Branding in Marketing: It's Importance & Integral Significance.

The usual squabble has always been between development teams and marketing teams on which department is more important to the success of a business.

And sometimes, it can be compared to the story of the hen and the egg, which comes before the other.

Marketing can't do without having products to sell, and these products are built by developers, on the other hand, products created without a marketing mindset or marketer's input also have to be re-modified for the marketplace.

However, let's answer the first & most important question

What is Branding?

Branding is the entire process involved in creating how a company, a product or a service is perceived. Branding is usually achieved by combining many elements such as your logo, designs,?your company's mission & vision statement, and usually, a consistent theme throughout all your marketing communications.

When you do branding right, it is a proper identifier that helps you differentiate yourself or your company from your competitors and helps you with building a loyal customer base.

In a nutshell, branding is how your customer identifies you and the thoughts that come to their mind when they think of you

Without further questions, we now know that branding is an important component and belongs within the marketing department.

What's The Importance Of Branding In Marketing?

Price Freedom:

Building a unique brand, means you automatically have a customer base that is loyal to you and understands where you're coming from, what you did to get here, and sometimes even the processes that are involved in your providing your product or services to them a.k.a your brand story.

And sometimes knowing all of these can mean you have the liberty to price reasonably and your customers will be happy to pay your price.

Identifying Your Buyer Persona or Ideal Customer

Branding is important when it comes to identifying the unique audience your product serves. As your audience also determines your marketing conversation, your brand tone of voice & branding becomes an integral aspect of every team within your marketing department.

The copywriter must write in line with the brand voice.

The video marketer must speak & communicate in the brand tone of voice.

The social media content must be designed & contain the brand's unique colors etc

Warning ?? :

A tiny disparity between your unique theme, automatically sets off your customer and identifies you as an inconsistent company.

For example, selling a Rolex, like a Casio, will definitely be a very big brand disparity

The 7Cs of Personal Branding

According to Dimeji, personal branding is an essential component of building your success as a freelancer, creative or business owner, with the important components being

1. Clarity- what you stand for, mission & vision
2. Credibility- social proof & proof of industry knowledge
3. Customer- or identifying the target audience your business addresses,
4. Communication- tone of voice, marketing copy etc
5. Content & Content Channels - which is a direct result of identifying who your customers are
6. Connect: The language that most resonates with this audience and finally
7. Collaterals: Which are identified as your unique separators, & identifiers.

Exercise:

Some example of successful branding stories & storytelling.

Think fast to identify the brand

1. Data is life. (Story of a mother-in-law- who is jealous over her son, marrying a lady named Amaka)
2. Brand slogan: Everywhere you go.
3. On every athlete's foot, believed to be a prime source of motivation!
4. The best energy drink to take if you're daring!
5. A drink that involves "Sharing Happiness"

Summary:

If you're a freelance marketer going through this, you're also a personal brand. And if you own a business, below are some recommended branding & brand identity experts, with over 50 companies each under their belt:

Answers to Newsletter exercise:

1. Airtel Nigeria
2. MTN Nigeria
3. Nike
4. Red Bull
5. Coca Cola

Your contributions is highly welcomed, and also,I'm open to collaborations, link sharing & link building, as well as freelance services.