Branding in our country is mostly seen as an unnecessary expenditure. But we fail to accept that we wear brands, eat brands and talk brands everyday-knowingly or subconsciously.
We don’t say Mosquito repellent, we say Good Night/All Out laga de.
We don’t say Pizza, we say Domino's order kare?
We don’t say glass cleaner, we say Colin se saaf karde.
We don’t say Taxi/cab service, we say Ola/Uber kar lete hain.
Do you realize how much and how many times are we using brand names everyday?
There are many other existing brands in all these industries but these above mentioned brands have built a name in their market. Why ?
Its simply because they took a step towards right branding at the right time.
Branding is and does a lot more than what we actually think.
Let us deep-dive into the 5 major benefits that branding brings -especially in a small scale company.
1 ) Develops Recognition
Branding marks your brand name in the minds of your target customers like its nobody’s business. If your target audience sees enough and more of your brand around, in the way of ads, color theme, logo, tagline, hashtags, sponsors etc:- they will remember and rank your brand higher than any other company in the market.
One good example is Nykaa, started off in 2012 while its competitor- Purplle started in 2011. People know less of Purplle because Nykaa played a strong branding game since the beginning with its ideas, innovations, launches, offers, and most importantly its advertising.
B) Building Trust
A brand is not what it says it is, but a reflection of what its customer says it is. So, it is very important that you gain the trust of your customer. A product that does proper banding will not be able to gain enough trust no matter how good its product is.Branding helps the public to gain confidence on the brand by the kind of approach it takes.
The best example would be Nestle Maggi. After being alleged of having high levels of monosodium glutamate (MSG) and 17 times the permissible limit of lead in 2015, how do you think this deadly controversy die? It just took 5 months for them to come back stronger than before. This was only possible because of the customer trust that it had earned during its existence. When Maggi re-launched and said it is safe and has always been, their sales graph looked like something you could never believe.
C) Gaining Competitive Edge
While you choose to have a product that is easily available by multiple players, your branding strategy and design has to become innovative. Especially when you’re in level competition with your rival, branding and advertising becomes super interesting. Good branding can take you to places and make you the king in the industry.
The best example would be Burger King against McDonald's as they play an epic brand war.
While McD launched one of its stores in Kuwait on the base floor, Burger King came up with an Epic Brand strategy where they raised a humongous hoarding of Burger King with the tagline - Always on top.
We must for sure give the point to Burger King here - not only they choose the best locations for their ads but also know how to use it.
D) Easy Entry
If you launch a New Product within your Brand or a New brand by itself, good branding really helps you save time, effort in the long run and gain easier recognition and quicker acceptability. Here's how:
If you launch a New product in your existing brand -- the respect and trust that your brand has gained over its time of existence gets transferred effortlessly to your New product letting it have a smooth entry and warm acceptance.
The best example to quote here would be Parle. You'll be shocked to know the of product line stretch it has and how!
If you launch a New Brand altogether -- good branding acts as a magic to the New brand as they hold the ability to attract the customer and remind them of the newness of the product bringing in a sense of advancement, innovation, technology and hence scream better product in the name of your Brand.
The best example here would be ID (Idly Dosa) Batter. It captured the market where there were little or no players dealing in Dosa batter. Its best move was, the sustainable packaging.It supported Use ,mix, seal and store all in one package. Its direct-on-pan and re-seal packaging is so convenient that a user could store the leftover batter in the same pack without being having to refill in a container.
E) Survival in your saturation period
Branding is that element in your product life cycle that can help you rank higher in the market at its New and Growth phase and Re-branding can help revamp its life-cycle during the maturity and saturation period by giving the brand a fresh touch.
Example: Cadbury Dairymilk was launched in the year 1905. Ever thought how it has survived for more than a decade?
Its re-branding and innovation game has been so strong that it effortlessly survived its maturity and saturation period and bounced back stronger each time.
F) Goodwill and Credibility
Branding might incur as a heavy expenditure in the beginning. But if you look into the bigger picture this acts as an investment. Branding gains customer, develops popularity, increases the demand ,which leads to increase in production and once that happens the cost per unit comes down drastically resulting in increased profits. Adding to benefits, branding also adds up to the goodwill which leads to increase in the company’s assets and summing to the financial value. Hence it is a win-win situation.
The best brand fit here would be TATA. It has built such a strong base for itself,that no matter how many or whichever product it launches, the acceptance in the Market will be easy and welcomed. This is not very easy to achieve. The fact that TATA has set its bar so high and also that it never fails to disappoint its people is something highly appreciable.
Now you know exactly if Branding is an expenditure or an Investment ;)
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