A good brand will make or break your company. Here are five reasons why branding is important for your business:

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1. Branding sets the first impression

First impressions are everything, right?

The old rule of thumb is a first impression is made within the first seven seconds of meeting someone or seeing a website. That’s how long it takes for humans to form a judgment.

A study by Princeton psychologists found it takes only a tenth of a second for a person to judge if someone else is trustworthy or not. That’s for human faces, not brands, but whether it’s seven seconds or a tenth of a second, the point is you don’t have a lot of time. 

A professional, clean, aesthetically pleasing brand identity can communicate trustworthiness in much less than seven seconds.

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2. Branding allows for higher prices

Before you say, “A brand alone cannot justify charging high prices,” take a look at this.

Bottled water brand Acqua di Cristallo Tributo a Modigliani sells for £3,600 for a 750ml bottle. How on earth can they charge that much for water? It’s simple: they built their brand on that concept.
Here’s how the company justifies the price:
 

• The water is sourced from three different regions: France, Fiji, and Iceland.

• The packaging is beautiful and luxurious, designed by the world-renowned Fernando Altamirano, which makes the bottles a collectible item for design aficionados.

• Each bottle contains 24k gold.

• In some bottles, 5mg of gold is sprinkled into the water as well.

If you’re thinking £3,600 sounds like a lot for a bottle of water, would it surprise you to find out the company also sells one for £60,000? That one’s bottle is made of 100% solid 24k gold. 

The point is that brand is designed to be exclusionary. It’s not bottled water that’s going to sell at Asda for £3 a dozen. You’re not buying Acqua di Cristallo Tributo a Modigliani for hydration, you’re buying it as a status symbol. It works as a brand because if there’s anything rich people love the most, it’s unnecessarily expensive status symbols, right?

As long as there’s a market fit for your product, a well-targeted brand will allow you to charge whatever you please.

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3. Branding fuels customer loyalty

Why do people keep buying iPhones? Apple aficionados line up for days in advance of a product launch to be one of the first on the planet with the latest one. But why? 

It’s not because it’s the world’s best phone. There are several comparable and arguably better devices out there.

It’s less about the actual phone and more about the brand Apple has built. Apple as a whole has a cult following, but the iPhone has the strongest following of any Apple product. Everything in iOS has been designed with this intention.

Easy to use apps, a simple and modern design, a camera to make you feel like a pro photographer, and high-tech wizardry like Face ID. No fiddling with settings or crashing apps. A phone that’s beautiful, easy to use, and works: that’s the brand.

Once people use an iPhone, they’re much more likely to stick with it as they upgrade to newer models. The same can be said for those who prefer Android. Once you identify with one brand more than the other, you’ve developed loyalty. It would take quite a big event to make you switch after owning, say, three iPhones in a row, right?

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​4. Branding fosters a company culture

Branding does more for your company than sell products. It’s also a powerful recruitment and HR tool.
Company culture is a set of beliefs and values that all employees share. Your brand defines that. For an authentic brand, it needs to come from the inside out. Employees need to feel it in their everyday work lives and be proud to work there.

Why? Because employees talk. If your company says you value your people outwardly but inside your company is a mess of office politics, backstabbing, and low morale, customers are going to find out.

Let’s look at two examples, both companies that claim to value their employees as their biggest asset.

USA fashion retailer Forever 21 may be known for cheap-chic finds, but they’re also known as one of the worst companies to work for in America. They’ve been hit with several lawsuits from former employees, including a class action in 2012 for detaining employees for extra hours without overtime pay and searching their bags for stolen items. 

Alternately, Hilton has been ranked Fortune’s Best Company to Work for two years straight. The hotel giant has been actively working to improve employee benefits, including parental leave policies and stock purchase programs for all employees, from housekeepers to the C suite. CEO Chris Nassetta has purposefully done this, saying, “We try to care for our people in the right way so they will care for our customers.” How right he is!

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5. Branding boosts your marketing strategies

A cohesive and easily recognizable brand identity helps drive sales and marketing efforts. For everything from ad creative to social media posts, using visual elements your customers will recognize immediately makes everything flow seamlessly.

What are you more likely to remember? An ad that uses familiar colors and elementsfor a brand you’ve seen before, or something completely new and unrelated to your knowledge of the brand so far?

It comes down to trust, too. Customers trust your brand through repetition. Do they recognize you in a new ad you’re running? Boom. You’re much more likely to convert them. It all works together.
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“Branding is important because not only is it what makes a memorable impression on consumers but it allows your customers and clients to know what to expect from your company.” BrandingMag