter of living and breathing your answers through your brand, and creating the visuals that are inline with this message.

Here at IBS we include our mission statement ‘We believe that helping others grow is the secret to success’ on all marketing communication and official documentation, we then live this mantra through providing a variety of free white-labelled resources for everything that we do and are continually expanding our offering and range of services to allow our customers additional avenues to grow. Our yellow and blue modern branding was designed to evoke confidence, strength, and reliability to mimic the support we provide our customers, and visually communicate the values of our brand. It’s then the coherence of your message and consistency of your brand that will build strength over time. 

If you’ve got any branding questions, give us a buzz! We’re great to bounce ideas off and are always up for a chat. After all, we’re here to help your business grow and this is just one of the ways we’re happy to help.