Where does Branding Begin?

Most of the clients we meet starts with this question – when do I start seeing sales go up? How soon can I get leads? Why is the ROI not going up the way it should? From what we could gather from experience is that most clients believe that branding means having a logo, color schemes and website in place and all social media links are ready to go online and they also have all their promotional ad campaigns both online and offline ready. Well, this is a misconception because while these are perhaps the first step toward “branding”, these are all marketing collaterals to be used for “branding”.

So what is the difference between marketing and branding?

Marketing is a set of tools or processes used to promote your business and branding on the other hand, is what your company or personality is perceived by your target audience. For example, when you say my company is the best in the market, that becomes marketing and when someone else comes to you and says, I heard you are the best in the market that is branding.

Common misunderstanding about Branding

– Branding is not marketing, advertising, promotion or anything to that effect.

People, you need to stop confusing the social media space or the offline space to be a place where your company or product gets branded the instant you start promoting campaigns or advertising offers. You are literally pumping in money for all the wrong reasons! Yes, your company visibility increases, but to what effect?

– You are NOT the ultimate authority when it comes to your brand.

Your customers are the ones who ultimately define your brand. Their perception of your brand is what sticks with the people they influence. This makes it very serious as to how you should be selecting your brand values. Otherwise, your brand may be conceived the wrong way – or worse, you may end up without repeat customers

– There is NO formula for success when it comes to branding

Most of the clients we meet daily have this common misconception that just because one company succeeded, they believe theirs will too if they follow a similar branding exercise. This is so wrong! No two companies are alike. Just because a boutique became a mass success doesn’t mean you can start one today and expect it to reach the heights you so clearly envisioned in a short span of time. You need to understand the behavior and interests of your target audience clearly before expecting success.

Branding is not the same as marketing in a broader sense and where you stop marketing, branding begins. It forms the core of your marketing strategy. The most important thing to remember is that branding is not a one single action that you do before you set out to reach your business goals, it is an ongoing process and a daily process so that your audience will relate to you and the true success is when they act as your brand ambassadors.

Analyzing the evolving Trends from 2017 to 2018

2018 is here and the competition has already heated up! But not to worry, you can rise ahead of your competitors and see your search engine rankings climb. All you have to do is keep track of the trends. Kind of like your denim jeans.

Social media as we all know is the best tool to connect with and learn from consumers and industry leaders. It keeps
your brand alive; reaching to people you didn’t know existed and pad your wallet.

There are numerous trends and they all are constantly evolving; a lot can happen within 12 months. And In order to
understand the trends you have to analyze the evolution of these trends from the past. Looking back, In 2017 a whole
lot of changes have taken place in social media platforms.

We all have seen the difference between the paid and organic advertisements and its results. As 2017 passed us it can
be seen more and more that organic ads doesn’t create any more impacts as it used to before. Meaning from 2018 on,
to reap some results from your advertisements you have to invest more.So why has this change happened? More and more brands have realized the potential of social media marketing. As the number of contents increased from various brands, the paid contents tend to create more and more reach.

Talking about reach, have you noticed the huge impact videos generate on your marketing than texts and images
combined? Feeding content to the consumers has been easier and also more convincing through videos. In the year
2018 you will see that video marketing will prove to be even more important part of your content strategy than you
think.

Another trend that seems to generate more results is influential marketing. Social media has turned into an advice or
suggestion sharing platform and 74% of people turn to their networks to get advices before making purchases. Building trust among consumers consists of many elements. And what if someone you trust or someone who is popular suggest you a product or a service? Chances for you choosing that particular product or service will be higher.

Staying ahead of the social media marketing game is not getting any easier and trends are evolving day by day. But the promising results these platforms provide make it an inevitable marketing formula. So if you are ready to take your marketing game ahead of your competitors, give us a call, Klientas can get you on the path to success.