A brand is more than a name and a logo.
It’s the total sum of all the experiences a customer has with your company. When you invest in your brand, you’re investing in everything from your advertising to your customer service.
In this guide, we’ll discuss why branding is important, and we’ll give you tips on how to create a successful branding strategy for your business.
We’ll also take a look at some case studies of brands that have succeeded and failed miserably, so you can learn from their mistakes!
What does Brand Investment Mean?
Brand investment means investing in the development of your brand’s identity, messaging, and strategy. This includes everything from developing a logo and website to creating promotional materials like flyers and brochures.
Brand investment also involves having a strong social media presence, engaging with customers on platforms like Facebook and Twitter, and using targeted advertising to reach potential customers.
Why is Brand Investment Important?
Brand investment is important for several reasons:
Create Brand Recognition
Brand recognition refers to how well customers are able to recognize your brand from others. Investing in your brand can help you stand out from the competition and make it easier for customers to identify and remember your business.
When they see your logo or hear your name, they’ll have an idea of what you offer and the kind of experience they can expect.
Build Brand Loyalty
When people trust and feel an emotional connection to a brand, they become loyal customers who purchase more often and spread positive word-of-mouth. This not only helps your business but also gives you an edge over competitors who may be offering similar products and services.
Increase Profitability
As customers become more familiar with your brand, they’re more likely to buy from you rather than competitors. Some businesses invest in branding with profits as the only focus.
In addition, strong branding can lead to more repeat purchases and referrals. This can all add up to increased profits for your business.
Stand Out from Competitors
With so much competition, it’s important to stand out from the crowd. Investing in your brand can help you create a unique identity that customers will recognize and want to connect with and thereby stand out from competition. Having a good brand can also help you attract more investors and create a larger pool of potential customers.
Branding: Where to Invest?
Now that you understand why investing in branding is important, let’s talk about where to invest.
Here are some key areas to consider:
Logo Design
A logo is an essential part of your brand identity, so it’s important to invest in designing a logo that stands out and accurately reflects the personality and values of your company. This could include hiring a designer or using a logo maker service.
Website Design
Your website is often the first impression customers have of your business, so having an attractive and easy-to-navigate site is essential. Invest in web design to create an eye-catching site that tells customers who you are and what you do.
Personal Branding
Personal branding is all about creating a strong identity and message for yourself as an individual. This can involve creating a website, building a presence on social media, writing guest blog posts, or anything else that puts your name out there.
Social Media
Having a presence on social media allows you to connect with customers and build relationships with them. Invest in creating effective posts, ads, and campaigns that will engage your followers and turn them into loyal customers.
These are just a few areas where you should consider investing when it comes to branding.
How to Create a Brand Investment Strategy
Creating an effective brand investment strategy requires research, planning, and budget allocation.
Here are some steps to get started:
Analyse Your Market
Gather data about your market, target audience, and competitors to better understand how your brand fits in. This will help you plan the best ways to reach and engage customers with your brand.
Set Goals
Define what success looks like for your business and establish goals that you want to achieve. This will help guide your decisions when investing in branding.
For example, if you want to drive traffic into your website, you might focus well on web design.
Determine a Budget
Determine how much you can realistically invest in branding without compromising other areas of your business.
Create spending limits for different areas such as logo design, web design, etc. This will help you choose where to focus your efforts and ensure that each pound is being spent wisely.
Develop Brand Guidelines
Developing brand guidelines will help ensure that all of your branding efforts are consistent and on-brand. This includes everything from the logo, colours, and fonts you use to the voice you communicate in.
Stick to the Brand Colours
To create a cohesive branding strategy, you should use the same colours throughout your website and marketing materials. This will help customers quickly recognize your brand and create a sense of familiarity. You can even use those colours within your office and store to help create a consistent look and feel.
Measure Results
Make sure you measure the results of your branding efforts to understand what works and what doesn’t. This will help you refine your strategy, adjust budgets, and make necessary changes going forward.
You can calculate the brand value, ROI, and other metrics to get a better understanding of how your branding strategy is performing.
By following these steps and investing in the right areas, you can create an effective brand investment strategy that will help your business grow and thrive.
Brand Investment: Learning from Examples
Studying successful brands can help you learn from their successes and mistakes.
Here are two brands that have used effective branding strategies:
Coca Cola: How They Revolutionised the Branding Industry
Coca-Cola has long been one of the most recognizable brands in the world. The company has implemented some brilliant branding strategies, such as creating slogans and logos that are instantly recognizable.
They have also put a focus on creating content that resonates with their target audience, from commercials to videos and more.
Coca Cola is a great example of investing in the right areas to create a strong, recognizable brand. Through effective advertising and marketing campaigns, they have successfully launched their products in over 200 countries worldwide. They regularly invest in research and development to improve their product offerings, while also leveraging social media, influencers, and other forms of digital marketing to keep their brand top of mind.
As Coca Cola is already popular, their strategy does not focus on creating awareness, but rather deepening the connection with current customers with their multi-sensory branding experience.
Deliveroo: Brand Investment and Marketing Failures
Deliveroo is a food delivery service that has struggled to meet ROI targets in its branding investments. The company has implemented numerous campaigns, ranging from television to digital, but those have not yielded the desired results.
While Deliveroo had spent £136.7m in 2020 for marketing, it reported £239.2m spending in 2021. Even then, the company couldn’t meet the ROI consistently in Q2 and Q3 2021 and 2022. Deliveroo’s focus rests on long-term growth which isn’t benefiting them as much in the short-term.
The company then took a step back and re-evaluated their branding and marketing strategy in 2022, which led to struggles with customer acquisition and retention. They could focus more on establishing an emotional connection with their customers through creative campaigns that resonate with them, instead of just delivering products to them.
Overall, the company seems to have learnt from its mistakes and is now trying to find a middle ground between reducing marketing spend and maintaining customer numbers.
The failed branding strategy of Deliveroo is in stark contrast to Coca Cola’s success story, showing that investing heavily in the wrong areas or without a well-thought-out plan can be detrimental to your brand’s growth.
Conclusion
Investing in branding is essential for businesses of all sizes and can lead to increased customer engagement, more sales, and increased profits.
Creating an effective brand investment strategy is one of the most important steps in building a successful business. By understanding your goals, setting budgets, and measuring results, you can ensure that every dollar you invest in branding is used wisely.
Additionally, by studying the successes and failures of other brands, you can learn from their experiences and create a more effective strategy for your business.
With the right strategy in place, you can ensure that each pound spent is making an impact and creating success for your business.
Good luck!
