Branding is the most important element for a company because it introduces the company to consumers through its processes.
This is more of a strategy so that people can quickly identify and understand the company, product or service. The brand gives people reasons to choose yours over competitors.
Think about Aquafina; we instantly know the product, service type, taste and even how it looks!
Every water brand is defined by its USPs. Because any product that has been launched can be duplicated or copied. But brands keep all the services or products different from each other.
The product sold is water, but in order to convince people to purchase a particular water, companies developed different water brands, such as Evian, Perrier, Fiji or Volvic. And each one of these brands provides a different meaning to the product water:
– Evian makes you feel young
– Perrier is refreshing, bubbly and sexy
– Fiji Water is pure, healthy and natural
…and so on.
Since we have learned about what branding is, let’s focus on the stages of branding.
Brand Stages
Branding can be defined with four stages in total, to be precise. These are:
1. Research
2. Strategy
3. Design 4. Implementation
Research: By listening, we already know that to create a nice brand impression, we need to gather information and analyze the facts and figures about the industry, business structure, competitors, target audience, our own design and brand voice.
Strategy: Now this is the second base, which truly depends on the research, which means great research defines the best strategies to build. In this phase, we focus on the consolidation of values, vision for the future and business goals to sustain in the long run.
Design: Without design, you wouldn’t be able to deliver the strategy. The design phase is what translates brand values into practical solutions, such as a memorable and meaningful visual brand identity. As part of the branding process, design’s main role is to formulate the visual identity but it often goes beyond that. Design thinking can be applied to many areas of your business to improve services, products and workflows.
Implementation: The brand identity has just been revealed to the world;. Now is the moment to execute, for example, in which channel we are going to render the service. Implementation can be in many forms—maybe a website, Facebook page, Instagram, business card or just some service or product-based videos uploaded to YouTube.
Importance of Branding Process
The purpose of branding is to strike the right balance between information and intuition. The whole process is very rigorous and lengthy in research, strategy building, connected design and implementation. But overindulging in research and strategy building only creates a brand that sounds hollow and empty, which means a lack of personality.
To set a brand, how long may it take?
In the world of business, everything tends to happen quickly and there is an expectation for branding to be the same and deliver quick fixes. Branding takes time. A dream project will flow smoothly and create the brand positioning and visual identity within weeks, but this is a very rare occurrence. It typically takes a couple of months to do the necessary research and define the strategy, and that is only the foundation. From there, all we need is to agree on design solutions and an implementation plan, then continue to nurture the brand and invest in its growth for years to come. Trying to rush through everything will not produce the outcomes we are looking for, so if the company is serious about wanting to improve the business’s performance through branding, be prepared to give this endeavor the time and commitment it needs to succeed.
**Are you curious to know about PriyoShop’s branding process? Then, keep an eye on us.**