Branding is endowing products and services with the power of a brand (Kotler & Keller, 2015)

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The importance of branding for business

What is branding?

Branding involves 'endowing products and services with the power of a brand’, explain marketing experts Kotler and Keller [1]. In other words, branding involves the creation and promotion of a company or product image, specifically including visual design such as logos, as well as overall messages.

Why is branding important?

Branding your business is important as it's a crucial element in making a memorable impression on consumers, making them aware of your products or services, and persuading them to recall and/or engage with your business. This article explains why branding is important for businesses, what forms it can take and, crucially, how to build a brand identity and brand awareness at your point of sale. Part Two provides more detailed information about how brand logos work, what to consider when designing a logo, and how logos are best used when creating a branded point of sale.

What is a brand?

A brand is a group of impressions in the consciousness of the consumer, and companies can reinforce these impressions by strengthening their brand identity.

Brands aren't just limited to corporations, anything can become a brand with the right marketing. Even people can become brands (think of the Kardashians or the Beckhams), just the same as a location or lifestyle can also be branded.

Brand identity encompasses colours, logos, customer service quality, product quality, price and purpose, packaging and the collection of messages that these all convey about the brand overall.

Ultimately, a brand becomes a brand by having unique characteristics which distinguish it from other companies. What sets you apart from your competitors? A successful brand will be aware of and emphasise its USPs (unique selling points), and this will be reflected in the brands' corporate visual identity. Creating a strong corporate visual identity is an important step on the way to building brand awareness.

How to build brand identity and increase brand awareness

1. Brand recognition: This is also called “aided recall”, referring to the ability of people to correctly recognise and identify a brand when presented with an item or its packaging. Typically, a larger number of consumers are able to recognise brands than they are to recall them.
2. Brand recall: Also referred to as “spontaneous” or “unaided" recall, this refers to the ability of consumers to correctly recall a brand when prompted by a product category. If brands are quickly and easily recalled, this is a good indicator of success.
3. Top-of-mind awareness: This refers to the status of being the first brand that comes to mind when a customer is asked about a product category (such as coffee). It can take years to build such a high level of brand awareness.

Developing brand awareness is the first step on the buyer’s journey funnel, generating interest in consumers and prompting engagement.

Brand awareness is what leads to customers taking action in order to purchase a product or service, and their engagement could go on to build customer loyalty and repeat purchases. Therefore, strong point of sale branding is key.

Brand recognition is great – who doesn’t want consumers to recognise their branding? A good marketer, however, will realise that recognition is not enough. Brand recognition should be recognised as a stepping stone on your branding journey, with the ultimate goal for businesses being top-of-mind awareness.

How to build a brand identity with a branded display

Your POS provides a great opportunity to strengthen brand impressions. Ensure your branded displays include your company logo in multiple different locations and in different sizes.

Make sure your custom POS displays feature colours and textures that are unique to your company, as well as including images of products and supplying information such as pricing.

Customers respond well to consistent branding as it provides repetition and familiarity, which build trustworthiness and recognition. Consistency enhances store atmosphere and product quality, as well as demonstrating a company’s faith in itself and in its brand message. Branded point of sale displays and custom printed display units are a quick and easy way to fix your brand in the minds of new customers.

Branded point of sale products

How to build brand awareness using a branded display

A logo is the quickest way to develop your brand identity and to build brand awareness, as they stand out in our memories in the same way that jingles do in TV adverts. Our brains can identify images in as little as 13 milliseconds, according to a study conducted by MIT [2].

An effective logo, combined with quality services and backed up by strong advertising, can help in a company’s survival and success. Some of the most successful and long standing brands have logos which date back hundreds of years. Therefore, investing some time, thought and money in logo design can be well worth it.

The classic and easily identifiable Heinz wordmark logo has now been used, largely unchanged, for over 150 years.

The Twinings Tea logo is a great example of longevity. Created in 1787, it’s one of the world's oldest logos still in use.

Click through to Part Two now to learn more about why logos are a crucial part of branding your business, and find out how you can get the best results from point of sale branding.

Kira Swales

Kira Swales is a copywriter for UK POS. Kira has over eight years' experience in e-commerce and copywriting, with a background in retail. She enjoys researching topics in depth in order to provide readers with the latest information on point of sale merchandising. Read more of her comprehensive guides in our Knowledge Hub.

References

1. Kotler and Keller, Marketing Management, 15th edn (Cambridge: Pearson, 2015).

2. Potter, Wyble, Hagmann and McCourt, ‘Detecting meaning in RSVP at 13 ms per picture’, Attention, Perception and Psychophysics Journal, Vol 76 (2014), pp.270-279.

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