Product Branding Strategy and Its Benefits: A Step-by-Step Guide
“From the Salt-lamp logo of Tata to the Cow-girl of Amul, the Indian brands represent the power of effective branding.
Effective brand identity is what differentiates between noise and standing out.”
To develop an interesting brand persona, one has to start off by understanding the target audience: what do they need, desire, and what are their pain points?
So build a product that answers to their inner selves.”.
Make use of this opportunity and tap into Locobuzz a SaaS platform, which can derive insights actionable towards the sentiment of consumers.
Understand what your audience is saying about your brand and the competition and use that information to refine your branding strategy.
What is product branding ?
Product branding involves the fine art of creating a distinct identity for a product.
While this exercise is not about giving a personality to your product, it is about making this personality relate and connect with the target market so as to differentiate it from others.
Starting from high-tech elegant-looking smartphones to even the humdrum household items, every product under the sun benefits immensely from a strong brand.
According to Philip Kotler, the marketing guru, “A brand is a promise to deliver specific benefits and qualities to satisfy specific needs.”
If you brand your product, it does not mean you are selling something; you forge an attachment with the customers.
And a great product brand raises the corporate reputation of your company to a great extent.
It could be stated with evidence like the products of Apple.
The iPhone is more than a smartphone for many users. Innovation, design, and supreme user experience are some of the images that go hand in hand.
The high brand image has been the cause for immense levels of customer loyalty and sales of the same as well.
How to build an effective product branding strategy ?
Product branding is calculated strategically. It is actually an intersection of many moving parts – the logo, colors, package design, product names and descriptions, brand values, brand story, and brand messaging.
Here are the top tips for creating a product branding strategy:
- Identify your target audience
- Understand your competition
- Build personality for your product
- Reflect your brand identity
- Maintain your product branding.
- Identify the target audience
Before going into any new branding strategy, first conduct market research.
You first need to determine who you wish to buy your products and then go backward and decide to create a brand that will resonate with your audience.
You could interact with the process by directing a set of questions to yourself, such as:
– What is this product used for?
– With whom would a consumer use this product?
– Why will they use your product and not one from a competitor?
– Why do I want to serve this audience?
– What does this audience value for my brand?
Consumer insights would be very important for your brand since they will make you understand the perspective of people you are marketing your product to.
Research or access to consumer information to figure out the customer experience and any problems that they are going through and devise ways in which they can be resolved to secure a more sure brand Know your competition
Good branding differentiates your products with the competitor’s products and has a place in the market for your brand that distinguishes it from the competitors in the market.
To know this one has to first know who wants to be number one.
Do competitor research to understand the current market branding trends.
Understand what the consumer feels about the other brands and why they can be persuaded to switch to yours. An example could include better pricing, higher quantities, product quality, etc.
These could form some of the blocks of your product branding strategy.Develop product personality
What would branded products say if they could talk? What might they sound like, or feel like?
It’s an aggregate of visuals, sounds, smells, textures, and associations. Design a mnemonic logo and tagline that express what it stands for.
Branding your personality can help guide decisions regarding logos, color, packaging, and other details that consumers might use to pick out your brand’s products.Share your brand identity
After you have specified how your brand’s product is to appear and work, you must start telling your brand story to your audience.
You can start nurturing your marketing strategy using storytelling. You can leverage social media sites to interact with your customers.
Share the values of the brand and brand history and what really distinct this brand. Your audience must be able to relate to your brand in order to trust you.
In other words, provide a reason to consumers that they should like to buy your products more than others.Keep your product branding consistent
‘Consistency’ is the term of art for the strategy of product branding. Create a written style guide about how you should visualize your brand.
Some common elements that your brand style guide should contain:
– Size
– Placement
– Color palette
– Core values
– Imagery
– Brand voice
This same style should carry throughout your e-commerce presence, your customer service for that product, your business cards, and every marketplace, online or off, where the product is sold.
Bring out an identity for the product effectively in your marketing and advertising.
The more consistent you are, the more attention-grabbing and unforgettable your product will be-and the less time people will need to fall in love with your brand’s products.
Product Branding V/S Company Branding
Benefits of Product Branding
Product branding gives a lot of benefits to the company, and customers start to recognize your brand and associate with your product.
The 8 distinctive benefits of product branding:
- Product identity
- Business expansion
- Customer loyalty
- Eliminates competition
- Brand equity
- Influencer collaborations
- Enhances brand values
- Improves credibility and consistency
1. Product identity
Product branding helps consumers to identify the difference between look-alike products.
Effective product branding goes beyond the names and gives a holistic visual identity, which a consumer can resonate with on a subconscious level.
A great brand speaks for itself.
The more identifiable the brand becomes, it generates ROI on your advertising and marketing spending.
For instance, have you ever ended up looking for Coca-Cola bottles in the grocery shelves?
Due to the red color, Coca-Cola has been able to make a strong brand association and it just pops out in the grocery store.
That red color is so iconic that without the brand logo as well people identify it as Coca-Cola.
Basically, it creates an image, identification, and aspiration that converts a simple product into a cultural icon.
2. Business expansion
People can easily identify a product when a brand has it easily recognizable in the market, and new lines of production can be easily introduced.
If the brand builds trust and credibility in the market then consumers are willing to try new products as well.
