Why Brand Identity Is As Vital For Small Businesses As It Is Multinationals

International brands have become instantly recognisable points of reference and - in many ways - are the lingua franca of today’s global culture.
Yet the relevance - and power - of branding is not the preserve of worldwide corporations alone; brand identity is equally as important to smaller, local businesses as it is to multinational giants. In fact, sometimes it’s not necessarily your product, but the strength of your brand, that ultimately determines success.
The following is a quick overview on why branding is more important today than ever, and the key advantages it brings to your business.

Customer Awareness

Competitive markets where instant access to rivals online is the new norm; the upshot is that today’s businesses must fight even harder to win customers. Getting your voice heard in such a noisy and congested environment is a big challenge, doubly so if you can’t compete on price-points or advertising budget. This is when tapping into the power of branding can mitigate such forces to set you apart from the pack and radically raise value-perception. In short, branding - done well - gets you noticed.

Product Differentiation

Naturally, as suppliers, we have inherent belief in the quality of our products or services; however, we cannot ignore the fact that some of our competitors do it just as well as we do (perhaps better) or are more well-established, or just have deeper pockets.

Branding allows us to gain edge over our rivals by bringing into play those uniquely human qualities of perception, emotion and identity. By attaching a character to your company you transform it from a faceless supplier of goods to an identifiable - even desirable - personality.

Just as people we navigate our way through social landscapes using a combination of physical appearances and personality, the very same principles are applied in branding to differentiate companies from the competition. Establishing a unique brand identity that resonates with your target audience invokes basic human emotions and uses them to help sway consumers’ choices.

Customer Loyalty

When a consumer buys your product/service and it results in a positive experience, they attach value to the purchase and the supplier, which increases the likelihood of them becoming a repeat customer. If the initial job of branding is to make you more visible and attractive to prospective customers, its secondary purpose is to reinforce that relationship by keeping your company in the consciousness of those you’ve already won over.

Brand Recall

Let’s say you’re a soft-drinks manufacturer and a satisfied customer sees your branding - be it in an advert online or on a storefront - this echoes a positive experience they had with your drink, reinforcing their confidence in your company. Next time soda is on the shopping list, that need is associated with your product - and brand - and they re-stock with the very same product. This is brand recall.

Positive brand recall not only increases the probability of a customer buying the same item again, it also improves the chances of them purchasing other goods from the same brand. Favourable association with a specific brand promotes trust, giving consumers the confidence to try other products from the same brand. More about this in a minute.

Brand Ambassadors

Companies who sell quality products and get their branding right tap into something extra special, this is where happy customers are so into everything you do that they become self-appointed brand ambassadors. Social proof from real people talking favourably about your company to their peers is still the holy grail of marketing, as people will always trust their friends and family more than adverts.

Apple is the perfect example of such loyalty; the fervour and reverence surrounding the brand and its products has become almost cult-like; people now identify so closely and on such a personal level with Apple that they would never even consider buying from a rival company.

Product Expansion & Brand Stretching

The final point to make about branding is its ability to help your business expand into new areas.

A recognisable brand associated with a quality product moves you into the enviable position of having both the attention - and confidence - of your target audience, therefore creating the perfect position from which to launch a wider range of products. Famous brands like Cadbury’s chocolate or Levis jeans are a good example of this; they have added numerous products to their original offerings of Dairy Milk chocolate bars - or denim trousers in the case of Levis.

And it doesn’t have to stop there. Some brands even manage to break into entirely different industries, just look at Virgin: Richard Branson started out with a record shop but has since then he’s used the same Virgin brand on planes, trains and mobiles - even space travel!

Should you want to, branding contains within it the potential to operate in entirely different markets to the one you originally started in. That’s the scope and power of great branding.