What Is a Brand and What Is Branding?

A brand is a specific sign that denotes a unique product or service that belongs to a specific person - an individual or a legal entity.

This term first appeared in the Middle Ages. Then, workers in various workshops (leather goods, bakery products, etc.) began to mark their goods with special marks - these are the prototypes of modern logos.

The mass distribution of brands occurred in the 50s-70s of the twentieth century. It was then that businessmen faced a problem when a huge number of similar goods appeared on the market every day. Manufacturers lost significant amounts of money because consumers could not distinguish their products from those of their competitors. That's when the massive wars related to the branding of certain goods and services began. With the advent of brands, goods acquired a huge number of additional characteristics. Now, buyers were offered not only the basic characteristics of goods - composition and features, but also additional ones - who they would be if they bought this product, what place in society they would be able to occupy, what emotions they would receive after purchasing, and so on.

In the modern world, there is a whole generation of people who can rightly be called brand-dependent. That is why a detailed study of this issue and its implementation in any business is extremely important.

Why is branding needed?

Branding is a series of pre-planned and interconnected measures aimed at creating a positive image of a brand (in the initial stages). Branding can also be aimed at supporting and improving the market position of an existing brand. The main goal of branding is to create a unique, and most importantly, strong image of a particular brand.

Branding can include a lot of different marketing activities, such as:

• positioning + creation of a UTP (unique selling proposition);
• creation of unique graphic and verbal symbols - name, slogan, logo, jingle, corporate style, etc.;
• monitoring the market of competitors;
• selection of media that will broadcast the main idea of the brand;
• promotion.

In the process of long-term work, brand owners may encounter the following issues:

1. Brand extension is a measure used when creating new brand products. This applies to cases where an entrepreneur has decided to distribute a certain product or service to a wider target audience. Example: initially the brand entered the market with products only for men, but in the process of work it was decided to expand the range with products for other categories - women and children. This is called brand extension;
2. Brand extension is a manipulation that is used to conditionally expand the range, but this does not occur due to the appearance of any fundamentally new products, but due to the appearance of updated old products or services. Thus, the brand does not change either the target audience or the purpose of the product but improves the benefit for the consumer from the use or consumption of this product;
3. Creating a sub-brand is a series of measures that are used when creating similar products to existing ones. As a rule, they are distinguished either by special simplicity or, conversely, by special uniqueness;
4. Creating a brand family is the creation of a whole range of products that will be united by something special (technical characteristics, innovation, and so on). This method is used to save money since the promotion of all these products on the market occurs either according to the same scheme or at the same time. For example: a brand advertises several products of the same series in one commercial.

Brand for small businesses

In the last century, business owners believed that creating a brand and all the consequences was the destiny of only powerful corporations and that small organizations should be content with just their own name and nothing more. However, as practice has shown, this is not the case. Small companies should also pay attention to branding.

First of all, this is necessary to form a positive image and popularity in the market. Even if your company does not serve a million customers a year, but at least a couple of hundred or a thousand, this does not mean that you cannot have real fans. There is a misconception that branding is only advertising on central channels, the most expensive billboards, and with the most influential opinion leaders. No, in fact, branding is simply a product promotion measure, and its scale depends solely on the size of the business itself.

Developing a branding strategy for a small organization should definitely start with finding a unique selling proposition. Think about what you have that your competitors don't have. Then think about what things formed the basis of your business, and in general, why you started all this - this is exactly what your mission and core values are. Then this data needs to be correctly formulated and released to the masses. Your task is to make sure that your potential buyer learns, and most importantly, remembers something good about you and your company.