What is branding?

Wed, 06 Oct 2021 10:24:00 +0000

Unsure about the meaning of “branding”? Don’t worry! Branding is one of those marketing concepts that are a bit vague and can quickly become confusing, even for people who have studied marketing.

Today we are going to take a look at “what is branding” and try to provide a clear answer with simple words and examples!

In order to understand the concept of branding, first we need to know what products and brands are.

Product definition

“Broadly, a product is anything that can be offered to a market to satisfy a want or need, including physical goods, services, experiences, events, persons, places, properties, organizations, information, and ideas” (Kotler & Keller, 2015).

This means that a product can be anything from a hotel stay, a flight, a language course, to clothes, food, a toothbrush etc.

To illustrate the definition of a product and the role it occupies in defining branding, we will use the example of water:

Water is a free resource that every human being needs to live and survive. Yet it became a product the day humans and companies started to commercialize it, for example by selling mineral water in glass and plastic bottles.

But water always looks the same, isn’t it? It is liquid and transparent. So, how can different companies sell the same product but still convince people to purchase their bottled water instead of the one from the competition?

The answer is: by creating a brand.

Brand definition

“A brand is a name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller’s good or service as distinct from those of other sellers” (American Marketing Association).

You can consider a brand as the idea or image people have in mind when thinking about specific products, services, and activities of a company, both in a practical (e.g. “the shoe is light-weight”) and emotional way (e.g. “the shoe makes me feel powerful”). It is therefore not just the physical features that create a brand but also the feelings that consumers develop towards the company or its product. This combination of physical and emotional cues is triggered when exposed to the name, the logo, the visual identity, or even the message communicated.

A product can be easily copied by other players in a market, but a brand will always be unique. For example, Pepsi and Coca-Cola taste very similar, however for some reason, some people feel more connected to Coca-Cola, others to Pepsi.

Let’s illustrate this again with our water example. The product sold is water, but in order to convince people to purchase a particular water, companies developed different water brands, such as Evian, Perrier, Fiji or Volvic. And each one of these brands provides a different meaning to the product water:

– Evian makes you feel young

– Perrier is refreshing, bubbling and sexy

– Fiji Water is pure, healthy and natural

…and so on.

Our definition of branding, even if seemingly more ambiguous than the other, gives much more sense to the concept when diving deeper into its meaning. Here is a rough breakdown:

1. Perpetual process

Branding is a perpetual process because it never stops. People, markets, and businesses are constantly changing and the brand must evolve in order to keep pace.

2. Identify, create, manage

There is a structured process to branding, one where you must first identify who/what you want to be to your stakeholders, create your brand strategy to position yourself accordingly, and then constantly manage everything that influences your positioning.

3. Cumulative assets and actions

Your positioning must be translated into assets (e.g., visual identity, content, products, ads) and actions (e.g., services, customer support, human relations, experiences) that project it into your stakeholders’ minds, slowly building up that perception.

4. Perception of a brand

Also known as reputation. This is the association that an individual (customer or not) has in their mind regarding your brand. This perception is the result of the branding process (or lack thereof).

5. Stakeholders

Clients are not the only ones that build a perception of your brand in their minds. Stakeholders include possible clients, existing customers, employees, shareholders, and business partners. Each one builds up their own perception and interacts with the brand accordingly.

Why is branding important?

Branding is absolutely critical to a business because of the overall impact it makes on your company. Branding can change how people perceive your brand, it can drive new business, and increase brand value – but it can also do the opposite if done wrongly or not at all.

Branding in practice

The topic of branding is definitely not a one-pager. It’s an ever-evolving subject spanning many areas of expertise: business management, marketing, advertising, design, psychology, and others. Branding also has different layers, each one with its own meaning and structure. It is not the same as marketing but there are many common grounds between the two, which is why we cannot acknowledge or deny that branding and marketing are somehow subordinate one to the other. They are interdependent and their primary goal is to serve the business.

In very simple words, a product is what you sell, a brand is the perceived image of the product you sell, and branding is the strategy to create that image.

reference

https://www.thebrandingjournal.com/2015/10/what-is-branding-definition/

https://www.brandingmag.com/2015/10/14/what-is-branding-and-why-is-it-important-for-your-business/

What is an ad site?

