The Importance of Branding - What is a Brand?

In the current economic climate, branding and reputation are becoming more important than ever, as more and more companies are cutting advertising spend and marketing budgets. Even where budgets aren’t being cut (as many companies realise the importance of marketing at a time like this) efforts are being re-directed into different methods and mediums, including the utilisation of social media websites and blogs to generate online PR, branding and communication opportunities. Before looking at how you can use social media optimisation to help your business I thought it would be a good idea to explore the concept of “branding”.

"Brand", "branding" and "brand values" are all terms that are banded around a lot but we don’t often stop to think about what they actually mean. Before you can establish a brand for your company it’s necessary to understand what a "brand" is, and what "branding" entails.

A “brand” is a set of perceptions made by a large group of people about a product, company, organisation, individual, service or even a place. These perceptions might have been created intentionally by active promotion using marketing methods, or they might have been unintentionally created through negative associations, for example created by poor press reviews or common bad experiences.

“Branding” is the process of attempting to generate and control people’s perceptions, or to lodge the name of a business, product or individual in people’s minds, to help them grow or maintain their market position. Any company, organisation, product or individual can benefit from having a brand that presents itself as having characteristics that are appropriate to that particular business, for example reliability, quality, trust, excitement, being cutting edge, distinctive, innovative, friendly, etc.

In my next post (which will be soon I promise) I’ll think about how to create a brand and why you need one…