For example, Amul is one of the most popular dairy brands; the company was originally renowned for its milk and butter.
Now it has expanded its line of production to many such items as cheese, chocolates, ice creams, ready-to-eat meals, etc.
Strong brand name has resulted in successful market extension and a firm footing for this company in the food and beverage industry sector.
3. Customer loyalty
A strong brand presence is very likely to drive consumer buying decisions because purchasing tends to happen from the brand that the customers know and have trust in.
For example, Apple is one of the most prominent smartphone brands that have built a powerful brand presence by introducing features dynamism, sleek design, innovation of security features, high quality camera, and interactive user interface.
This consistency in product quality has made it easier for Apple to generate a loyal customer base.
Consequently, many customers are loyal to Apple products and favor it over other competitors because they trust the brand’s quality and prestige and hence keep the loyalty.
4. Eliminates competition
One thing about good brand strategy is that you’re aware of the competitors of your product in the market.
If you have a strong brand niche, you can place certain entry barriers for your opponents to enter the market, especially where people are showing an abnormal affection towards your brand.
For instance, the Maggi brand is a very popular brand of instant noodles that belongs to Nestlé. It has gained household status in India simply because people are unable to resist its taste and the ease of preparation.
Strong brand visibility and deep penetration in the market create a barrier for new brands to come in with a sizable share in the market.
5. Brand equity
Branding can enhance the ability of a company to introduce new products manifold. A strong brand image and customer loyalty make it a natural choice for consumers.
Apple’s AirPods, despite many competitors in the market, were able to dominate the wireless earphones segment with ease by grabbing more than 50 percent of the global share.
Similarly, Tata has been able to do the same in introducing new products like electric vehicles, where it gained from its strong brand reputation and customer trust.
6. Influencer collaborations
Values and brand culture are the core of building a great workplace and business.
Strong branding identity collaborates with the right influencers and content creators to add more visibility and credibility to a brand in ways where they would ideally make them an attractive place to work.
Collaborations with influencers like, Mahesh Keshwala, Prajakta Koli, Masoom Minawala, Niharika Jain, and Ritu Dhillon have helped Mamaearth boost its brand visibility and become a leader in Indian natural skincare.
7. Enhances brand values
8.Improves credibility and consistency
Consistency: Cornerstone of Branding
Business philosophy, colors, typography, and others are elements that compose the foundational stage in branding.
Business consistency in branding identifies and connects a company with customers. The inconsistent branding confuses and alienates the customer.
Credibility : Building Trust with Customers
Credibility underpins trust. A brand will set a company as credible and trustworthy, besides that, it helps to highlight the values within the business operation.
Even the smallest of companies can gain instant credibility and be seen as serious professionals if the marketing is innovative, the products and services outstanding and the customers are given the best service possible with materials which are attention-grabbing.
Example – Cadbury
Cadbury is an international confectionery firm that has had a dominant existence in India, propagating a single brand character over the years.
The reputation gained by the company through quality, taste, and innovation has built strong brand credibility.
Cadbury’s purple packaging is as recognizable as its advertising campaigns, making it one of the most trusted and likable brands among Indian consumers.
Types of Product Branding Strategies
There are effective ways to create a unique brand identity based on the aspects of a product or the value given by it:
1. Feature marketing that communicates your values
Product marketing strategies refer to the features and the benefits that make your product stand out from the competition.
This will bring out the USP behind the product so that it can be attractive in the eyes of the consumers.
Features marketing tells what the actual value of your product is, how it is going to evolve in comparison with competitors, and how it can be beneficial for the consumers.
2. Drive content engagement
The creation of high-quality content and sharing it with your target audience.
This can be in any form, such as a blog, video, or convert blogs or short-form content into voice overs or explainer videos using text-to-video AI; social media posts; or other formats of content.
In addition to supplementing product engagement, branded content can help educate users about the product and induct the brand vision with an audience.
3. Enhancing customer relationships via communities
In this digital age, social media groups or online forums can help brands build their communities and connect with their target audience.
This strategy aims to build customer membership and drive feelings of faithfulness.
You can also check what people are saying about your product, and seize the opportunities to understand their needs and work on product optimization.
4. Share your product story through live events
The main goal of a live event is creating and promoting events that relate to your product or service.
This can be anything that offers an interesting and unique experience to the consumers, be it conferences, workshops, or product launches.
These events can create a buzz and a positive word of mouth for your product.
This strategy can give consumers an unforgettable experience, and in turn, foster brand awareness and loyalty.
Summing Up
Using a product branding strategy differentiates your product from the competition.
It fosters product demand and sales in the market.
On the other hand, company branding seeks to highlight the brand’s objectives and vision.
A product branding strategy aids in identifying the target market, improving brand recall, and building a loyal consumer base.
Features, community, content, events, or any other facets of the product are focal points of your product branding initiatives.
As a social listening platform, Locobuzz empowers brands with the proper tools to fine-tune their product branding strategy.
Monitoring online conversations in real time will easily help to identify trends, tastes, and pain points that the target audience faces.
Use it to improve product messaging, fine-tune marketing strategies, and have stronger brand relationships.
With Locobuzz, make data-driven decisions to improve customer satisfaction, brand reputation, and drive brand loyalty.
