It is universally known that branding plays a huge role in the growth of any business. But what exactly are you branding? What are the types of branding?
Do you specialize in a single product, such as handmade quilts or rubber ducks dressed in tuxedos? Are you a real estate developer with active projects in 18 cities?
To put it another way, how do you know which type of branding is best for your company? In the same way that there are various types of logos to use for a business, there are different branding strategies a business can employ to make its mark on the corporate world.
To assist you in making the types of decisions required to create a marketable brand, we've broken down the various types of branding available.
Corporate branding, one of the more reputation-focused types of branding, is concerned with making a cultivated name for an entire corporation. People will associate the organization's name with a promise - that they stand behind the services they provide and have a proven track record of success.
Since these companies can rely on brand name recognition, good corporate types of branding have long-term effects; customers automatically trust new products when they are associated with a brand they already recognize.
This usually refers to branding for an individual rather than branding for an entire business. Personal branding is essential for celebrities, politicians, and even digital marketers who want to maintain a positive public image (usually because it benefits them in their career to be endorsed).
Social media is a powerful tool for developing a personal type of branding because it allows you to reach a large audience while "speaking" from an individual platform. Entrepreneurs Tony Robbins and Neil Patel are great examples of personal branding done right; each has invested heavily in his online presence and established himself as an expert in his respective field.
Have you ever noticed how the word 'Kleenex' has become synonymous with 'tissues'? This is because the product has attained the pinnacle of product branding success - the type of branding that causes consumers to choose one product over another solely based on the brand
. You'll frequently notice logos or colors on specific items that stand out to you because you've learned to associate the two as a result of effective product branding.
Read Also: What Is Brand Strategy & How Does it Related To Advertising?
This type of branding is ideal for those in the tourism industry. Geographical branding emphasizes the distinct characteristics of a specific area or region as the selling point of a particular location and why you should visit.
Countries frequently claim a type of food as their own or extol the region's unique history. (Consider the Egyptian pyramids or Greek moussaka.) Also, areas of the world attempting to change their reputation can experiment with geographical branding; the city of Amsterdam, for example, did an excellent job of this with their "I Amsterdam" rebrand, shifting the focus away from its Red Light District and onto the city's cultural diversity.
This type of branding, also known as "internet branding," refers to how you position your company (or yourself) online. This could include creating a website, establishing a social media presence, or publishing a blog - anything that occurs on the internet in your name.
As the name implies, this refers to branding outside the internet. Offline branding necessitates a combination of good design and outgoing spokespeople to represent your brand, from handing out business cards to setting up sit-down lunches with desired clients or leads.
This is the point at which branding and collaboration collide. Co-branding occurs when the exact product links two or more company brands. For example, Uber and Spotify collaborated on the "soundtrack for your ride" campaign, which aimed to improve the ride-sharing experience for both apps' users by allowing them to be the DJs of their trips.
This branding strongly emphasizes the customer and provides excellent services to your clients. While every brand should try not to alienate its customers, service branding focuses on adding perceived value to customer service and using this as a selling point.
People who interact with service brands anticipate the "extras" they receive, whether it's an airline providing hot chocolate chip cookies on international flights or a local coffee art store providing "how-to DIY" packets with every purchase.
When you highlight the accomplishments of a single ingredient within a product or a single branch within a business, that becomes the brand's allure rather than the product or company as a whole.
For instance, Westin's Heavenly Bed emphasized the quality of the bed to persuade people to choose Starwood hotels (later Westin and Sheraton) for their vacation accommodations.
If you have a cause that you genuinely believe in, you can incorporate it into your brand strategy. Specifically, activist branding, also known as "conscious branding," is a method of making a positive social impact through your brand to make your brand synonymous with the cause.
Companies like Gillette have recently used this types of branding (though it is too early to tell whether it worked in the razor company's favor).
Now that you've come across various types of Branding, it will be much easier to pick the one that's suitable for you. If you are looking for a creative branding agency in Kolkata, you can contact us, and we will chalk out a well-defined branding strategy for you.
