Summary - What are the benefits of a strong brand?
- Increases brand recognition
- Improves customer loyalty to your brand
- Positive word of mouth marketing
- Higher advertising effectiveness on customers
- Lower price sensitivity
- More applicants that want to work for your brand
- Engaged employees who are proud to work at your company
Building a strong brand is essential for any business looking to establish a solid reputation and stand out from the competition.
It can help you build trust with customers, increase your market share, and drive sales. A strong brand can also improve your company's overall value, attract top talent, and create a sense of unity among your employees.
In this article, we'll explore seven major benefits of having a strong brand and explain why it's crucial for your business's success. Whether you're a small startup or an established enterprise, understanding the value of branding can take your business to the next level.
1. Increases brand recognition
“Oh, I know that brand!”
Brand recognition is how well your target audience, and potential customers, can recall your company’s brand and identify your products. It’s an indicator of how well your audience differentiates your product from those of competitors. Take Starbucks, for example. Even if you don’t drink their coffee, you probably recognize their brand. Their café has a glass case for sandwiches and cake pops, with an open bottom for expensive bottled water and apple juice boxes for kids. The café interior is a bit dark and dramatic. The logo on their coffee cup is some sort of white and green woman in a circle. All to say, you wouldn’t walk into a Starbucks and mistake it for any other café.
You might also realize that we didn’t describe a particular Starbucks. That description fits any and all Starbucks cafés. Because brand recognition is built over time and maintains consistency across all channels, that means consistency in logos, colors, fonts, brand messaging, and other stylizations. Maintaining consistency helps build recognition. In a study by Statista, a third of respondents said that consistency substantially contributed to their company’s revenue (20% or more).
When customers are in the brand recognition stage, which comes after the brand awareness stage, they are “aware that your brand exists, and while they still might not be ready to buy from you, they recognize who you are based on some of your branding components,” says Forbes. Use consistent branding to make sure all your brand’s components are recognizable on any medium.
2. Improves customer loyalty to your brand
“I like everything they do”
Loyal customers generally spend more money on your product. Research shows that 57% of customers spend more money on brands they’re loyal to. Loyal customers tend to be repeat customers, too. They look forward to your next product release and follow you for product and company updates.
Customer loyalty is the natural effect of a continuously positive emotional experience, satisfaction with your products, and the perceived value of a strong brand. It’s based on an individual’s personal experience with a company. Loyal customers generally perceive your product as being better than that of any other brand. Both Apple and Microsoft have a large following, and both companies’ customers perceive their respective favorite brands as being better than the other. Neither is right or wrong – it’s how they perceive the brands that really matters.
A strong brand with a loyal following is one that builds a consistently positive customer experience. Of the customers surveyed who had a “very good” experience with a brand, 94% are more likely to purchase again; and of the customers who had a “good” experience, 83% are more likely to purchase again. A “good experience” means that the customer was happy overall with the service and product.
Two of the biggest motivating factors for customers to stay loyal to a brand are good customer service and products that work for them. A strong brand continuously works on improving the customer experience and anticipates customer needs with its products.
3. Positive word of mouth marketing
“Did you hear about this? It’s amazing”
When your brand tells a story that people want to hear, they’ll repeat it to friends, family, and strangers at the bus stop. They’re your brand ambassadors. Word-of-mouth advertising is social proof that your brand is credible. According to Sprout Social, word-of-mouth advertising “can improve the overall impact of your marketing campaigns by up to 54%.”
Strong brands with effective word-of-mouth advertising produce high-quality products that back up any promises they claim. For example, LL Bean promises durable outdoor clothing. But it doesn't just say it has durable clothing – its products back up those claims, which we can see in product reviews on the website and social media, as well as in LL Bean's loyal repeat customers.
When you have high-quality products that other people have tried and liked or used successfully, your happy customers will share that with everyone they know.
4. Higher advertising effectiveness on customers
“They’re showing something new”
Advertising effectiveness refers to the measure of how likely it is that your customer will purchase your product after seeing your advertisement. The higher your advertising effectiveness is, the more likely your customer is to purchase your product.
Any advertisements that originate from you – the ‘strong brand’ – will be met with curiosity and reliance. Think about the strongest brands you know and how you feel when a new product comes out. When Apple releases its newest iPhone, are you curious about the new features? Most of us are!
When your brand is well established, and the products are reliable, new product releases and promotions will make a strong impact on your customers. Your brand – and its advertising – can more effectively spark curiosity and excitement from your customers.
5. Lower price sensitivity
“I need this, no matter what”
Price sensitivity is a term that describes how heavily the cost of your product weighs on your target market’s willingness to buy it. The less it weighs on their decision, the better; it means they like your brand well enough to give less weight to price. Customers with lower price sensitivity have most likely been satisfied with a product they've bought from you or have a positive emotional connection to your brand.
The power of a strong brand gives you the ability to raise prices. Why? Because you’ve become great at what you do. It’s not something that you can change overnight, but over time you can build a loyal following to your brand and lower price sensitivity.
6. More applicants that want to work for your brand
“Working for this brand must be pretty darn awesome”
When an applicant sees a company that appears to have their head in the game, they’re likely to be interested. Everyone wants to have strong, interesting brands in their curriculum vitae. And, with a larger applicant pool generally comes a larger selection of candidates that are suited for your company.
When your brand is strong, candidates will be more interested in pursuing a position with your company compared to others. Your brand has a unique employee value proposition: something that only your company can offer its employees. If your brand has incentives and benefits that other brands don’t have, more people are likely to want a job at your company.
7. Engaged employees who are proud to work at your company
“We have a cool thing going”
You want your employees to be happy where they work, and with the work your company does. Happy employees prove to be more engaged, and engaged employees stay at companies longer, are more productive, and are 21% more profitable. Engaged employees are very valuable to your company.
When your brand is a strong one, your employees feel proud of what they’ve helped your company achieve. It brings them joy in life and in work; this is how you get them to feel more engaged with your brand.
A strong brand invests in the careers and success of its people, which helps keep employees engaged. Some of the strongest brands are increasing employee motivation by putting more focus on culture and a positive work environment. A positive culture and environment can help contribute to happy employees who feel engaged with your brand.
Brands are probably the most powerful and versatile business tool ever invented
Creating a strong brand is difficult. But with branding becoming evermore crucial for organizations to not only survive – but to stick out of the deafening noise that is seven billion people wanting to be heard – the arguments for strengthening your brand are overwhelming. And a brand management platform can help you strengthen and grow your brand.