Thu, 09 Sep 2021 10:19:00 +0000

Advertising site includes many sites that this article introduces some examples of public advertising sites, specialized advertising sites and niche advertising sites (niche marketing).

marketing

Marketing refers to any actions a company takes to attract an audience to the company's product or services through high-quality messaging. Marketing aims to deliver standalone value for prospects and consumers through content, with the long-term goal of demonstrating product value, strengthening brand loyalty, and ultimately increasing sales.

Modern marketing began in the 1950s when people started to use more than just print media to endorse a product. As TV -- and soon, the internet -- entered households, marketers could conduct entire campaigns across multiple platforms. And as you might expect, over the last 70 years, marketers have become increasingly important to fine-tuning how a business sells a product to consumers to optimize success.

In fact, the fundamental purpose of marketing is to attract consumers to your brand through messaging. Ideally, that messaging will helpful and educational to your target audience so you can convert consumers into leads.

Today, there are literally dozens of places one can carry out a marketing campaign -- where does one do it in the 21st century?

Types of Marketing

Internet marketing: Inspired by an Excedrin product campaign that took place online, the very idea of having a presence on the internet for business reasons is a type of marketing in and of itself.

Search engine optimization: Abbreviated "SEO," this is the process of optimizing content on a website so that it appears in search engine results. It's used by marketers to attract people who perform searches that imply they're interested in learning about a particular industry.

Blog marketing: Blogs are no longer exclusive to the individual writer. Brands now publish blogs to write about their industry and nurture the interest of potential customers who browse the internet for information.

Social media marketing: Businesses can use Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and similar social networks to create impressions on their audience over time.

Print marketing: As newspapers and magazines get better at understanding who subscribes to their print material, businesses continue to sponsor articles, photography, and similar content in the publications their customers are reading.

Search engine marketing: This type of marketing is a bit different than SEO, which is described above. Businesses can now pay a search engine to place links on pages of its index that get high exposure to their audience. (It's a concept called "pay-per-click" -- I'll show you an example of this in the next section).

Video marketing: While there were once just commercials, marketers now put money into creating and publishing all kinds of videos that entertain and educate their core customers.

Disadvantages and advantages of ad site

Due to the growth of human societies and the many problems that prevail in today's societies, most people like it much easier and through a simple search or search for a new product, second-hand product and… without any intermediaries at a reasonable cost Find.

Things to consider when registering an ad on ad sites are:

Accurate and appropriate title of business, product and…

Choosing the right ad group and subgroup (Many people are unaware of this important and think that by inserting a link in another site, none of them is in the group, it is seen by Google and this is important. While the right group for you In the eyes of Google as an expert, the group will know over time and should be given much attention.)

Specifying the price and specifications and everything in general is appropriate for Agi so that the customer is not misled.

Choosing the right province, city and ((If this is not the right choice, like the ad group or category, it will be to the detriment of your business, especially over time.)

Inserting communication channels such as phone number, mobile number, business address and site link are the most important items in the ad to gain the customer's trust.

Choosing the right tag or tag is just as important as choosing the right category and province or city to offer a product or service. In most cases, choosing the right three tags or tags for your Sama ad is enough, and more than that, search engines will confuse you with your ad. (If your ad contains a lot of tags, you can choose the same tag tags on various other sites.)

The duration of the ad on the site, especially if your ad is linked on the ad site, it is better to choose 6 months and one year, to be beneficial for you and your business.

What Is SEO?

SEO stands for “search engine optimization.” In simple terms, it means the process of improving your site to increase its visibility when people search for products or services related to your business in Google, Bing, and other search engines. The better visibility your pages have in search results, the more likely you are to garner attention and attract prospective and existing customers to your business.

For example, some examples of SEO sites are:

https://moz.com/

https://www.semrush.com/

https://ahrefs.com/

Conclusion

The ad site is suitable for marketing and SEO of all businesses and all businesses should make good use of this important item to be able to attract many customers for their specialized products and services.

References

hubspot

Advertising site

searchengineland

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What is branding?

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