04 Jul 7 Branding Tools to Effectively Establish Your Brand
7 Branding Tools to Effectively Establish Your Brand
Do you know about all the current branding tools or ways of marketing your Brand today?
What do you think are the latest branding tools?
Every new brand needs to go through the initial stages of an establishment to make their target audience aware of the various products or services that they offer.
It is not as easy as it looks on paper.
The strategy is easy to be formulated in theory, but way harder to be executed correctly.
Every brand creates its branding and marketing strategy, but at times, what they do not understand is to not to go the same failed path as other brands.
The most important aspect of any branding or marketing strategy is to do in-depth research.
Research can be done on the following factors:
- Brand industry
- Target audience
- Area of establishment
- Potential consumers
- Expectations from the brand
- Quality of products or services
- Rules and regulations
Also, many other factors that will help the brand to avoid failures.
Have you implemented any branding tools yet?
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The Essential Tools of Branding
Many marketing and branding tools can be used in the brand establishment, such as:
1 – Audio Branding
The latest path to branding is audio branding.
Audio or ‘sonic’ Brandin enables a company to have a recognisable sound attached to its name.
It allows the user to know a brand without even seeing it.
It is not an easy task to accomplish because many factors are needed to be considered before giving your brand a sound of its own, such as:
- Type of brand
- Industry catered to
- Tone
- Lyrics
- Target audience
- Copyright issues
Is there a brand that you know from its sound?
Ring any bells?
You need to understand that if you give any particular sound to your brand, then your brand will be associated with it.
So, if it is a bad sound, it stays there forever.
The brand needs to answer the following questions before specifying a tone to it like:
- What does it brand stand for?
- What are the attractive differentiations that can lure the customers?
- What is the sound of the competitors and how is it different & unique?
The proprietary sound shall convey meaning about the mission of the brand to let the customers know why they shall choose you over others.
You need to check if the music is up to date or not because it might portray as the products or services are obsolete or offensive to any culture or caste.
The following brands are the best examples of audio branding:
- 20th Century Fox
- McDonalds
- Intel
- MGM
- Yahoo
- Nokia
Audio Branding can be used to compliment the visual representation.
It taps on two of the human senses and increases the chances of brand recognition.
The customers are just like us; they buy what they see and hear, and a catchy jingle could result in a significant improvement in the sales of the brand.
It gives the brand a chance to be remarkable and distinctive at every point of contact.
Audio branding goes far beyond jingles or licensing popular music; it gives an audio identity to the brand.
It is better than video branding because the customer does not need to see the name to know it is there; the brand is established in their mind.
Slogans and radio ads are part of audio branding!
2 – Video Branding Tools
After the invention of the camera and then the internet, video branding is the most used tool of branding because it allows the brand to express its objectives in the most subtle manner.
There is no limit to video branding because it accommodates audio as well as visual content, which enables more reception in the minds of the customers.
As mentioned above, video content is boundless and can be used for many purposes like the following:
- It allows the brand to showcase its products or services
- It acts as a platform to convey messages and values
- It can be used to communicate with the customers directly
- It can be used as tutorials for a more convenient use of products & services
- It helps the brand to tap into different genres of mindsets and capture all alike.
The most loved aspect of video branding is the fact that it can market what the brand wants, directly to the customers.
You can control the length, content and everything else according to the message that needs to be conveyed.
Television advertisements and web ads are part of video branding!
3 – Visual Branding Tools
Visual Branding is the logo design, poster designs, pamphlets and other visual-textual content that helps the brand to enable customers to identify it.
It is the first thing that catches the eye of the client and as it has fits the adage, “The first impression is the last impression”.
It means that it is important to have a good first impression so that the customers can identify the brand by looking at the logo design or the colour combinations used.
The following can express the above in a better fashion:
- When you see a big yellow ‘M’, the first thought that comes to the mind is McDonald’s.
- When you see a half-eaten apple, the first thought is Apple Inc.
- When you see a jaguar symbol, the first though is the Jaguar car company.
All these examples show how important it is for a brand to have eye-catching visuals and a slogan, to help the customers to identify them.
Every element that you ‘see’ of a brand is considered to be the visual representation, even the videos.
The fact that video branding is a different point here is because the viewers will understand the importance of logo design and other collateral, which help a brand in its initial stages.
The logo and slogan are considered to be the two most important elements of brand establishment and require maximum focus.
The name is recognised and accepted with its logo and slogan, especially in its initial stages.
Try to think of how many brands you identify with the help of just their logo design?
4 – Content Marketing tools for Branding
Content marketing is everything that a brand uses to express its objectives; from textual content to video content and audio content to visual content.
Everything that you see or hear about the brand is content, and if it is directed properly, it can be used to increase sales and establish the brand globally.
All of the above points are a part of content marketing.
If properly used; it can be beneficial for the brand to make its customers aware of the different products and services, exclusive sales and queries to enable a smooth consumer experience and a boost in sales.
There are many companies which offer website design and development or 360-degree digital marketing services like social media optimisation, PPC advertisements, website optimisation and SEO services.
Some companies offer affordable SEO packages which include SEO, SMO, PPC, website optimisation and reviews, to enable brands to utilise these services.
Do you understand the different parts of content marketing?
5 – Brand Activation
It is referred to as the live stalls at various locations, which allows the brand to communicate with the customers on a one-to-one basis i.e. live events.
It can be used to solve queries, share information about new products or services and promote the brand, as a whole.
It is a comprehensive branding tool, usually practised in malls and events, where the audience is the brand’s target audience.
Examples of activations are as follows:
- T-shirts & accessories outside concerts
- Book Expos
- Food stalls in college events & concerts
- Services’ stalls in corporate events
Ever visited a live booth and bought anything?
6 – Event Branding Tools
There is much hype created alongside events because of the scale that it gives to a brand.
Brands sponsor events to market their names and products to the masses with the help of event marketing.
It allows the customers to have a live entertaining experience and simultaneously be part of a particular brand or a group of businesses.
Events are of different types, such as:
- Concerts
- Festivals
- Corporate events
- Seminars
- Conferences
- Plays
- Parties
You can distribute your products at these events in live stalls, give them a taste of the brand and even share information about different products or services with the help of marketing materials.
The customers see the brand in a positive light because of the fun experience that they have in the event, which helps the brand to lure them in to boost sales and create its identity.
Have you been part of an event yourself?
7 – Word of Mouth Marketing Tools
Your brand is established when other people are talking (positively) about it.
Word of mouth promotion is considered to be one of the best and most useful forms of branding because it is more credible and the content goes viral on its own.
It costs negligible amount of money but can result in millions of dollars of sales.
All of the above points act as a catalyst, which later results in this form of promotion.
It can be directed to boost sales and increase brand awareness, but it is hard to initiate because it requires customers to like the name or its content genuinely and willfully share it on different platforms to communicate the brand’s message further.
There is no perfect tool to exploit and achieve quick brand establishment, but the combination of above tools help significantly with the process.
It is like a recipe; all elements are as important as each individually.
The perfect mixture gives the perfect result.
Formulate a Branding and Marketing strategy and try all now!
