How Construction & Engineering businesses become more profitable?

Successful branding is the cornerstone of long-term business success. While your products and services create value, it’s your brand identity that tells your story and leaves an impression on your customers. When your brand resonates with your market, you will ignite new interest, engage potential customers, and keep people wanting more from your business. Good Construction and Engineering branding offers a range of tangible and intangible benefits for businesses of all shapes and sizes.

Let’s define branding and look at 6 powerful ways it can positively impact your business.

What is your brand and brand identity?

Before we look at the benefits of branding, it’s important to understand what it is. Above all else, your brand is a promise you make to the market. It is an abstract yet clear marker that sets you apart from the competition. It affirms you as a unique business identity and helps your message to stand out from the noise. Much more than a simple logo, your brand identity is an enduring collection of elements that highlight your value and set the tone for your professional relationships, allowing your business to stand out during the tender process and be at the top of list for procurement officers.

Strong brands deliver value in the following ways:

1. Helps to increase value

Good branding helps to increase the real and perceived value of your business. While the value of your brand can be hard to quantify, that doesn’t mean it’s not real. Brand value is directly related to the perception and mindset of potential and existing customers. It reflects their direct experience and future expectations of your business.

The value of your brand is related to many factors, including market recognition, perception, and loyalty. While some of these things can be hard to measure, there is a quantifiable aspect of brand value known as brand equity. When customers know and love your brand, they are willing to pay more for your products and services.

Definition: Your brand equity is the difference in value between you and the competition.

2. Helps to attract new customers

Strong and directed branding helps you attract more customers. Whether it’s your logo, website, capability statement, tender submissions, or business cards, it’s important to present a consistent brand image that works for your industry sector and location. Even when you have the best products and services around, you need focused branding to capture market attention.

We have helped many construction and engineering clients attract new customers through branding alone. The benefits of branding are not limited to large multinationals and trendy businesses. In fact, everyday companies can experience even more pronounced results.

Results: We worked with one client involved with asbestos removal, which is far from a glamorous industry. When we created a new name, image, and material for their business, people became more aware of the business and turnover tripled in 3 months.

3. Helps to increase turnover

When good products and services are backed by a strong brand identity, your customers will be more confident in your abilities. This gives you the power to deliver tender submissions and quotes based on trust rather than price alone, which is a huge advantage in competitive markets. When your brand reflects your ethics, values, and business personality, you can build your company and increase turnover.

Strong branding helps you connect with customers who value your products and services. When you have a good story and connect with the right people, you can approach more affluent markets, become a preferred supplier and charge more for your goods and services. Your brand identity creates expectations. With a few smart changes, you can present yourself as a larger and more professional operation.

Testimonial: “When I worked under my old brand, despite the knowledge in my specialist field, customers would question the price of the service we offered, but under the new brand, price has never been an issue and never questioned.”

4. Leads to long-term loyalty

Good brands are in it for the long haul. Strong brands have staying power because they’re built on relationships. Branding is not just about attracting new energy into your business; it’s also about long-term relationships that grow over time. Every business has its own authentic story. When you highlight this story and deliver it with passion, your business will be remembered and your brand will endure.

Fact: 30% of the world’s most valuable brands were developed before 1900.

5. Helps you gain market respect

When you have a strong and memorable brand, you are more likely to gain market respect. From packaging and design consistency to storytelling, case studies and testimonials, there are lots of ways to improve your perception in the market. While people buy goods and services from companies, they develop relationships with brands. We help brands put their best foot forward to increase sales and inspire long-term loyalty.

Results: We worked with a client that sold hardware products through the mail. When the owner re-branded to reflect the size, ethics, and professionalism of the business, turnover increased substantially.

6. Leads to collaboration

When you have a good brand identity, you are more likely to attract partnerships and enter into collaborations. Businesses want professional relationships with known and respected entities. A successful brand functions in its community, adds value to its market, and relates to other companies in its industry sector.

Collaborative partners look for like-minded businesses to build strong referral networks. When you have a solid brand identity, other companies are much more likely to engage with you. From partnerships to referrals and recommendations, a positive brand identity is attractive because it helps you?seem larger than life.

“If you are not a brand, you are a commodity.”?— Philip Kotler

When you are a commodity, you’re at the whim of market forces. When a lower price is offered by the competition, you will lose your market edge. This is a tough way to do business because you’re always reacting and never feel like you’re in control. Developing a brand identity helps you forge your own distinct path and set your own rules. When you approach your business as a brand, you can showcase your unique attributes and build an enduring relationship with your customers based on the things that set you apart.

For more information and branding advice, contact article author and branding expert, Susan Jones, director of Living Lines branding agency?on?0410 590 737.