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Why Brand Image is Important for a Small Business?

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Brand image is a general impression of a product held by real or potential consumers. If a customer is happy with your products or services, a solid brand image helps to build customer loyalty across your business. In simple words, branding is the impression you make, what is special about your business and how you connect with your target audience. Brand image is the way a customer thinks or feels about your brand based on the experience they are likely to have with your brand. People like to be in association with good brands. This blog will answer questions like why is branding so important, why is brand image important, how to build a strong brand image?

Why is branding so important?

Branding is important as it encompasses your company name, what customers say about your business and what it is like to do business with you. Business owners often associate the brand image with expenses and unnecessary fluff that add no value to their existing product or service. They are so focused on making their offerings the best that brand image is forgotten.

Why is brand image important?

Brand image is important for any business. When a consumer buys a product or service, he is not just buying a product or service; he is buying what your brand stands for. That’s why it is extremely important to design your brand image to convey exactly what you want it to say.

New customers are attracted towards your brand with a brand image. It becomes easier to introduce new products. It also tends to develop a better business-customer relationship. It helps in increasing the trust level of existing customers and further helps in customer retention. A strong image of your brand can deliver benefits to your organization. Here are the reasons why brand image is so important for your small business.

1. Improves recognition

   Make it a point that your logo should not be the end to all your branding efforts, make an effort and come up with a professionally-designed, memorable logo. Your logo should be memorable, and it should give the desired impression of your company so that when people see it, they instantly think and feel what you want them to think and feel. The best logos are of Apple, The Red Cross, Woolmark, Nike, Shell, FedEx.

2. Creates trust

   When a company presents themselves in a professional way with a brand image, and when there is social proof that their products and service are quality, consumers will trust that company. This means when customers come to your site, they’ll be much more likely to engage. Knowing your brand is credible and recognizable, they’ll bounce less, stay longer, go through your funnel, and even transact.

3. Supports your marketing efforts

   Marketing is one big important component of your brand. Be careful of too narrow of a marketing focus, or you’ll be at risk and lose your ability to expand. Brand image without any marketing focus could lead to an inability to create an impression of your company on the consumers’ mind.

4. Motivates employees

   A strong brand image can help you hire motivated employees who are inspired to carry your vision and mission forward. When your brand feels pride for your employees, they do well. Having a strong brand is very essential for employee morale and productivity.

5. Generates revenue

   Brand image is one of the best ways to get referral. That is why it is extremely important that your logo, marketing, and reputation work cohesively to form an impression on consumer minds and finally lead to more revenue. Think about it, you can’t tell your friend about the amazing sauce pan you just bought if you cannot remember the brand.

6. Builds financial value

   Brand image builds a strong financial value and generates future business for you. Brands strengthen differentiation against peers. Brands help in driving demand and sales, helping market share growth and building shareholder value. Companies who publicly trade on a stock exchange are valued more.

7. Generates new customers

   Strong branding generally means there is a positive impression of the company amongst your consumers. Consumers will to do business with you because of the brand image familiarity and assumed dependability of using a name they can trust.

How to build a strong brand image

The best way to build and nurture an effective brand image is a multidisciplinary approach. This helps you to position yourself in the market and win over your target customers. To build a strong brand image, you need to start understanding what your brand is. Use the list below to build a strong image:

1. Identify your Consumer

   The basic step is to identify your target audiences. Your target audiences consist of customers, industry analysts and employees. It is very important to be specific at this point. You need clarity about the consumer you are targeting to craft an effective marketing strategy.

2. Determine your goals

   It is extremely important to start with defining your mission, vision, and values. Inconsistency in any of the elements will hurt your brand image, so define your purpose before promoting your brand. Understanding your mission, vision, and values can go a long way in retaining happy customers. Building a brand image without knowing your short-term or long-term business goals is ineffective.

3. Identify your brand persona

   Once you have determined the key audiences, you can start building your brand persona. Your persona should appeal to customers and articulate your brand image. Remember to keep it simple and relevant. To do this, you must gather demographic and psychographic data on your consumer.

4. Create a brand personality

   Each brand needs a personality, voice, and characteristics like a human to make it stand out. Start by choosing the tone and write few attributes of your brand. You can also make a list of things what your brand is and what it is not. Defining a brand personality will bring consistency to your brand image.



5. Create a brand positioning statement

   A brand positioning statement can set you apart. To create this, do a market research to understand what makes your brand unique and sets you apart from your competitors. Once you understand what makes you different, create a statement that communicates your uniqueness to your customers.

Steps to solidify your brand image

Components that are necessary to promote your brand on a wide scale are:

• Public Relations

  PR spreads your key messages and company news. By positioning your company PR can improve your brand image and raise awareness.

• Content

  Content drives digital marketing activities. To elevate your brand profile, you must deliver white papers, blog posts to the target audience.

• Social Media

  Social media is an extremely valuable tool for sharing information relevant to your industry and interacting with your customers. A robust social media presence can increase website traffic and enhance your image.

• Search Engine Optimization

  This tactic improves your company’s ranking on popular search engines like Google. To make an impact you need to rank well for specific keywords to increase the traffic to your website.

Conclusion

Brand image conveys emotional value of brand and not just a mental image. Brand image is actually the organization’s character. It is an accumulation of contact and observation by the external people to an organization. Every organization invests efforts to build a strong brand image as it is very helpful in fulfilling the motives and objectives of a business. The reality is that brand image matters and it matters a lot. Brand image goes far beyond. It is not only created, but is also automatically formed. However, keeping the above mentioned factors will help you create a better image of your brand for consumers. Every company wants its brand image to be conveyed to the consumer and to convey brand image efficiently to your consumer create an app or website with Appy Pie.