What is a brand?
A brand is customers’ overall perception of a company. Not to be confused with a company name or visible assets like a logo, a brand refers to how customers think of a company based on every past encounter with its products, store, website, social media, and customer service.
Products, companies, government agencies, nonprofits, or individuals can all be brands. These entities apply for a trademark to gain legal protection for their brands.
Brand protection software helps companies monitor the internet for trademark violations and brand policy infractions. This software integrates with pricing platforms or e-commerce stores to monitor third-party resellers.
Types of brands
Today almost any person, place, or thing can have an associated brand – from a superstar Instagram pet to the person next door. The five most common types of brands are:
- Corporate. Organizations take steps to craft an intentional brand image in customers’ minds through carefully designed logos, colors, content, and outreach. Some corporate brands become global brands, well-known with a consistent reputation worldwide.
- Personal. Individuals also often create a personal brand identity through strategic means. While some of these individuals are celebrities, like singers, actors, or speakers, others are individual service providers or content creators looking to differentiate themselves from competitors.
- Product. Often, a flagship product can become a brand of its own. The Mars Company produces M&M's candy, for instance, with its own brand identity.
- Service. Service-based businesses can also develop a brand identity. DoorDash, a food delivery service, and Valvoline, an oil change company, are two examples.
- Events. Sometimes brands are large events, like the World Cup or the Super Bowl. These event names are trademarked and feature brand identity elements like logos that help consumers better identify them.
- Geographic. Cities, states, or geographical features like monuments or parks can become brands, too. These places often become associated with a specific phrase or slogan and sell merchandise that reinforces their image and attracts new visitors.
Basic elements of a brand
Building a brand is not an easy feat. To create brand recognition and awareness, a company can work with a branding agency and brand strategist to create unique assets.
- Brand identity consists of the visual elements, like logos, colors, and fonts, that companies use on storefronts, signage, websites, and marketing materials. Brand identity can include both visual and verbal identifiers.
- Brand messaging concerns the general tone, like “calm” or “bubbly,” associated with a company, product, or individual, as well as frequently used words and phrases.
- Brand promise includes assets such as the brand’s mission or vision statement or its core values, like “fun” or “safety.”
- Brand positioning looks at how customers perceive the brand compared to others in the market. Positioning is about strategizing how to shift perception in the minds of target groups.
Benefits of building a brand
Carefully curating a brand takes time and effort but can help a company grow its presence and reap dividends in revenue. Specific advantages include:
- Increased brand awareness and recognition. Investing in branding and strategy builds brand awareness, which makes consumers aware of the existence of a company or product. It can also lead to brand recognition, the point when consumers can identify a brand by its colors, logo, or jingle. With increased brand recognition and awareness, brands easily steer consumers toward purchase.
- Lower marketing costs. If a brand stands out from the pack, consumers naturally think of it when a need arises. Even if the company doesn’t increase its ad spend, potential customers may seek out its products anyway.
- Increased trust and authority. Customers want to buy from a brand they trust. If a brand is well-known enough to be a household name, customers see it as a safer bet and a leader in its market.
- Boosted brand loyalty. When a brand’s personality and values resonate with customers, the company may notice an improvement in its customer retention. If customers have a good experience with a brand, they stick around, sending repeat business the company’s way. This saves the organization money because they aren’t spending on advertising and marketing to acquire new customers.
Best practices for building a brand
In most cases, a stand-out brand is built over time. A business can create core elements of its visual and verbal identity at once, but gaining true visibility and wide-scale recognition typically takes years. To help move the process along, companies can do the following:
- Conduct research. Solid knowledge of their target audience is essential. Companies should collect quantitative data, such as information from the analytics software, and qualitative data through survey software and feedback tools.
- Create regular content. Creating regular content like blogs or guides is good for search engine optimization, but it also provides an opportunity to reinforce brand messaging and gain more visibility.
- Be consistent across platforms. The brand’s visual and verbal identity should remain consistent across the company’s website, blog, and all social media platforms. This ensures that all of a customer’s touchpoints with the brand reinforce the image the company wants to portray.
- Overdeliver in customer experience. Responsive customer service and clear communication help customers create positive associations with a brand. This fosters word-of-mouth marketing about the brand, expanding brand recognition.
Create brand guidelines so the employees have a roadmap for representing the brand effectively.
Kelly Fiorini
Kelly Fiorini is a freelance writer for G2. After ten years as a teacher, Kelly now creates content for mostly B2B SaaS clients. In her free time, she’s usually reading, spilling coffee, walking her dogs, and trying to keep her plants alive. Kelly received her Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Notre Dame and her Master of Arts in Teaching from the University of Louisville.
