Brand Identity Benefits

A brand is a persistent, unique business identity intertwined with associations of personality, quality, origin, liking and more. Here’s why the effort to brand your company or yourself pays off:

1. Memorability. It’s hard for customers to go back to “that whatsitsname store” or to refer business to “the printer from the Yellow Pages.” Develop identifiers and nail them to the company name in the minds of the public.

2. Loyalty. When people have a positive experience with a memorable brand, they’re more likely to buy that product or service over competing brands. People who closely bond with a brand identity are not only more likely to repurchase what they bought, but also to buy related items of the same brand, to recommend the brand to others and to resist the lure of a competitor’s price cut.

3. Familiarity. Branding has a big effect on non-customers too. Psychologists have shown that familiarity induces liking. Consequently, people who have never done business with you but have encountered your company identity sufficient times may become willing to recommend you even when they have no personal knowledge of your products or services.

4. Extensions. With a well-established brand, you can spread the respect you’ve earned to a related new product, service or location and more easily win acceptance of the newcomer

5. For consumers, less risk. When someone feels under pressure to make a wise decision, he or she tends to choose the brand-name supplier over the no-name one. As the saying goes, “You’ll never be fired for buying IBM.”

What is Brand Identity

A brand is a set of perceptions and images that represent a company, product or service. While many people refer to a brand as a logo, tag line or audio jingle, a brand is actually much larger. A brand is the essence or promise of what will be delivered or experienced.

Brands enable a buyer to easily identify the offerings of a particular company. Brands are generally developed over time through:

• Brand identity elements such as logo and tagline containing consistent messaging
• Recommendations from friends, family members or colleagues
• Interactions with a company and its representatives
• Real-life experiences using a product or service (generally considered the most important element of establishing a brand)

Once developed, brands provide an umbrella under which many different products can be offered—providing a company tremendous economic leverage and strategic advantage in generating awareness of their offerings in the marketplace.