You’ve probably already heard a lot about how important branding is for your business. However, it can be hard to track the immediate ROI on a new brand identity, making people hesitant to make that initial investment. But don’t be fooled! Just because it’s not as easy to track ROI in comparison to something like marketing campaigns, does not mean that the value isn't there. Even though it’s more difficult to quickly see the profit your branding is bringing you, it’s important to understand that strong branding will ultimately increase your conversions, allow you to drive higher margins, create raving fans, and make it easier for current customers to come back and refer their friends.
Of course, pricing power is one of the biggest ROI of branding. Warren Buffet says, “the single most important decision in evaluating a business is pricing power. If you’ve got the power to raise prices without losing business to a competitor, you’ve got a very good business.”
While branding is important to your business and is usually going to bring you a good, sustainable ROI over time, there are different things to consider to get the most ROI out of your brand.
Tailor your brand to your ideal customer
When creating your brand, it’s easy to get stuck in what you think your brand should be. As the owner (or someone who works deeply with your organization) your opinion on brand values, aesthetics, etc. should certainly be considered. But the most important aspect to consider when working on your branding is what represents your company and what will attract your ideal customer or client. Clear brand messaging that is aligned with your visual brand identity equals a cohesive and impactful brand perception.
The partial press release of one of our clients (The Toffee Store) below is a great example of clarified, relevant messaging combined with a new visual brand to appeal directly to her ideal customers: People looking to send the perfect gift. And lucky for us, ROI is not ALWAYS hard to track, as this client reported doubled revenue in the corporate gifting segment of her business within the first month of rebrand & new website launch. Now THAT is ROI.
Use your brand consistently across ALL customer Touchpoints
Brand consistency is a pattern of expression that influences the perception of people about your company. If your messaging is consistent whether via design, words, offerings, or perspective, then your branding will become consistent too. Your brand needs to build awareness along with developing trust and loyalty with customers.
You need to build certain standards for brand consistency, be it offline or online. Get in the habit of applying excellence across all customer touchpoints, so that you make every brand moment count. Customers interacting with your brand should experience all the promises and values of it at all times.
Have you heard of the rule of 7? They used to say that it takes 7 times of seeing the same marketing image or message before the brain would remember it. However, in today’s fast paced world, where digital noise abounds, psychologists now say it takes about 15 times for your brand to embed itself in the brain and be remembered! If you allow your brand to show up different every time, that is like starting over in their brain recognition! There are many ways to begin improving your brand consistency, but insuring that you and your team have (and use) custom Brand Guidelines is one of the first steps that we recommend here at Design by Jo.
Create raving fans with a strong brand
A strong brand can bring you and your audience together and create raving fans of your brand. A study by Millward Brown that analyzed consumer habits states that strong brands capture three times the sales volume of weak brands (on average). It also showed that strong brands were able to charge a 13% higher price over weak brands. Your brand is a powerful way to connect with your audience and attract more customers who are willing to pay more because of your brand. This alone should not be overlooked or underestimated.
Double down on emotions
Using emotions to connect with your customers will also increase your brand’s ROI. We all know that marketing is often tailored to the emotions of the people they’re trying to reach. This means evoking certain emotions within your brand that will get consumers to be more attracted to or more likely to gravitate towards your brand.
In fact, neuroscientist Antonio Damasio has found in his studies that people make their decisions mostly based on emotion, not logic. So when someone is making a purchasing decision their first instinct is based on emotion and then they go in for the logic. If your audience feels connected to your brand, they’re more likely to think of you first when considering a product or service. It’s not until after they use their emotion that they will start to think of pricing, features, etc. which are the things we think are number one in our consumer’s minds. Simply put, a strong brand that leaves a lasting impression and evokes a certain emotion more easily engages their audience leading to better conversions.
While the ROI of your brand can be hard to track in a simple, straight line, branding is crucial for any business.