Why Is This Important?

When you are new, you may be a bit confused about this brand-building stuff. To most of us just starting, ‘brand’ means big business and you could wonder what on earth it has to do with you making a few bucks online.

Well, just believe what I say –  no matter what you are selling, or how you are selling it – you need a brand if you want to have success.

Why is this so necessary?  Because, as a general rule, people buy a brand.

Who, when choosing a car, actually knows anything technical about what they are buying? Not many, that’s for sure. We mostly purchase from a familiar dealer, choosing a brand that we know and a model that we perceive will meet our needs. Speed – Porsche. Reliablility – Volvo or Ford. Low fuel consumption – a Bike.  😊

The key word is ‘perceive’. We cannot always know from personal experience exactly what the companies we deal with are like, but the perception is that they are largely honest, up-standing and interested in serving their customers the best way they can.

So the purpose of  branding is to ensure that your company will be perceived as being a great company to deal with, that you offer excellent value and that the experience you offer will be memorable for your customer.

Trust. Familiarity. Value.

How to Start Building a Brand

Ask yourself the question – why would anyone come to you to buy when they could go to any number of other marketers and buy exactly the same product?

Bonus offers aside how do you develop a relationship with people that will make them want to give you their business? How do you grow that feeling of trust and familiarity that makes them want to support you?

First, you must understand just what a brand is and what it encompasses. It is not just an attractive header on your web-site. Neither is it a logo and a catchy company name.

Your brand, above all is your mission statement – the ideal that drives you, that acts as a glue holding your company together propelling you forward into the future.

It will carry the message of what you stand for, your ethics, your aims and your authenticity. You could regard it as the ‘personality’ of your company.

It is partly founded on the answer to the all-important question that is constantly being asked in internet marketing.

WHY?

Why are you doing this?

Why do you do what you do?

Ultimately, if done well, it will encourage people not only to purchase a specific product, but to purchase it from you, not from a fellow marketer.

“What is brand? – The perceived emotional corporate image as a whole.”   Jacob Cass – Just Creative

Branding aims to establish a significant and differentiated presence in the market that attracts and retains loyal customers …  www.businessdictionary.com/definition/branding.html