The Roles And Benefits Of Corporate Branding
Corporate branding is an incredibly effective way of communicating your entity to your target market. Fortifying your establishment's corporate brand will help to engage customers and create a considerably sophisticated brand identity.
At PicStudio, we have a wealth of experience working alongside corporate brands within the beauty sector (such as Dermalogica), and know exactly how to get your company's name out there. Setting up an organisation of any sort is a huge milestone, and we want to ensure you are adequately supported throughout your exciting journey.
We have curated this article to break down the key components of corporate branding, including the roles and benefits of this unique and effective marketing strategy.
What Does Corporate Branding Mean?
Corporate branding (also referred to as corporate identity) goes beyond marketing the specific products/services you sell. This strategy looks at the greater picture, combining a multitude of features (such as vision and design) in order to cohesively communicate your company's values, products, and services to customers.
This essentially means that you are constructing a story that reflects the culture and ethos of your establishment, enhancing your corporate individuality and distinguishing you from competitors.
What Makes Corporate Branding So Effective?
This marketing strategy goes beyond promoting your products and services. By communicating the core elements of your company's values and demonstrating consistent actions, you can tap into an emotion-focused marketing model which is guaranteed to connect with your existing customer base, to form brand loyalty, and attract new customers.
This is a step upward from the standard 'business-consumer' relationship, as it involves a slightly more personal and organic approach. Once your target audience has a clear sense of your establishment's values, you can build sustainable relationships with existing customers through increased customer resonance.
You can achieve this by portraying your company's principles while utilising relatable characteristics within your message.
For instance, using language that will facilitate admiration and/or inspiration can effectively draw in customers, illustrating why your corporation is worthy of their consumption. This will facilitate a strong corporate brand, which will additionally attract new loyal customers.
There are many ways of consolidating a substantial corporate identity. Here are 3 effective corporate branding constituents that can optimise the image of your beauty brand:
1. Aesthetic:
For customers to buy a beauty product, it must look beautiful. The design that you chose for your company will have major effects on your overall success. Consistently upholding an aesthetic that is unique, and accurately reflects your brand's identity, will streamline your overall image and encourage customers to connect with your organisation.
2. Efficacy:
Customers seeking beauty products and services will always want to see results. Ground your business's core values in result-driven products that promise customer satisfaction, so that you can establish a positive reputation, and become a go-to company for your customers' needs.
3. Honesty:
Honesty is particularly important for a successful beauty establishment because many existing companies use misleading and ambiguous language to deceive customers into making a purchase.
Aside from maintaining an excellent reputation, honesty will additionally uphold brand transparency, subsequently inspiring consumers to trust your company and confidently purchase your products/services.
How To Build A Corporate Brand
Now that you are familiar with all the ins and outs of what a corporate brand is, it is time you understand how to apply this marketing strategy to your organisation. Here are 4 steps that will help you to fortify a strong corporate brand.
1. Understand Your Brand
If you have an existing company and want to improve your overall image, it is important that you create a brand audit. Creating this audit will help you get to grips with brand management, give an insight into many aspects of your overall image, and help identify areas that require improvement. Here are a few steps to guide you:
Identify your unique selling proposition (USP)
Determine your strengths and weaknesses
Review the cohesiveness of your marketing platforms (i.e. website and social media)
Evaluate competitors to identify what makes them successful. Ask yourself: 'how can my brand be better?'
2. Get To Know Your Target Market
Effective branding begins with researching your target market. By familiarising with your consumer base, you can cater your image to their habitual wants and needs. This will support a steady flow of sales and ensure good branding.
3. Set Realistic Brand Goals
Good corporate branding involves setting attainable goals and being patient. You won't become a top 100 beauty brand overnight, but you might at some point in the future. Think of your goals as small steps towards a greater achievement. Once you accomplish these targets, you can move onto bigger ambitions and, one day, reach your dream goal.
4. Establish A Strategy And Develop Guidelines
Establishing a strategy will help your company move forward and begin building a stronger corporate brand. To ensure everyone within your establishment can adhere to the new brand image, create a set of guidelines. This will add structure and clear up uncertainties that employees may have regarding the new changes.
Developing guidelines will additionally maintain a consistent image and reinforce employees to effectively communicate your brand identity to customers.
The Benefits Of A Successful Corporate Brand
You are most likely beginning to get an idea of how successful corporate branding can reap many benefits for your company. We have shortlisted the considerable advantages that your company can experience from building a corporate brand.
Encourages Customer Loyalty
Forming a corporate identity is grounded in emotional and personal interactions between your company and consumers. This adds a 'human' touch, inviting customers to resonate with your entity, and thus, trust your products and services.
After reviewing all these benefits, you should be able to understand why creating a corporate brand is worthwhile.
Exposes Your Business To New Customers
A powerful corporate brand revolves around your company's reputation. Having a positive and harmonious image will provide your business with a sophisticated, trustworthy appearance which is likely to attract new customers and build your entity's consumer base.
Facilitates Market Share
As highlighted above, a stable corporate brand will increase your entity's customer base and encourage repeat purchases from loyal customers. This works in your organisation's favour as it will support and expand market share, allowing you to dominate and overtake competitors.
Before You Go...
If you’re looking for further guidance to ensure your brand stands out and to help you achieve your business goals, we kindly invite you to explore our strategy and branding services available at our boutique marketing agency, PicStudio.
If you are uncertain of what service you need, or if you have any general inquiries, feel free to get in touch.