Let’s define Branding to understand how the concept defines our businesses. The world of branding can principally be summarized as a combination of several elements such as the logo, design, mission statement and a consistent theme throughout all marketing communications to achieve a strong, positive perception of a company, its products or services in the customer’s mind. Now, that we know the bare basics of branding, we can build on learning some of the foundational concepts and the things you need to know before you choose a red colour palette thinking that’s all it takes to define a restaurant or food-based business. (Provigil)

Let us learn the significance of branding and how it helps your business. Business lesson 101 – The business is an entity. Translation – Business is independent and distinct in its existence. Marketing is any and all modes of communication directed at creating an individual identity for a product and selling a product in the marketplace. So, for all of the marketing communication to happen, your business needs a language, a uniform code that can be easily identified and understood by the customer or a potential customer in the marketplace looking for a specific product. Here are 4 basic essentials of a branding kit.

1. Brand Identity helps a customer or a potential customer identify your business and understand what the business offers. The brand identity you build does more than just communicate a saleable product. It communicates your vision, mission and aides in establishing an identity for your business.

For example – The instantly recognizable bright orange ‘S’ shaped like a map location pointer is one of the most successful brands and that has grown immensely to become a decacorn in the marketplace. From a humble start-up to a corporation currently valued at 10 billion in a very short period 7 years is no mean feat. What made it so popular and successful? Branding. The instantly recognizable branding on the backs of its delivery executives.

2. Recall value for a business is of vital importance. Branding helps create a uniform marketing information irrespective of the marketing strategy. It helps your existing customer base and the potential customers identify the brand irrespective of the products, modifications or changes made to an existing product, launching a new product line. So, the recall value of branding is indispensable to marketing.

For Example – The orange ‘S’ of Swiggy even when the start-up was at its nascent stage made a strong imprint in people’s memories. The recall value of the branding was so strong with the uniform branding on all online and offline platforms set the stage right for customers to easily identify the brand and achieve 100% memory recall with ease. Even the costumer base that wasn’t remotely interested in the product were curious enough to know and understand what the brand of Swiggy was all about.

3. Goodwill Retention is another crucial aspect associated with businesses no matter the scale or market size. Goodwill once earned for a specific product associated with a branding tends to be associated with every other product with the same branding. So, launch and success of your product associated with an existing brand with enough goodwill in the market is pre-disposed to achieve greater success rates in the market.

For example – The goodwill earned by Swiggy as a food delivery app enabled the success of Swiggy’s instamart when it was newly launched during the Covid-19 pandemic. A whole new branch of product line enabled customers and potential customers to instantly recognizable the new product and understand the services rendered, also earned the instant goodwill that the branding of Swiggy strived so hard to achieve as a start-up.

4. Brand Personality is the personification of your brand. Business is an independent entity. It tends to have its own characteristics, habits, routines, perception and more that defines the brand personality. I know it gets harder to wrap your mind around personifying an intangible and non-sentient entity. But, stay with me. I’ll keep it simple.

Brand personality helps connect with your target market. For example, if the target group age range is below 30, your branding needs to young and hip, that uses references to trending pop culture references. Whereas older audience might not resonate with high energy and liberal attitude of a brand. So, brand personality helps connect with specific target group by acquiring emotional relevance.

For Example – The well-chosen colour palette for Swiggy elicits feeling of vitality, happiness but also aggressiveness tempered by friendliness. The target market for the start-up was bachelors in the age range of 20-30, which explains the chosen colour palette.

So, Branding is more than just a logo. It is a definition of your business, a means of communication that enables your business to emote, a uniform marketing strategy for perfect recall, it invokes a feeling of emotion that a customer can instantly relate to, it explains your basic business ethics, earn goodwill in the marketplace and much more. So, understand branding your business means ensure to your business has a voice of its own.