Have you ever thought about what sets successful businesses apart from unsuccessful ones? Product or service quality is a plausible answer and indeed matters.
However, there is more to running a successful business than that. Unfortunately, many companies fail at this, a common reason they retain their status quo or even worse. For more information on this, you can visit: https://www.entrepreneur.com/.
Being intentional about brand marketing is one of the things to do and sadly one of the commonly undermined aspects. How, when, where, and who handles this matters a lot. However, this article is more particular about WHY it should be taken seriously.
Essential Role of Brand Marketing in the Modern Marketplace
You would hardly find a business owner who claims to know nothing about the importance of brand marketing. Ironically, most of them know very little or even nothing about how it impacts their business.
The simple justification for this stance is to consider how lightly many business owners take their brand marketing. For example, some of them think that they know enough to personally handle it.
Well, there are complexities involved, which is why the right team should sort it out. Of course, you would still have to collaborate in your business’s best interest.
But first things first, it is important that you understand what lies at stake when brand marketing is not taken seriously or even set in motion. In light of this, some of the reasons why it should be taken seriously are disclosed below:
Differentiation
There is hardly any business that operates in a monopolistic market. This is especially true in a country like ours that is capitalist-driven. In simpler terms, you have a long list of competitors, offering the same products and/or services.
To this end, the question of what differentiates you from many others would consciously and subconsciously be brought up by your target audience. So, serious-minded brand marketing is about creating awareness of the uniqueness of your value proposition and market identity.
Several marketing approaches are engaged for this important reason. You can see Activate Experiential for more information about this. By the way, the subject of differentiation should be one of your major areas of focus when considering brand marketing agencies.
Building Trust & Recognition
Your dream sales should be seen as an eventual outcome. This is to say that groundwork has to be laid to make it happen. One such is building trust and recognition, especially with your target audience.
This is largely what brand marketing is about. It is primarily about ensuring that what your business offers, and its values, are memorable to your target consumers. This is also about building credibility, which is required for winning not only your (established and prospective) clients’ trust but also their loyalty.
Emotional Connection
What you do in terms of brand marketing matters a lot. However, how you do it is more important.
On this note, several businesses that attempt to self-execute their brand marketing campaigns get things right when it comes to WHAT needs to be done. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about HOW they go about doing what they do.
This is a major reason to allow professionals to do their thing. For example, commercial emotional intelligence is crucial. This is because the right storytelling strategies need to be employed, among other things.
Growth & Expansion
Your target audience should never be mistaken for your target location. Your target location is a part of what makes up your target audience. However, there is even more to it.
For example, imagine running a clothing line with designs that appeals to people between the ages of 16 – 35 years. However, you discover that your common choice of fabric is considered inappropriate by religious standards in a part of the world.
The point is that brand marketing is also about market research for market expansion. So, doing a great job at it ensures that you figure out the best ways to enter new markets (geographical in this context). By the way, this also entails understanding where compromises have to be made for the greater good.
Instigating Advocacy & Customer Loyalty
Many people are quick to think about media houses, social media campaigns, and the like when the subject of brand marketing is brought up. While these are huge parts of what it is about, there are other means of marketing a brand, and using established customers is one such. This is usually by instigating them to win over prospective customers, which can happen through the use of:
- Feedback & Reviews Rewards
- Experiential Rewards
- Cashback Programs
- Point-Based Programs
- Referral Programs
- Social Media Integration
These are only a few as there are several other ways established customers can be instigated to win over prospective customers. You can read this article for more on this.
Conclusion
The importance of brand marketing cannot be overemphasized. This is especially true in light of the intense competition in the modern marketplace. As a result, the right team should be hired to sort out everything relating to your business’s brand marketing goals and objectives.
