The purpose of brand marketing.
The purpose of brand marketing is to increase awareness of your business and its offerings. By accentuating the entire brand, it essentially conveys the tale of your service or product.
Here, we'll examine some of the most effective brand marketing campaigns from well-known companies throughout the world and talk about how you might adapt those ideas for your own brand. We also discuss what you should and shouldn't do in brand marketing to guarantee the success of your approach.
When and why should a company invest in branding vs. marketing?
It's a valid question. If you want to use branding and marketing effectively together, you need to know what sets them apart. Branding is how you communicate who you are and what your firm stands for, while marketing is how you get the word out about your brand and its products and drive sales.
Branding is the overarching strategy you employ to reach your intended audience, while marketing is the set of tools at your disposal for creating new business. Because it is such an essential part of your overall marketing plan, branding will always come first.
If your company was KFC, the "secret herbs and spices" would be your branding, while your marketing efforts would include things like billboards, TV commercials, and social media posts. Determine your brand's identity before developing a marketing strategy, regardless of your industry or your company's size goals.
Your company's character must be defined. Articulating your brand's essence. Your brand's ideals should be reflected in every element of your visual identity, from the graphics and logo to the typefaces and corporate colours. If your brand is confident and outspoken, you may go for an energetic color scheme and a commanding tone of voice in your writing. A website and email template should reflect the timeless, classic nature of the business by using muted colors and a professional typography. Your entire advertising campaign rests on these design decisions.
When is it best to promote a brand?
When promoting a brand, you must think long-term. It is most effective when the target audience is likely to make recurrent purchases (as in the case of staple goods) or when the product being sold is intended for long-term use (such as automobiles). Because when your brand's identity is crystallised, it inspires a unique emotion in your target market, it becomes indelible in their minds.
A traveller can buy Colgate toothpaste with confidence knowing it will clean their teeth effectively no matter where they are in the world. Colgate's marketing strategy has evolved throughout the years to focus on audience education rather than product promotion. They've launched an Oral Care Center with a video library covering dental health, and they use every advertising platform, especially social media, to spread vital information about proper dental hygiene. Colgate's success as a company and a household name can be attributed in large part to the brand's marketing efforts.
More planning and thought into your brand's marketing strategy means more success when put into action. In the long run, it will be easier to implement future marketing initiatives if you have already invested in a sound brand marketing plan.
When developing a brand marketing plan, here are three questions any company should address:
· Who are you hoping to reach with this?
· Where do you want your brand to go from here?
· What does success mean for your company?
Having a firm grasp on the responses to these basic inquiries can help you better identify your goals, target audience, and success metrics.
Apple, McDonald's, and Nike are three of the most recognisable brands in the world because to effective marketing campaigns. How did they wind up in this situation? Prolific and successful advertising.
How Apple promotes its name-brand products.
Getting the word out about the Apple brand is easy. Don't merely launch a product; start a revolution. Apple's marketing campaigns promote more than simply the latest iPhones and iPads; they promote an entire way of life. Apple's marketing strategy is designed to make consumers feel as though they can't live without its products, from the pristine white boxes they come into the thought-provoking slogans they use (think different being one of their most renowned).
As a result of this brand's promotion, there is now a devoted fanbase. Apple is aware of the loyalty of their customer base and, as a result, they have never deviated from their consistent brand image. Their brand marketing strategy is consistent, concise, and cutting-edge even as their marketing tactics evolve.
Marketing Nike as a brand.
Nike's brand marketing approach centers around selling an experience in addition to a product. Nike uses every available medium to share an engaging narrative about the company, its goods, and its philosophy: the website, the product descriptions, the social media.
When it comes to marketing on social media and describing their products, Nike is a master storyteller. Including a narrative in your brand's identity or providing customers with insight into the origins of your company could be an effective marketing approach. Keep in mind that you don't have to write a ground-breaking story. Selling a product isn't as effective as just sharing your story and connecting with your audience on a personal level.
Marketing approach for the McDonald's brand.
Studies show that McDonald's is one of the most well-known companies in the world. That's why it's no surprise that cohesion within the brand is key to their approach to advertising. The world over, from the United States to India to Australia, just seeing their golden arches brings a smile to people's faces.
When a company's name isn't on the product, but the brand itself is as well-known as McDonald's, the product is still readily recognized. This time, we're going to McDonald's.
What strategies did McDonald's employ to build its unique identity? For almost 60 years, they've maintained a recognizable brand and product while making incremental, appropriate enhancements.
