Does your product really sell itself?

Hey Guy’s and Gal’s, in today’s post we’re going to focus on branding and what it can do for your business.

Branding is the starting point of your marketing plan and should always go together with your business strategy. Branding should be done so that it altogether meets both the needs and expectations of customers and the objectives of the business.

Branding lays down the groundwork for your entire business. Your brand identity ultimately develops in line with what people think of you. Yet many businesses skip the process of branding, relying mainly on the product or service to sell itself.

Does your product really sell itself? A strong brand versus a strong product, which is most important? I think that the product is merely one component out of several other parts that are connected to your brand identity. The brand is everything associated with the product that influences the choosing and buying decisions of customers. Branding takes the product, a symbol that customers associate to your business, and then sets customers’ mind towards a think-choose process.

Let’s take my business for example. Yes, I am selling website design services, but more than that I am bringing people together, helping people make that most important business decision, and taking their business from the offline world to the online arena. That’s how I get branded and that’s what my business stands for. The strength of my brand is built upon a strong service. My customers find value in the functional use of the services that I provide, plus the emotional experience of it having touched their life in some way.

It’s a great identity and recall factor that gets rooted in their mind for life that is way more appealing than chasing and convincing so that the next time they need a new website design or when someone they know needs a custom twitter background, they’ll think about me, buy from me again and refer other people to buy from me.

The related significance of the product is greatly influential to my overall brand identity. With so many similar services out in the market fighting for customer attention, companies see brand identity as their only opportunity to stand out since consumers regard brand names as their point of comparison against competing products.

I think that to go through the process of building your brand identity without a strong product is a waste of time. A strong product can help make a strong brand and a strong brand can help push a new product.

Branding is what gives the long-term and considerable effect to your entire business. A product’s only strong point is if it meets the number one consumer requirement of usability. It remains a strong product only as long as consumers have need or want of it. When a better product comes along and surpasses your strong product and it becomes outdated, needless to say, the decline of that product will impact your bottom line.

A strong brand, however, can influence the direction and growth of your business. With a strong brand your business can launch new product line-ups or embark on a totally different industry, secured in the backing of a loyal customer base.

Until next time, have a wonderful day.

Tim