We live in a branded world. Everything is branded, whether it is a large corporation, small tech startup, or your new business idea. They all need identity systems in order to attract and retain customers. Business who understands the true value of investing in branding understands they’ll get a return. The value of your brand is determined by your customer. The way they perceive, feel, connect and act as a result of your brand- this is brand equity. Investing in your brand will allow you to tap into these value-driving elements. Let’s take a look at the important ways a strong brand impacts your business: 1. It builds trust and name recognition You need to find a way to differentiate yourself from the rest of the pack, and that’s exactly what branding does. Branding invokes a feeling of trust. When people recognise who you are, there’s familiarity that makes it comfortable to do business with you. A professional appearance builds credibility. 2. Branding builds financial value A strong brand usually guarantees future business. 3. It drives consistency A focus on branding forces you to consider exactly what your visual language should be, what colours you employ, how your marketing materials visually and emotionally communicate. Having these decisions made makes future strategies easier to put together and keeps your brand consistent. 4. It keeps employees on-track When your employees understand what your company stands for and who it’s aiming to serve, it helps them with brand recall, that allows them to think about the brand in all of their daily interactions with their colleagues and their clients.  5. Your brand is one of your most valuable assets With a brand that justifies differentiation, companies can command a premium price, increased awareness helps to build brand equity, recognition, and customer loyalty, boosting the value and reach of your company. 6. Brands set expectations We live in a world based on promises. We have an unspoken contract with the people we live and work with, that they will do what they say they’ll do. We have similar agreements with companies, products and services.

    What is a brand? According to Wikipedia “a brand is a name, term, design, symbol, or other feature that distinguishes an organization or product from its rivals in the eyes of the customer.” The practice of branding is thought to have begun with the ancient Egyptians who were known to have engaged in livestock branding as early as 2,700 BC. Branding was used to differentiate one person’s cattle from another’s by means of a distinctive symbol burned into the animal’s skin with a hot branding iron. If a person would steal the animals, anyone could detect the symbol and deduce the actual owner. However, the term has been extended to mean a strategic personality for a product or company, so that ‘brand’ now suggests the values and promises that a consumer may perceive and buy into. In a nutshell “Branding is a set of marketing and communication methods that help to distinguish a company or products from competitors, aiming to create a lasting impression in the minds of customers. The key components that form a brand’s toolbox include a brand’s identity, brand communication (such as by logos and trademarks), brand awareness, brand loyalty, and various branding (brand management) strategies.”https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brand A brand can deliver: • Awareness • Improved image and perception of value • Preference for product/service • Increased engagement and market share • Loyalty • Increased revenue Branding is a very complex topic and plenty of books are written about it. It is not easy to define what a brand is, along with how to create, manage, and value it. I would like to include a part of a well written, and well-researched, in-depth article about essentials of branding by Landor. This article was first published as Chapter 4 in The Big Book of Marketing: Lessons and Best Practices from the World’s Greatest Companies, edited by Anthony G. Bennett (McGraw-Hill, 2010). “There are museum brands (Guggenheim, Smithsonian), people brands (Martha Stewart, David Beckham), political brands (Labour versus Conservatives), destination brands (Australia, Hong Kong), sport brands (Manchester United, New York Yankees, Super Bowl), nonprofit brands (Red Cross, Oxfam, RED), branded associations (YMCA, PGA), along with the product, service, and corporate brands with which we are all familiar. Brands help people make a choice, a choice among salts, financial institutions, political parties, and so on, and the choices are increasing. The purpose of branding is to ensure that your product…