How Crucial is Branding? - A Marketing Consultant’s Take

One thing that I am constantly reminding clients is this: if you have unclear or inconsistent branding, your marketing efforts will not yield positive results. As a marketing consultant, I believe that branding is one of the most important components of functional and result-driven marketing. In a world where consumers are overwhelmed with choices and messages, branding is what helps to make the distinctions and help people understand in order to make valuable decisions about products or services. Stand Out Against Competition exists in almost every market; with companies offering similar products or services. Prices can be similar, quality can be comparable, but what will stand out is a strong, reputable brand. Branding helps a company stand out, it allows for distinction in a market and it is what consumers will recognize and trust. Trust plays a very important role in driving decisions. Consumers are more likely to engage with a brand that they can trust and share similar beliefs with. This is why it is so important to maintain consistency across all branding efforts. Consumers should be able to instantly recognize the company behind a particular billboard, social media post, or advertisement. Visual elements such as colors, logos, images, overall layout, determines the “feel” of the message. This is what helps the audience to automatically associate the message with the brand. It is similar to the reason why we are given names. Your name is your brand, if you think about it. When you are talking with friends about high school classmates, and someone says, “oh do you recall our classmate, John Doe?”, automatically your brain will relate that name with something or some memory about the person, whether it be good or bad. Similarly, when we see a billboard from a sunscreen brand, we think about the message, we relate our feelings towards the brand, and our brain will automatically divert to the thought of “that is my favorite brand of sunscreen, I just remembered I need a refill." Consistency is especially important, in marketing consultancy and every message delivered will either become a strength or a weakness to the brand. Be sure to think about how important branding is when you are working on your next campaign!