Not entirely sure what “branding” means? It can be a relatively difficult concept to comprehend. It’s a marketing concept that is more general and it can get confusing if you haven’t studied it. In this article, you will learn about what branding is and how it’s identified. You will get real-life examples of what constitutes branding.

To fully understand it, you’ll need to know what products and brands are.

A product can be virtually anything from a hotel stay to a flight to a pair of shoes. To fully comprehend the true definition of a product and the role it plays in defining what branding is, you can look at the example of water.

Water is a readily available resource that everyone needs to live. However, it was turned into a product once it was commercialized. Now, companies sell water to consumers in bottles and glass.

However, all water looks the same, doesn’t it? After all, it’s water. There’s only so much you can do to water to make it different. How do various companies get away with selling water to consumers? How do they get people to buy their bottles of water during the competitions? The answer; is by creating a brand around their product.

Brand Definition:

A brand is effectively a name, logo, or feature that defines one retailer or seller’s product from other sellers of a similar product.

A brand can be considered as the image people have in their minds when they are mentioning a product from a specific company. This is both in a practical sense and an emotional sense. It’s not only defined by the physical features that create the brand, but also by the emotional attachment and connection a consumer feels towards a particular product or company. These things become even more powerful when everything the brand does is seamless and authentic in terms of visual identity, messaging, and more.

Because any product can be copied, it’s important to have a solid brand. A brand isn’t something that can be copied. For instance, you’ll have many people saying Coke and Pepsi taste similar. However, a lot of people have a particular preference for one over the other.

You can learn more about this with another water example. The product that is being sold is water, but to convince people to purchase their water, they create brands. These brands include Fiji, Evian, Deer Park, and more. These brands have different messages to prospective consumers. They are all conveying different meanings to consumers to entice them.

• Evian tries to make people feel younger.
• Perrier is all about the bubbles.
• Fiji is all about health.

Branding plays a large role in shaping how consumers look at a particular product from a company. It gives meaning to the company and the product or services they offer. It shapes their perspective of them. It’s a strategic way for companies to increase awareness and maximise conversions. It gives consumers a reason to choose them over the competition.

The entire objective is to attract and retain loyal customers to deliver products and/or services ” on brand.”

Who Does Branding Affect?

Branding primarily affects consumers. As mentioned, branding plays a critical role in consumers’ purchasing decisions. The brand message and the brand graphic design can make or break a purchasing decision from a brand-conscious consumer. It can make it easier to pick one product over the other. Successful branding strategies can help improve a company’s reputation and public perception in the marketplace. It can help a company maximise profits by increasing profit margins on products. With effective branding, companies can position themselves as a premium offering in the marketplace. Thus, it could cause consumers to pay higher prices purely because of the brand.

Tim