What is Your Brand Saying About You?
Updated: Oct 17, 2021
In its simplest form, a brand is a visual image or symbol. Best known as a logo, it can be instantly recognised and identified by its design and colour and is often accompanied by a name, letters or sometimes a set of words.
Here are a few of the most common terms used when discussing 'brands'
The impression a brand makes on consumers is called ‘brand image’.
How well-known - is called 'brand recognition'.
How easily remembered - is called ‘brand recall’.
What makes up the image - is called ‘brand identity’.
Sales and marketing experts know that brands have the power to ignite emotions, to generate trust, instil confidence and they can even imply a level of quality. Some have successfully integrated their brands into our lives such that they influence the decisions we make each day. Take for example a branded child care centre - if trusted and respected .... their opinion and advice on other related issues can make a difference i.e. the purchase of toys and games for home, how & where to host children's birthday parties and the children's pillows you buy.
Consumers across the globe are embracing brands like never before and some are so passionate about ‘their’ brand that they are obsessed with it. It’s a phenomenon that's amplified with ‘Gen Y’. They are not just ‘consumers of brands’ they are ‘consumed by them’. It’s as if they left the womb covered with labels and can’t survive without them. To this generation, brands provide them with identity, give them confidence and attitude. Brands allow them to be recognised, provide inclusion and in some cases, give meaning to their lives.
But, the influence of brands is not limited to social norms and behaviour, they have an enormous commercial impact as well.
As a sales and marketing experts, we can categorically say that selling a well-known and well recognised brand makes good business sense. By doing so you can reduces the time it takes consumers to make a buying decision. But it doesn’t stop there - it also reduces the effort and resources you need to invest to convince or motivate consumers to buy. Therefore, strong brands facilitate faster and more cost efficient sales for a business.
In a world of overwhelming choice, brands increase sales efficiency and they do so by communicating something about the product/service they represent. A brand logo is a communication symbol, and it's communicating 24/7.