Mobile Commerce, SEO & Social Media Blog

What is Branding?

When looking at Brands, you want to make sure you are looking at them from the outside, rather than within.

History of the Word Brand

In Dutch, (ver) branden meaning “to burn”, brandmerk a branded mark.

Definitions

Branding is a term that doesn’t have a good branding. People easily confuse branding with marketing, public relations, and advertising. We know it is important to have a branding, but we are not really sure why it is important, or what we can expect to gain from a good branding.

And unlike most gerunds – verbs ending in an “ing,” like running, jumping or swimming – just because you have a “brand” doesn’t necessarily imply that you are “branding.”

How can this be?

Your company can have a brand. A brand is simply the way you represent yourself to the public with logos or labels. What you are hoping is that one day this image will be easy to remember and will be nowhere near as important as the other emotions and images that come to mind when people think of your company. Why? Because images don’t sell products, emotions do.

So how do you create these emotions? Branding.

“Branding literally means “to burn,” in Dutch.”

Formulas

Marketing + Public Relations + Advertising = Branding

• Marketing is done so you can let potential customers know about your “unique value proposition.”
• Public Relations is done so that other people can tell potential customers about your “unique value proposition.”
• Advertising provides ways of achieving repetition of your “unique value proposition.”

In doing any or all of these three activities and meeting your “unique value proposition,” you are hoping that your brand becomes burned into your customer’s emotional associations.

We do this so that people think in the following way:

• I am hungry! => “Snickers. That will really satisfy me. Let me go buy one.”
• I need to save money! => “I will shop at Walmart. Let me go shop there.”
• I need a coffee! => “I will go to Starbucks. Let me go buy one.”

All these companies have created good branding.

Note: A good brand cannot exist without meeting its “unique value proposition” consistently over time. If every time your customers received service, they received a different experience, they would end up confused. Their mental associations will become stratified, and they would look for a new company to provide the emotional alignment they are looking to receive.

“All these companies have created good branding.”

People want to receive only one “unique value proposition” per market per brand.

For example: If when McDonald’s was starting out, they didn’t have consistent quality at its second of third locations, could they have ever expanded? Nope. Their “unique value proposition” would have become “unique value propositions,” since they changed per location. Customers would have ended up emotionally confused.

If McDonald’s wanted to open a new line of locations that have different services offering the same customers, they would call them “Chipotle;” so, when their customers feel like having some “McDonalds” they know where to get it – and where to get something different.

“McDonalds wanted to offer new services—they called it Chipotle.”

Summary

It is important to consider your brand’s consistency when considering your branding campaign’s success over time. Does it meet the desires of your customers? Are you falling short of their total emotional concerns, such as speedy service or gourmet appeal?

That is why we chose our name, Branding Brand. It is a name that has different meanings, depending on the level of insight you give it. It is a name that shows an understanding of the importance of consistency and repetition.

Chris Mason Want content written for your Brand that shows up #1 on Search Engines and brings you new customers? Contact us.