Improving the recognition of your brand and increasing its awareness helps in building credibility with customers and it also assists the sales force in your business to close the deal. Corporate branding and the demand generation are inseparable especially for companies that are in the growth phase.
Below are three top reasons that a design agency in Hampshire suggests as to why business owners and company stakeholders should invest in brand marketing.
1. Marketing a Brand Helps in Building Credibility
Research has shown that customers focus on buying products from companies that they know and trust. A good example is Amazon, Starbucks, Apple and also B2B firms like General Electric and Intel. Today, the best way to build a competitive edge over competitors is to have brand credibility.
Whether you are a new business or an expanding enterprise, the marketing heads in your company should focus on positioning your brand as a market leader. To do this, they can leverage the profiles of the business founders or create a positive brand perception and influence customer behaviour.
As the face of the firm, the CEOs of the company play a huge role in building and strengthening the credibility of a firm. Ideally, marketers should position the CEOs to be seen as thought leaders. Employees on the other hand should be tasked with maintain the reputation of the brand in the industry through their daily interactions with prospective and existing customers.
It is important to keep in mind that the reputation and credibility of a brand is very fragile. The market is replete with examples of this such as when Uber was accused of gender bias and sexual harassment while United Airlines was accused of mistreating a passenger by yanking them out of a seat because of a dead puppy. Recovering from brand damage is expensive and can be scandalous. However, if you have credibility in the industry, you can recover from a crisis by fixing any issues fast through being transparent and empathetic to those that suffered.
2. Marketing a Brand Helps Attract Investors
Business owners and managers are always seeking investors who can support the growth or exit strategies of their enterprises. Before investing in a firm, investors usually look at the company as a whole and not just the products that the firm offers. They usually consider the industry reputation of a firm, the founders, the manager and the financial performance of an enterprise before deciding whether to invest in an enterprise.
According to Barbara Clarke – Angel Investor, co-founder and, principal at Impact Seat, investors usually ask themselves if they are looking for a product or a firm. She opines that a brand needs to be bigger than the product that is being offered and as such, companies need to be deeper than just offering a product or a solution.
According to Barbara, one of the biggest mistakes that start-ups male is that they focus more on the product that they are offering and not the problem that they are trying to solve. She says that since start-ups need to pivot at one point, a business brand that is not built on offering a solution to a problem cannot be able to manoeuvre well in the market.
Barbara has a great point. Having helped may start-ups change their tact and rebrand for different reasons; it is imperative to invest in a corporate brand. The brand in question should be one that consumers can believe in and one that is headed by leadership that consumers can trust.
It is important to note that a brand is like a home. The more you invest in making it look great, the bigger the asking price should you decide to sell it. Similarly, the more you invest in a company brand, the bigger the equity.
3. Brand Marketing Encourages Engagement with Consumers
In the digital era that we live in today, the sale of B2B products is empowered by consumers. Today, it is not only the CIOs who make the purchase decisions. Consumers have also changed how businesses interact with their vendors.
According to the analyst company Forrester, 90 % of businesses first do a search prior to making a purchase. 74% of companies do some online research before purchasing any items from vendors offline.
Research has also shown that most of the customers who make B2B purchases first go through between 50% to 60% of the consumer journey before talking to their suppliers. According to David Krakauker – Director of digital marketing & consumer experience at Analog Devices, by first going through the consumer journey, it is too late for business to change their purchase decisions though they engage with their clients immediately.
David also adds that by reading the digital language of consumers, business owners are in a better position to serve their clients since they are able to provide relevant content. This usually improves the customer experience while at the same allowing the sales force in a company to have a bigger influence in the purchase decisions of customers.
Marketing professionals, therefore, have to create strategies that educate and engage customers as opposed to ‘’selling’’. The content created should be interesting and optimized for faster and bigger digital discovery.