Branding: the basics

1. Overview
Branding is about discovering and communicating
the essence of your business and what it delivers
to your customers. Your brand creates your
business' reputation and its 'personality'. A strong
brand can make your business stand out from the
crowd, particularly in competitive markets.
This guide explains how branding works and how
you can use it to help improve your business. It
shows you how to create a brand, how to budget
for it and the different techniques of managing a
brand. You will also find out what the key
elements of branding are, how branding applies to
different business sectors and the impact design
can have on branding.
2. What is branding?
Branding is a way of clearly highlighting what
makes your product or service different to, and
more attractive than, your competitors'.
A brand goes much deeper than just your
company logo. You could define a brand as a set
of associations that an existing or potential
customer has of a company, product, service or
individual. Branding also reflects your customers'
experiences of your business and affects every
interaction you have with your customers and
suppliers.
Your use of design, advertising, marketing,
service proposition, and corporate culture can all
help to generate associations in people's minds
that will benefit your business.
Successful branding is about promoting your
strengths, or 'brand values'. You can start by
thinking about what your business is good at and
what you believe in. For example:
 the particular skills your business has
 your high-quality customer service
 the best value for money you provide in
your marketplace
 your innovative approach
3. Why you need branding
Effective branding can help your business stand
out from your competitors in competitive markets.
Customers generally expect to pay more for a
branded product than for unbranded products.
You can apply your brand to a whole range of
your other products or services. This will allow
consumers to associate each product in your range
with a consistent set of values which they know.
Also, if you want to extend your product range,
consumers' perception of the new offering will be
enhanced by your existing brand. By consistently
applying your brand attributes your business can
move into new market sectors without changing
your core brand identity.
As branding is one way to increase public
recognition of your business or product, it can
help you engage with customers and create a
connection.
4. Branding: the key ingredients
Customers generally expect to pay more for a
branded product than for unbranded products. By
consistently applying your brand attributes your
business can move into new market sectors
without changing your core brand identity.
There are four key elements in a successful
branding project:
The big idea
The big idea is the starting point for any branding
project. It is a summary of your business' or
product's 'personality', and what makes it
different. You need to ask yourself:
 What are we offering?
 What makes us different?
 How can our business stand out?
 What do our consumers want or need?
 Where is there a gap in the market?
Vision
Your company vision is an understanding of
where your business is going, or where you want
it to go, so you can plan your journey. Your vision
may be large scale - such as switching the
emphasis of your business from one core area to
another - or simple, such as offering an existing
product in a completely new way.
Values
Values summarise what you believe in as a
business, and clarify what your business stands
for. It is vital that any values you portray are
genuine and evident in the way your business
operates.
Personality
Your brand personality is about how you want
your business or product to come across, so these
personality traits should be appropriate to your
type of product or service.
You can convey your company's personality
through:
 graphic design
 the tone of voice and the language you use
 your dialogue with customers and how they
can contribute ideas and get involved
 customer service and how staff are trained to
communicate with customers
If you want to extend your product range,
consumers' perception of the new offering will be
enhanced by your existing brand.
5. Brand management techniques
Once you have established what your brand
identity will be, you have to decide how to get
your message across. You can do this through
advertising, events and staff training. However,
the following techniques are also worth
considering:
 Storytelling - telling your business' story
through corporate identity, packaging,
stationery, marketing materials etc.
 Credibility - your brand's claims must be
credible and appropriate to your values.
 Differentiation - presenting a point of
differentiation from your competitors.
 Engaging with customers - if you stand out
from the crowd for positive reasons and your
tone of voice and communications are
credible, customers will look at what you have
to offer.
 Focusing your product portfolio - shifting
your focus onto a smaller number of key
products or services may make your offer
easier for your consumers to understand.
 Multiple brands and brand 'stretch' - if
your company operates in more than one
sector you need to consider how you present
the business in each area. You could apply a
single brand identity to other products or
services for the areas you operate in - this is
called 'brand stretch'.
 Endorsed brands - you can create a new
brand in its own right but use the 'parent' brand
of your main company to endorse the new
brand. An example would be Playstation, a
powerful brand in its own right but endorsed
as Sony Playstation to build on the established
reputation of Sony. Reliance Jio.
 Reinvigorating your brand - keeping your
communications fresh is essential.
 Naming - brand names are important in
setting the tone and personality of your brand.
You need to check that names aren't already in
use and protected by law.
 Consistency - you should build the same
attributes and characteristics into all areas of
your business' operations.
 Hire a designer - you can hire a designer to
look at the current state of your company and
explore possibilities for developing it.
6. Communicate your brand to customers and
staff
Communicate to customers
You need to know what drives your customers,
and what makes them buy.
Once you have defined your brand values and
your customers' needs, you can start to build your
brand by consistently communicating your brand
values.
Remember that every possible contact you have
with a customer or potential customer needs to
reinforce your brand values, including your logo,
business name and product packaging.
It is helpful to ask:
 existing customers what they like about
doing business with you
 satisfied customers for regular feedback
 potential customers what they are looking
for
 dissatisfied customers or former customers
for feedback to gain valuable, and sometimes
more honest, information about how your
brand is perceived.
Communicate to staff
Your employees can affect what customers and
colleagues think of your business, so you should
ensure that they understand your brand and
believe in what it stands for.
It is useful to create a document setting out your
core company values and benchmarks for how
you want to operate. It should summarise the
purpose of your business and why you think you
are different from your competitors. You should
communicate this to your employees to ensure
you are all working towards the same aims, and
review it regularly.
It is useful to:
 set up an employee suggestion scheme or
discuss your brand with your employees
regularly
 continually reinforce the message that what
your employees do is important and explain
why
 make sure they know that breaking the
promises your brand makes to customers -
even just once - can damage the brand and
your business.
7. Budgeting for a brand
Your brand should encompass most areas of your
business, from stationery to how you deliver your
product or service to customers, so defining a
budget can be difficult.
The key areas you could budget for are:
 design needs, such as a logo, signage,
business stationery or product packaging
 changes to your premises
 your advertising
 time you'll need to spend training employees
 any resources you'll have to provide for
employees to enable them to carry out what
the brand promises, eg customer service costs
 keeping your company website updated
You can create stationery, logos, packaging and
advertising quite cheaply if the budget is tight.
However, it is a good idea to think about your
future growth when devising your image, as
changing it later can prove costly. You may also
find that customers and employees will have
already built up a relationship with your brand,
which can then make it harder to later change