Product branding is key to helping your target market understand what it is you’re selling and how it differentiates from similar products from other companies. While company branding is important, product branding is key to making a sale.
Here we take a look at some of the specifics of product branding and why it’s so important.
What is product branding?
Product branding is your opportunity to make your product stand out by differentiating it from the competition. It gives the items that you sell a clear identity. Ideally, it should help to foster that all-important brand loyalty from your customers. It involves the use of different components and the deployment of different branding tactics to determine your product’s identity in the eyes of the target market.
Some of the components that make up product branding include:
● Design
● Logos
● Names and descriptions
● Messaging
All of these components should come together to create an emotional connection with the customer. Product branding will also clearly be influenced by your overall brand identity and how those products reflect that identity, particularly in the mind of your customers.
Who needs product branding?
Anyone who is selling products needs to consider product branding. It’s no good thinking about every last detail of your company brand if what you are selling is either lacking cut-through or contradicts that brand identity. In the same way, you thought about your overall brand, you’ll need to think about your products.
If your product doesn’t have a distinctive brand and appeal why should customers choose your brand over any other? This particularly applies if you are a new brand offering a product in a market that already has established names. How will you grab the attention of consumers who already have established brand loyalties?
Product branding is what will grab the attention of consumers, tempt them to take a chance on your product, and then frame their response to it.
What engaged them about your product in the first place and how did their initial experience of it resonate with those first impressions?
If you have confidence in the quality of your product, your product branding will be what makes the initial case for them to buy it.
What are the benefits of product branding?
Products that have a strong brand identity that has grown out of the needs and expectations of customers are much more likely to create positive emotional connections with those customers. This, in turn, creates loyalty to that particular product and your brand. By expanding the pool of customers with brand loyalty towards your product the more successful your company is likely to be.
If you are in the business of selling products, anything that makes it easier for customers to purchase those products is to your benefit. You do this by creating an engaging, distinctive and compelling product brand that tells a story that your customers can relate to. For example, they may pay more for your chocolate because it has a higher cocoa content reflecting your brand commitment to quality. Alternatively, a no-frills supermarket product line will have its own appeal, resonating with those people who are budget conscious or who like a bargain. The Tesco Value product line branding has become so distinctive and recognizable it even features on t-shirts.
Your product branding will be what tells them this story, attracting people whose tastes, preferences, and values resonate with those of your product.
So, think about how you can use the component of product branding to relay this broader branding message.
What are the consequences of poor product branding?
As with all branding, just because you’re not doing product branding it doesn’t mean that your product won’t gather a set of associations in the mind of your target audience, that is if they come to be aware of it all. As few products reach the marketplace without some form of logo and design, poor branding is more likely a problem than no branding at all.
Poorly thought-out product branding can be confusing for the customer. In some cases, it can be so indistinct that your product is completely lost when compared to the competition. If you’re wanting to make an impact with a product then good product branding is the key means by which you will do it. You can have the best quality, most intelligently priced product on the market, but if the branding is indistinct few people are going to buy it.
If you’ve created a high-quality product that you believe can add value to the lives of your customers, why wouldn’t you shout about it?
How do you get started with product branding?
Choosing a name for your product is perhaps a milestone moment when it comes to developing your product brand. It needs to be distinctive, memorable and convey something significant about your product. Many people rush into naming their product too early during the development process. Often a better name with greater impact emerges later in the product branding process.
Before you rush into naming your product you should ask a few key questions:
● What is the purpose of this product?
● Who is it for?
● Why are we selling this product?
● How does it meet the needs of my target customers?
● How will it connect with my customers, their needs, aspirations, and expectations?
By asking these questions you will then make more informed decisions when it comes to the tangible components of your product brand. In good product branding, consistency really does matter. Logos, designs, and color palettes should remain the same, as too should any messaging regarding the product.
At Dawn Creative branding is what we do. If you’re exploring product branding and how it can be applied to your products then we’d love to hear from you. Don’t sleep on it, contact us today.