Their emblem hasn't changed much over the years, and neither have their catchphrases, which have all echoed the same core promise: your happiness is our first priority. Here are a few different expressions that have been used over time:
· Give yourself a day off (1971–1975).
· Here, have some McDonald's from 1981
· Is today the day you take a break? (1995-1997)
· Smile (2001-2003)
· I appreciate it very much.
Consider the long term while developing a marketing plan for your brand. Every time you design a new logo or launch a new advertising campaign, you don't have to start from scratch. Inconsistency and drastic shifts are likely to confuse and even alienate your audience, doing more harm than good.
Five easy steps to successful brand promotion.
Big companies like Nike, Apple, and McDonald's aren't the only ones who can benefit from brand marketing. If you follow these five easy steps, your brand, no matter how big or little, will be successful.
Who are you hoping to reach with this?
· So why should people believe you?
· How do people associate with your brand?
· Explain the problem that your brand is addressing.
· Can you name some of your rivals?
· To what extent does your company's history play into your brand's identity? For what purpose did it get started?
· Who would you choose if your company were a person, and why?
The appearance and feel of your brand will be established in this first phase. This includes deciding on a typeface, logo, and brand colors. Check out our guides on logo design, color palettes, fonts, visual design, and shape options if you're not sure how to convey your brand's personality through visuals.
Do your homework on your intended audience.
Customer personas help you learn about your customers and their needs. The ideal client is portrayed in detail in a customer persona. It's a great tool for striking an authentic chord with your listeners. A consumer persona could be a female college student between the ages of 18 and 25 who is in the market for a budget vehicle.
Questions to ponder while creating a client persona include:
· The age of this person, please.
· Is a wedding in the works?
· Whence do they hail?
· Who are you and what do you do?
· How does a typical day go for them?
· What are their academic credentials?
· When was the last time they shopped, and what did they buy?
· To what end do they care?
· What do they hope to gain from using my wares?
Everything from the name of your company to the aesthetic of your logo should be based on who your ideal consumer is.
The appropriate message can help you sell the story of your brand. Your brand's success depends on your ability to tell a compelling story that resonates with your demographic. Spend some time crafting a compelling narrative that resembles your favourite book or film in terms of plot, pacing, and character development.
There's no need for a dramatic backstory; perhaps your grandparents decided to open a bakery in town 50 years ago and have been passing on the business and the family recipe ever since. Now you've found a way to make their famous cakes and pastries using only organic ingredients and are proud to offer them to the community. Use a compelling narrative to hook your target audience, and then encourage them to participate in the narrative by engaging with your brand.
Learn who your rivals are.
Understanding your competition is just as crucial as understanding your own audience. You should study the competition, highlight what sets you apart from them, and then market to them. If your rival is recognized for offering the lowest prices, you may counter by emphasizing the value of quality over cost in your marketing materials.
Construct brand standards.
Once you have a firm grasp of who you're trying to reach with your brand, you can start planning your marketing strategy. Logo, colour scheme, typeface, voice, and more should all be addressed in the creative brand guidelines. The designers and marketers you work with will be able to better tell the story of your business and convey your message using this guide.
Pitfalls to avoid as you craft a marketing plan for your brand.
It would be incredibly disappointing to develop a brand marketing plan and distribute marketing materials only to find that your competition has previously adopted a very similar approach. This is a common problem, and the only way to avoid it is to investigate what others in your field are doing before you launch your own.
While it could be exciting to try something new with each piece of marketing communication you release, doing so can be quite confusing for your audience and even harmful to your company.
If you run a burger chain, for instance, you probably shouldn't promote a celebrity endorsement video and an animated ad about your ingredients at the same time. It would be more expensive to create and could lead to customer confusion as they try to place the brand. The same holds true for uniformity of tone across different mediums. Make sure your brand language is consistent across all mediums, including social media, print ads, and videos. Keep in mind that no matter how many times you've reviewed your communications and messaging, your audience has not.
Your brand's marketing plan may flounder without clear objectives and a sense of purpose. Knowing your long-term aspirations is just as crucial as setting more immediate objectives. Goals like going global, releasing innovative new goods, and amassing a sizable following on social media all fall under the category of long-term objectives.
The more thought you put into your brand marketing, the easier it will be to develop, launch, and expand each of your marketing campaigns, whether you're trying to start a movement like Apple, tell a story like Nike, or have great brand recognition like McDonald's.