What is brand marketing?
Brand marketing is aimed entirely at developing brand awareness and its products, increasing trust in it, covering the market and achieving a reputation. Marketers look for unique ways of promoting products in order to differentiate the company from competitors and demonstrate its special value to customers. As a result, the brand's importance and its advantages in the market increase considerably. Brand marketing aims to build long-term relationships with the target audience. It helps raise the brand's value in the eyes of potential consumers in order to create a constantly growing base of loyal customers. In this way an effective brand marketing strategy helps a company stand out from the crowd, take the business to the next level, attract new customers and increase sales. Building a brand is a difficult but essential step in achieving business success. Brand marketing also means creating a certain image in the market and increasing revenue. Let us look at the most common goals companies usually pursue when developing a brand strategy.
Increasing awareness. This is the main priority, because it affects customers' ability to identify the company among many other brands.
Increasing loyalty. It matters not only that customers recognise your brand and choose it, but that they come back again and again. Turning customers into loyal customers is only possible if you demonstrate the value and uniqueness of the company's products.
Cultivating brand advocates. This is an essential component of successful promotion. The more customers recommend your product or service to their friends, the higher the company's revenue and credibility will be.
Increasing brand value. Well-established companies recognised in the market are more successful, because people prefer to choose brands they trust.
Increasing engagement. Working with active users is profitable, so the more customers interact with your brand (visit the site, view products, place orders), the higher the chance of building a recognised brand.
Creating a corporate identity and image. People should recognise your brand through visual elements such as typefaces, logo, corporate colours, packaging and so on.
Brand marketing strategies: Brand awareness; Individual branding; “No-brand” branding; Brand extension; Private label; Crowdsourcing; Associative branding.
A brand marketing strategy is the core approach you apply to promote your brand and increase its awareness and popularity. If it is clearly formulated, you will be able to achieve the result you want. There are many brand marketing strategies based on target audience, budget and marketing campaigns. Let us look at the most common of them.
Brand recognition.
People recognise a company by its name, logo, slogan and colour. Obvious examples are Apple, Coca-Cola and Starbucks. They use the weight of their own brands to increase sales and attract customers.
Individual branding.
This strategy is used by large companies when they produce complementary products and bring them to market separately under their own names. For example, Mars produces Snickers, Twix, Bounty, M&Ms and other products.
Associative branding.
In every campaign it runs through opinion leaders, Nike promotes not the quality of its products but a lifestyle. This approach has no direct connection with the product; it addresses emotions and feelings. It helps create a stable associative array in the consumer's mind. You can see the famous footballer Cristiano Ronaldo and the slogan “My time is now” from one of Nike's campaigns.
“No-brand” branding.
A strategy that involves promoting a product without the name customers pay for, without expensive packaging, a logo or other corporate identity elements. In this case minimalism attracts attention not only through its simplicity but also by demonstrating the availability of the products. This approach is actively used by Brandless. Its products carry no logo or brand name.
Brand extension.
This strategy is used when a well-known company decides to release new products or services under the same name. At the same time, the goods are produced in the corporate style developed earlier. For example, Caterpillar, the world-famous manufacturer of special equipment, once began producing phones with its recognisable logo.
Private label.
This strategy is widely used among supermarkets. For example, Walmart produces goods at a more affordable price in order to outdo its competitors. There are also the ATB and METRO supermarkets, which offer customers products under their own brands.
Crowdsourcing.
Involving the public in brand building. This approach helps get as close as possible to customers' preferences and stimulate their interest in the product.
If this topic matters for your business, take a look at NS Studio’s branding and logo design and SMM services, and continue with “The role of colors in sales psychology”.
