Before coming to how is branding affecting consumers’ behavior in the contemporary marketing world, first, it’s important to pen-down what ‘branding’ actually is. Branding; a widely-popular term that is frequently used in the marketing world has a vague definition to define itself. Even the mighty marketers haven’t come up with a sentence that can easily sum-up the whole phenomenon. This is also because branding contains a lot more than just ‘publicizing the brand.’
Branding constitutes a series of tasks that are needed to be performed before having a well-established brand identity.
The consumer perception regarding branding or brand message is pretty evident. A clear brand message plants a feel in consumers mind through which they feel personalized with the brand.
Branding And Consumer Behaviour; What Experts Say
To ensure our readers’ are consuming correct tips and information regarding branding and what effects it has on a consumer’s mind, we have picked out some of the well-informed articles written on this topic.
While these topics are pretty much-covering everything an entrepreneur or potential marketer would have questioned, it’s important to not to stick with only what is being informed to you. Because, this non-static industry of marketing and branding is always in a continuous loop of enhancement, so to be aware of the present, it’s important to stay updated!
Here are some of the branding articles’ that you need to follow for some genuine and resourceful marketing guidance:
How Do Content and Branding Really Affect Your Consumers?
By: Julia Spence-McCoy – SEMrush
Like I said above, branding has a pretty vague definition existing even now. But in this particular blog, we have received a perspective that defines the brand from a consumer’s eye. Julia believes that, “the consumer defines the brand and what it stands for. As the marketer, what you need to do is to give the consumer something to attach the thought of the brand too.”
Expecting more from the consumer and putting less effort yourself, is what Pseudo-marketers do. A good marketer’ realizes the amount of effort and time a brand consumes in order to make an impact on consumer’s decision. Therefore, he/she knows that there’s no shortcut to branding.
In her blog, Julia further defined how branding actually works.
“Previous studies into marketing have already proven that customers tend to react positively to packaging and names that they already know. This solidifies our understanding of branding as influencing the consumer decision.”
Being a student of this field, I often find this question unanswered, “what exactly does branding constitute?” Lucky me, this blog has answered this question as well, as below:
“The idea of a brand is one that the consumer has in his or her head. The consumer defines the brand and what it stands for. As the marketer, what you need to do is to give the consumer something to attach the thought of the brand too.”
Apart from covering all the aspects of branding, what I found most interesting in the blog was the brief outline that gave out ways through which a brand can successfully communicate to its audience.
The methods constitute 5 ways; which are very much similar to human senses:
According to Julia by sensing, feeling, thinking, acting, and relating to buyers’ sense of imagination and brands’ ability to provide all this to consumers, is the way to communicate with the audience.
Later, she described how content influences branding, which in return, influence the consumers’ behavior. Upon concluding her informative blog, she quoted how branding isn’t only about “sticking a fancy logo on your product.” Instead, she believes “It is the creation of a system by which your buyers and your potential consumers both link the idea of your company and your product to something that they hold dear to them.” (Link)
9 Strong Factors for a Successful Brand Strategy
By: Maciej Fita – BRANDIGNITY
This brand, like its title suggests, clearly guides the readers’ to some of the most useful tips available in the branding industry. After telling you how important brand strategy and branding the right way is, in the blog above, we will now come to the process of creating a successful brand strategy.
Here’s a step by step guide to building a branding strategy like never before:
Start By Defining Your Brand’s Mission and Purpose:
According to the blog, this is the simplest method like its heading suggests. The first thing to do before starting to work on your branding is to ask “What does my business do, and what value does it give to the marketplace?”
Then Understand Your Targeted Audience:
You might be thinking what’s new in this tip, it’s something you heard every time you think of branding your brand. But-but-but, this blog guides you to the right way of knowing more about your targeted audience:
● What do they want most in life?
● What are their biggest problems?
● What unfulfilled needs do they have?
● Age/nationality/gender?
● What’s the average yearly salary that they receive?
Analyzing Your Competition:
Again, this might seem just another common rule but here’s the right way to do it according to Maciej Fita.
● The quality of their products
● The brands’ messages
● Customer reviews and opinions
● Unique strategies that they’re using
Keep Your Brand’s Logo And Tagline In Mind And Develop a Healthy Brand’s Reputation
These steps can become the sabotaging factor in branding if eluded. It’s important to get your brand’s logo stuck in your consumers’ mind! And apart from logo or tagline, good branding can be served by serving what you’re promising. Clever branding strategy can only grab the potential consumers’ but to build a healthy brand’s reputation, the brand has to keep up to its promises.
Then comes, basic yet important tools that people tend to avoid:
Seek feedback from your customers, hire the right kind of employees, don’t let your brand’s purpose fade away, and last but not the least raise the bar! (Link)
The Influence of Branding on Consumer Behavior
By: Maddy Osman – Mabbly.com
Here’s another brilliantly written blog on the science of branding and consumer behaviour.
Maddy on the on-set of her blog created a hypothetical situation towards her readers, where she asked them to think about the last product they bought.
Then a series of question towards the engaged readers were put forward, that helped readers like us to understand where we are lacking when it comes to the art of branding.
She stated in her blog that, “it is estimated that by the year 2020, customer experience will overshadow brand differentiator factors such as price and product in the purchasing decision.”
Further, the blog constitutes examples of some famous brand, that “make you feel something.” Like, Apple:
“Apple is best known for a design that is both innovative and predictable in style. It’s what many love about the brand and the products they produce. On the other side of the equation, comes Android—innovators in their own right with less uniformity throughout.” (Link)
How Does Branding Impact Consumer Purchase Decisions?
By: ENAKSHI SHARMA – Brandanew.co
This intelligently written blog pretty much sums up everything that branding constitutes of.
The writer described the brand as aspiration creators for buyers, the source of alteration for buyers’ intentions, a source of satisfaction for each individuals’ self-concept and in the end, she defined a brand as something that earns loyalty.
Lastly, the blog provides its readers with 3 tips For a Small Business & Startup Developing A Brand. The tips go like:
a) Focus on quality of brand experiences across the value chain. From your employees to customer services and your products
b) Develop quality content around your brand focusing on elements of Storytelling
c) Engage with your consumers across all media. Be human and authentic! (Link)
Conclusion:
Although, putting up a conclusion of such informative blog doesn’t seem right, but here I go with my little knowledge.
Branding, to be specific -like the bloggers above defined- is a complex phenomenon that constitutes of more than just making an attractive logo. In order to build a brand strategy that can make your brand successful and also impact your consumers’ behaviour and decisions, it’s important to go by the experts’ tips above. Moreover, aside from tips and guides, there’s always a little creator in each one of us, so build new ideas and work on them!
Happy branding to you!