Why does your business need a brand?

Branding is a way of clearly highlighting what makes your offer different to, and more desirable than, anyone else’s.

Effective branding elevates a product or organisation from being just one commodity amongst many identical commodities, to become something with a unique character and promise. It can create an emotional trigger in the minds of consumers who choose products and services using both emotional and pragmatic judgements.

Start-up businesses

If you’re launching a new business, you’re in a unique position to operate as what is often called a ‘challenger brand’. This means that you can take a look at a market sector from the outside, assess all the players, opportunities or gaps in the market and then launch your product with a brand that challenges and shakes up the conventions of the sector. It’s hard to do this once you’re established as there’s more to lose, so think carefully about how brave and ‘rule’-breaking’ your product or service can be if you’re about to launch to market.

Another benefit you may have as a start-up is that the business is likely to be small and therefore responsive and adaptable, with no existing processes that have to be changed to create a new brand. In short: you’ve got one shot to do something exciting, relatively cheaply, so go for it.

Rebranding your business

So if you’re thinking about how to rebrand your business, its products or services, or if you want to assess where your brand stands at present, there are a few key aspects to consider:

• The big idea – what lies at the heart of your company?
   
• Values – what do you believe in?
   
• Vision – where are you going?
   
• Personality – how do you want to come across?

If you can start to answer these questions with clarity and consistency then you have the basis for developing a strong brand.

The power of branding is available in PDF format for you to keep or print.