What Is Business Branding?

What Is Business Branding? An Introduction To Branding

When starting a business, you must establish yourself within the industry and marketplace which comes down to branding. So, what is business branding?

Hi Trish Davies, here and I want to focus on one of my passions today which is branding. I am a personal branding expert and have created several brands within my own business organisation.

Based upon my own experience in building brands, I now help entrepreneurs build their own brands. I do that through a program that I have created called Build Your AU which helps people build brands through their own story and achievements.

This is a very powerful way to create strong personal brands based upon authenticity and authority. Combined they help to attract a strong and loyal following of customers. More on Build Your AU shortly but for now I want to answer the question “what is business branding”?

What Is Business Branding? 

Now to give clarity on what is business branding I want you to consider your own habits.  Think about the last time you went shopping. Let’s suppose you needed to buy coffee. You walked into the coffee aisle, scanned shelf after shelf of different types of coffee, grabbed one and walked away.

I bet there were at least half a dozen different brands of coffee represented on those shelves. So, let me ask you, how did you choose that particular brand of coffee? Was it the influence of a  sales representative standing in the aisle trying to persuade you to purchase one brand over the other? Probably not!

Chances are, you chose a particular kind of coffee because you trusted the brand.  Maybe it was Costa Coffee, Starbucks, Maxwell House or whatever your favourite brand is.The point is no one sold you on buying a particular product right there in the coffee aisle. Instead, you were presold before you ever arrived at the grocery store. That’s because the company had done a fine job of building their brand.

Buying coffee is just one example. Take a look around at your life. You’ll quickly discover that branding plays an important role in many of your buying decisions. The thing is it’s not just you, it’s your friends, your colleagues, and your family.  Even your prospects and customers all factor in branding when making their buying decisions.

The Know, Like & Trust Factor 

People buy from those they know, like and trust. And the only way to build up this sort of trust is by building up your brand. Now here’s the crazy thing. The brand that people are buying may not always be the best solution. People like to buy brands with which they’re familiar. They trust them. They know what kind of experience they’ll get when they use a trusted brand.

Imagine for a moment that you’re traveling on the highway, and you get hungry. You see “Bob’s Burger Bar” sitting right next to the golden arches. Now do I need tell you what restaurant sports the golden arches? If you said McDonalds, you’re right and that’s just further proof that branding works.  Even small children can spot the golden arches on the highway and start screaming for cheeseburgers.

Now with all else being equal, there’s a good chance you’re going to go to McDonalds rather than Bob’s Burger Bar. That’s because you know what to expect, since McDonalds has built up their brand recognition and a reputation for food that is fast and cheap.

Some More Branding Examples 

How about another example, think about an online auction site.  Which one comes to mind first? Probably eBay. They’ve built their branding so well that most people don’t even think of other auction sites. How about a search engine? I bet you thought of Google, or maybe Bing or Yahoo. Again, that’s the power of branding.

Point is branding is an incredibly powerful way to increase your sales over the long term. When you build a strong brand, you build trust. When you build a strong brand, you develop “top of mind” awareness. Also, when you build a strong brand, people buy from you simply because they recognize your brand. Because they’ve associated good feelings with your brand.

A lot of struggling entrepreneurs don’t even think about branding. That is probably one of the reasons why they’re struggle so much. Others do spend time thinking about branding, but they think branding is about picking out a slogan, a logo with pretty colours.

That’s a mistake as branding is much bigger than that. Branding is such an important part of a company’s success. Therefore, serious business owners invest a lot of time and money into developing a solid brand. What’s more, companies that have been around for any amount of time often freshen their brand. That’s because they know how important it is to change with the times.

Brand Refreshing 

Let me give you a few examples of how companies have branded themselves or freshened their brand…

• Avis used to be the second car rental company in the world, right behind Hertz. As part of their branding, they developed the slogan “We Try Harder.” This new branding slogan was considered a triumphant success and was used for 50 years.
• Apple used to officially be called Apple Computers. However, this name didn’t reflect their business strategy, as Apple was moving into tablets, smart phones, and other gadgets. Thus, Apple changed their name in order to capture a bigger market share. Did it work? You bet it did, just think about the popularity of iPhones and iPads.

Point is branding is really a pretty big deal. If you want to dominate your industry, solidify your long-term growth, and cement customer loyalty, then you need to pay attention to branding.

How Build Your AU Can Help 

Build Your AU is designed to help you create strong personal brands based upon you and your story. I mentioned earlier that people want to know, like and trust someone before they make a buying decision.

Build Your AU helps establish that know, like and trust factor through emotional connection. People buy people and not necessarily the product or service. That principle can be applied to sole traders, small to large businesses or bigger concerns.

The principles I teach through the Build Your AU program are what every business no matter what size should employ. Now I could go on all day about how Build Your Au can help you build your brand, but I do value your time.

Therefore, I want you to see the process in action to fully understand what business branding is. I have created a video series which shows my members building their brands through the process I have created.

Once you have gone through the video series you will be able to see yourself within my members. How you can replicate their success with your own business and create your own strong personal brand.

Click the button below to register and during that series you will have the opportunity to start your own brand with the program. You landed on this webpage searching for information on what is business branding? I am confident that I have answered that question along with providing resources to create your own brand. Register below to start your own business branding process.

Helping you build your authenticity, authority, and audience. 

Trish Davies

Build Your AU