Every business or company that seeks to provide goods or services to its clientele wants to be ranked as the first choice by the client. If this objective is achieved by any entrepreneur, then his business would flourish. However, one has to do a lot of homework first. It is critical to communicate to customers that one has a world class product or service. In order to achieve this overriding objective, one of the most significant things that a person must do is to build and manage a brand. A brand can significantly help in strengthening the business empire and managing the perception of the company. A strong brand is critical in order to ensure that a business succeed irrespective of the quality of the goods or service. This is mainly because a good brand ensures that a product or service from one’s business is distinct, unique and elevated from the rest of the similar services and products from local and international competitors. This will give the business’s customer a good cause to subscribe to the services or buy the product and still continue to maintain their loyalty to the business.
In other words, a good brand will give customers a unique and elevated status from other consumers who purchase the same product from other businesses. They will seek to maintain this acquired status hence loyalty to the company. This would, in turn, increase sales of the business thus becoming more profitable. A brand gives people the reason to buy one product or service over the other. It is all about perception. A business needs to cultivate a perception among its customers that it is the best in the field. This can be illustrated by the infamous Pepsi and Coke competition. While Coke has a larger market share worldwide because of branding, experiments carried out to determine which drink is tastier have proven that Pepsi has a higher chance of winning. This paper will discuss the case for the proposition that branding is the most significant aspect of a business in the modern competitive business world. The paper will discuss how crucial branding is to any business or company as they attempt to outdo competitors in selling their services or products.
Branding is a complex process. This makes it harder to define or a scribe a single meaning. Therefore, this paper denotes branding as the following process. It involves building a relationship of trust with all stakeholders in a business empire. This includes customers, employees and the owners among any other interested third parties. With regard to marketing products or services of a business, it entails the entire total of the business’s utility including services, positioning, products, advertising, culture and more fundamentally the people. It is critical that customers have a rational idea of what they purchase before they even decide to purchase the said item. This is called a purchasing decision. It is an expression of willingness on the part of the customers to buy the service or product of a company after going through several alternatives. A good brand will make the purchasing decision of any customer easier and this is an incredible asset to the business. The trust that customers have is based on the history of the brand. Therefore, clients usually have a lot of faith on a strong brand because they have certain expectations from the brand. It is extremely vital to distinguish brand identity and corporate identity and different and affect different business and legal relations and obligations.
Branding is extremely beneficial not only for big business and company’s products or services, but also for small and medium business enterprises. They can make a particular product from a small company compete favorably with products from large corporations. The most significance utility of branding is because it increases the sales of the business. Once an entrepreneur starts a business, it is his or her desire to ensure that people buy his or her service or product. If people do not buy the service or product, the businessperson will close shop and decide to do something else. Therefore, branding is significant and fundamental because it guarantees increased sales that will be adequate to make profits, which will sustain the company operations; at least if it is done effectively and efficiently.
When one creates a strong brand, it is will definitely increase demand for its products. This sets a perfect base for the entrepreneur to increase their prices. The target clientele will easily accept the price hike because of the trust they have in the brand and the owners of the business. Therefore, a strong brand will prevent loyal customers from seeking other alternatives despite the changes in price. This will also not affect the rate of sales because the customer base will remain the same. Thus a solid brand helps entrepreneurs prepare and build the next level of business successfully. This will be accompanied with a significant amount of success in the business hence the inevitable change. The trust build by the owners of the business on their service or the product will ensure that their customers tag along leading the business to a more productive, profitable and stronger than the previous level.
In addition, branding in a business encourages a lot of confidence on the part of consumers on the service or product. The customer will have the clarity of mind when buying the product and he or she is sure that it will serve the purpose that the consumer intended. It is extremely vital that customers have confidence in the products they buy. For example, if customers have doubts as to whether a certain brand of an electric device by company X will work or not, it is highly unlikely that many customers will buy the device, especially if they have an alternative. Confidence goes hand in hand with reliability. A strong brand reflects reliability. This is essential for any product or service that has the potential of becoming successful in the market. It vital, therefore, that businesspersons ensure that they brand reflect this. The manner in which the business also handles the situation is extremely significant. However, if multiple flaws are detected, then customers will lose the confidence they had on the service or product. This will lead to reduced sales leading to losses and probably close of shop. This succulently illustrates why branding is the most significant aspect in the modern competitive business world.
