Do you believe in the power of branding?

If you don’t then maybe you should think again.

In these uncertain economic times customers are known and proven to gravitate towards certainty, thus the brands that represent certainty.

In recent reports it shows the branded restaurant market is expected to grow to £13.6b by 2015- this while we are in the deepest recession we have known.

If you run a business you probable already have many of the components of a brand, but how can you build it and really make it work?

Branding now affects the consumer on many different levels – creating rich and intriguing customer experience to build relationships. Today we need to build brand equity with a customer base by creating real differential and unique set of experience in terms of the product, range, choice and service.

Determining how to package and position this complex mix is key to defining your brand and that’s where it’s essential to have a deep, insightful understanding of the targeted customer groups, you need to understand what makes them tick. For example – for some the in-store experience and environment maybe the most important; for others the way the staff treat and interact with them. Indeed for some brands, something as simple as the outlet location maybe one of the factors involved in their decision making.

What is clear is the brands are increasingly being positioned on more tangible attributes and consumer benefits, which more and more transcend simple definitions of product or service. This is why we use words such as; “personality” “atmosphere” and “experience” to define brand differential and equity.

What is also essential today is to have an on-going dialogue, or relationship with your customers to create an unbreakable bond, we need clear and effective commination strategy for both customers in store and beyond, to build awareness and enhance the image.

Andi Deeks