We often see small businesses not enjoying the opportunities that strong brands do because of a lack of branding. People believe that branding is relevant and important for large businesses only such as Apple, Adidas, TP-Link, KFC, etc, who have to cater to the needs of customers on a national or international level but that isn’t true. Branding is just as important for small businesses as it is for large businesses.
Contrary to what many might think or say, branding is very important, and bear in mind that branding is much more than just a logo. Your branding defines your brand and it should be a summary of your brand experience and what the customers might expect from your products and services. Small businesses should give special importance to branding instead of neglecting it due to the reasons mentioned below:
Brand Recognition
The most obvious reason why small businesses should take branding seriously is that it gives recognition to your business and makes your company more recognizable among the public. Branding helps to establish a distinct identity in the market and it allows a business to differentiate itself from its competitors and build a unique image in the minds of consumers.
This is very important to increase sales as strong branding makes it easier for consumers to remember and recognize a particular company when they see it. Moreover, with the help of strong branding, small businesses can demand a higher price for their products and services and customers would be willing to pay the higher price since strong branding gives a perception that products and services are of higher quality.
Brand Credibility
Strong branding is also important to build trust and credibility with your customers. For any small business to become successful, it needs to build trust and credibility with its customers so that they are more likely to do repeat business as they consider that company trustworthy.
This perception in the mind of consumers that a particular brand is trustworthy can be developed with the help of strong branding by communicating the values and objectives of your business and what you hope to provide to your customers. Since small businesses have only limited resources to build awareness and credibility among consumers, strong branding is one of the few options that small businesses have to build credibility.
Loyal Customer Base
Having loyal customers is very important for small businesses. For large companies and brands, having loyal customers is not a big deal since they are already famous and a huge number of people are already buying their products and services but for small businesses, loyal customers make a huge difference. Strong branding helps small businesses create a loyal customer base which increases brand sales and awareness.
Strong branding creates an emotional connection with customers which increases brand loyalty. When consumers have an emotional attachment to a particular brand, they are most likely to be loyal customers and do repeat business. In addition, they will also spread the word about the brand and recommend the brand to others. This thing is very important for small businesses as it gives them free-of-cost advertisement in the form of word-of-mouth marketing.
Originality
Strong branding also gives the perception of originality to consumers. There are multiple small businesses in every city around the world offering similar products. Even if a business is offering a unique product that none of the small businesses in the area offer, it will still have to face a lot of competition.
So if any small business wants to stand out from the competition and attract more customers, it will have to work on strong branding rather than just a logo. An example of strong branding contributing to the originality of the brand is that of Lpb Piso WiFi, which is a small business in the Philippines that became famous all around the company because of its unique products and strong branding.
Impression Of Confidence
Strong branding gives the impression that you and your business are confident in what you do. This impression is very important because if people see that you are confident in what you do, they will trust you and your expertise over other brands. Moreover, this impression of confidence also makes it easier for you to introduce new products or services since consumers will be actually taking your new products and services seriously due to strong branding and the impression of confidence and expertise.