How to use branding effectively?

I’ve developed a new product, and I’d like to make this product name widely known to consumers so they can choose from many products available.

Then how about using branding? Depending on how you use branding, you can not only increase awareness of your product but also have many other benefits.

I’ve heard of branding. I wonder how to use it effectively.

This article explains how to use branding effectively.

Steps to establish branding

Branding is the process of discovering and promoting a brand’s appeal, penetrating the brand name into the marketplace, and establishing the brand’s unique value.

Branding is not just for products of well-known companies; it is an important business strategy that can lead to business success in small and medium-sized companies where price competition is fierce.

Branding is established by proceeding in the following three steps.

1. Environmental analysis：

Analyze your company as well as the market to recognize your company’s value, what makes you different from other companies, and to identify your differentiating strengths.

2. Establish a brand concept and brand identity：

Once the environmental analysis is complete, decide what kind of concept and image you want your brand to project to consumers, and create a specific image in words and other means to communicate this to consumers in a way that they can easily understand.

3. Output：

The specific image and how to transmit it is determined, and then implemented. The brand image must be designed to accurately convey the good points of the brand to the target consumers through various options such as SNS, website, video website, print media advertisements, etc.

What is target for branding?

Branding varies depending on the target for branding. The main cases of branding are as follows:
・Product and service branding
・Corporate branding
・Regional branding

How to use product/service branding

Product and service branding is for your product or service.
This includes the brand name, logo, colors, packaging, and store space design.

Branding appeals to consumers’ sensibilities as well as product functionality.
When purchasing a product or service, consumers choose among many products on the market based on the image and the trustworthiness and security of the product or service the branding creates.

As a result, it is possible to differentiate your product or service from those offered by your competitors and to increase the number of clients because consumers will choose your product over and over again, even at a higher price, without getting caught up in a price war.

Marks attached to individual products and services are known as pet names or product names. Pet names are often displayed as logos for individual products or services and thus serve to enhance the brand value of the product or service.

Please refer to the following article page for detailed information on Pet Name.

How to Use Corporate (company) Branding

Corporate branding is done by a corporation about its own company.
The company embodies and output its own philosophy to establish the company image.

There are two types of corporate branding, depending on the target of the branding.

・Outer branding

This is the branding effort that is made “outside” the company, i.e., to consumers.
It is an effort that a company promotes its corporate philosophy to consumers in order to encourage them to purchase its products and services.
It also improves the image of the company, making it more attractive to job seekers and creating an advantageous situation in the hiring process.

・Inner Branding

This is the branding effort conducted “inside” the company, i.e., for employees.
It is an initiative within a company to share the values of the brand within the company, to lead employees to align their awareness and behavior with those values and to increase the company’s centripetal force.

When you hear the term “corporate branding,” you may think of a house mark. A house mark is a mark (emblem) used as a sales sign. By wearing a house mark as a landmark, consumers and users can recognize that they are products or services of the same company. Therefore, house marks play an important role in a company’s sales activities.

Please refer to the following article page for detailed information on House Marks.

How to use Regional Branding

By communicating the core industries of a region to the outside world as a regional brand, its attractiveness can be promoted.
Regional branding appeals the unique characteristics of a region that cannot be found anywhere else.
It also brings the entire region together to take branding actions, thereby revitalizing regional activities.

One of the strategies for regional branding is the use of a regional collective trademark.
The purpose of the system is to revitalize the regional economy by protecting as a trademark the name of the regional brand that combines the name of the region and the name of the product (service), etc.

Please refer to the following article for more detailed information on the regional collective trademark.

If you brand not only the product but also the company itself, it will be even more effective.

Summary

The name of the company’s products and services, as well as the company logo, play an important role in conveying the company’s brand image to consumers. By registering your company mark or the name of your products or services as a trademark, you can use them exclusively without being imitated by other companies. Please consider taking this opportunity to register your trademark and utilize it in your company’s branding strategy.