It is vital to realize that a brand also creates and develop the uniqueness of a service or product. For example, blinded testers will prefer the test of Pepsi over Coke. However, the brand coke has been mystified for years that most people will rather drink it than have the much tastier Pepsi. The uniqueness of the coke brand is what makes it an international hit. It has been on the market for over a century a still going strong.
Apart from developing the uniqueness of a service or product, branding also ensures continuity. This is not affected by company take overs or merges. The benefits of continuity of a product are two-fold and cut across all stake holders. First and perhaps more fundamentally to the business, the sales of the product are not affected by company take overs or merges. This is because the product will still retain its reputation among its consumers. Secondly, customers will still continue to enjoy the utility derived from their favorite products irrespective of market changes.
Building a powerful brand also ensures that the reputation of the business is enhanced and respected. The brand reflects a set of values that the business cherishes and its vision. A strong brand will also affect how employees conduct their affairs. They will be professional and ethical in their relationship with all stakeholders. A strong brand will, therefore, be an incentive to clients desiring future services. This is because a powerful brand is a strong indicator of stability and a promise of future prosperous business ventures. It can entice people to buy the shares of a business or seek to invest in the production of the product or provision of the service.
It is critical to understand that branding is not about getting a target group of customers to elect a business’s product over that of a competitor. Branding also entails being a business that provides a solution to a community and society at large. It is vital that customers see the product or service provided as an ideal solution to their problems. Therefore, the cardinal objectives of branding should include, inter alia, the following. The brand delivers to the world a distinct message from the business. It speaks about its quality, values and aspirations. It also seeks to affirm the credibility of the product. Without a brand, it would be almost impossible to determine whether a certain product is authentic or not.
Moreover, it is essential to connect with ones clients emotionally. If an entrepreneur is able to connect in this way with most of his customers he will have cemented an extremely long time loyal relationship between his products and his customers. The customers will have a peculiar relationship with the products. He or she will always fit it sentimental to buy them rather than the other irrespective of the cost. Motivating buyers should be a top priority for any marketer. One has to create a perception of need for the product. People by their inherent nature like that status quo. Therefore, it is vital that a brad is created that will be used to drive people out of their comfort zones to experiment with the new services or products. Once they buy the product or service, focus should immediately change into ensuring their loyalty. Loyalty of customers should never be underestimated. Moreover, they should always be treated with respect and honor. It is crucial that a business indicates its values to its customers. They feel treasured and will continue doing business with the company out of respect and cordial relationship that exist between the two.
In order to succeed in business, lack of branding is not an option. It is imperative upon the shareholders to design their brand upon values, images and a vision that they want the product or service to portray to the outside world. Furthermore, it is imperative upon the entrepreneur to understand the wants and the needs of his targeted clientele. This is only possible by the use of a brad that is significantly integrated with the target population. This will make it possible for people to hold close to their hearts and mind the brand of the product. For example, it if someone feels hungry and thinks Chili’s or Appellee’s. This will heavily influence the choice that the consumer will eventually make. In the above case, a customer links a particular fast food joint with tasty and satisfactory foods. It is highly likely that such a customer unless mistreated will maintain his loyalty to either of the restaurant. In conclusion, a brand is one of the most significant aspects of modern business that an entrepreneur cannot afford to ignore. This is because it has the ability to amass a lot of influence that it is more powerful than the charm of most sales parsons. It is vital that a business owner aim at ensuring that he creates a perception in the mind and heart of their customers that their product is what they need.
References
Fernando, A. (2011). Business Environment. New Jersay: Pearson.
Okonkwo, U. (2007). Luxury Fashion Branding: Trends, Tactics, Techniques. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Young, L. (2011). The Marketer's Handbook: Reassessing Marketing Techniques for Modern Business. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
The Global Brand. (2008). The Global Brand: How to Create and Develop Lasting Brand Value in the World Market. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
