So, you’ve got a business and are ready to take your branding efforts online. The first question that often comes up is, “How do I approach branding?”
From our experience as a branding agency in Dubai, many people initially believe branding is just about:
- Logos, color schemes, and web design: You might wonder, “What should my logo be? What colors represent my business? How do I design my website?”
- Brand mentions, links, and social popularity: The assumption is that being visible online promotes brand recall.
- SERPs visibility and ad campaigns: You might think running ads and appearing in search results is all there is to it.
If any of these points resonate with you, you may view branding in a limited way. While these are important marketing tools, branding is something much deeper.
What’s the Difference Between Marketing and Branding?
Marketing includes processes and tools that promote your business— SEO, social media, PPC, and local search. These are techniques to communicate your message. Branding, however, is the culture, the voice, and the essence that guide all these processes. It’s the soul of your business.
A few common brand misconceptions that you should avoid include: Let’s clear up a few misconceptions we’ve noticed over the years:
Misconception #1: Marketing is branding is the positive equivalent of marketing is advertising. While things such as advertising or promotions are marketing communication instruments and reflect your brand, they are not your brand. Your brand is the representation of your personality, the message you are conveying, and the values that support it. It is the art of building and managing these defining primary characteristics.
Misconception #2: You own your brand and therefore have full authority over it. As the owner of a business, you create the structure and rules, but the customer is always right. Their perception defines your brand and this is why it is imperative to choose brand values strategically. It has always been their wish that customers should be able to come away with the right message.
Misconception #3: Branding as a business practice has a formula for ensuring that objectives are achieved in the practice. While online marketing has the possibility of measurement, there isn’t a concrete way of branding. Every business has its own identity. Although some strategies may prove effective with all brands, your branding can only require the best approach here and there.
Branding the Right Way: If you are a business owner in Dubai looking for your company’s soul, the branding agency we founded can assist you with that.
Here’s how we approach it:
- Establish Your Purpose Reflect with the questions; Why did I embark on this business? Continue asking the “why” question to get to the fundamental reason that underpins all aspects. For instance, the reason that Walt Disney is in existence is to make children happy—the fundamental objective is imprinted on every action.
- Your Style and Branding Next, determine your brand’s identity: What tone—polite, businesslike, or informal—will you adopt to address your customers? What kind of image do you want to promote? Being consistent in this personality is instrumental in developing a loyal customer base.
- Outline Your Values Some common questions that may help shift towards this frame of reference include: Who am I as a brand? Each enterprise has its values that determine its actions and development. Conveying these early on ensures that your team and customers know what your brand is all about.
- Define Your Culture That social environment you help create within your business is as genuine and unique to your brand as anything. Google, for instance, is an organization that fully embraces creativity and innovation as pillars, although they are not highlighted in HR policies.
- Communicate Your Brand Lastly, as the core of your brand emerges, we can assist in the development of a plan to convey your brand identity to your consumers. This ranges from selecting the right channels to use, the right message to communicate, and being consistent with brand principles when marketing.
Conclusion
Brand management is not only about marketing: It is the expression of your company. Being an established branding company in Dubai, we are here for you to give back your brand a top-notch visibility that supports all your efforts and keeps your audience engaged and loyal to your business. I should note that branding is a continuous process, and when properly implemented, it results in a customer base that is a brand’s advocate. It is high time that you have a company in Dubai that specializes in branding and let us help brand your company.
