Branding in the digital age is as essential as advertising once was.

Branding means creating a unique identity of your company with identifiable logos, impactful names, catchy taglines, and designs. It is crucial for creating a statement for your company and establishing a name for yourself amongst competitors. It also helps in a faithful representation of the business while conveying what your consumers shall expect from your company.

The ways of advertising, marketing, and business have changed with the times. The world is currently going through the Digital Revolution. The numbers of consumer-company interactions on digital platforms continue to grow each day. According to a report of 2019 by We Are Social, 45% of the world’s population, almost 3.5 billion people, are using digital platforms. Companies have realized the potentiality of this huge digital market.

Digital marketing alone has become an important factor for businesses. When it is combined with branding strategies, it can draw a lot of attention towards the brand. Branding helps digital advertising to stand out in the sea of contents on the internet. Therefore, branding becomes a key element of digital marketing. The combination of branding and digital marketing simply proves to be the most helpful for business because it helps in the following ways:

1. Creating Brand Awareness

Branding creates awareness amongst the public and broadens the consumer market. It makes people familiar with your brand and familiarity results in a long-term consumer relationship. If done right, branding can provide you with a stable market for your product despite the competition.

For example, an apple or an image of it instantly reminds us of Apple Inc. There are hundreds of tech companies today producing laptops and cellphones but Apple Inc. stands out because of its brilliant branding tactics. Branding leaves a lasting imprint on people's minds which eventually helps the business.

2. Building Branding Expectations

Branding promotes a fair idea of your company's potential. Consumer expectations encourage the company and employees to deliver a product or service that matches the yardstick. This, in turn, adds to the reputation of the product and helps the business grow.

For example, if a branded skin-care product pops up on your screen claiming to fix your problems in its catchy tagline, you are more likely to buy it than a skin-care product advertising without a brand.

3. Appealing Consumers with Aesthetics and Emotional Strategies

Why do people still buy antiques or HMT watches? Why do advertisements evoke emotions so often? Simple, the nostalgia marketing or branding in the fast-paced digital age hits the right cord.

The branding strategies use psychological tactics to get to the consumer. The desire to live the past again and to enhance the aesthetic appeal of experience makes consumers connect instantly to the brands that employ these branding strategies.

The products like Louboutin's red-bottom pumps are examples of the aesthetic experience of branded products. Branding at times creates a niche of its own that exceeds the advertising and marketing.

4. Drawing and Bringing New Customers 

Combined with digital marketing strategies such as targeted emails, Instagram advertising, Facebook, Twitter, and other social media traffic traction, branding can do wonders. It introduces a company to consumers, not to the products but the idea that stays.

It situates a company in the competition with giants by putting it out there. For a start-up or upcoming brand, the traction translates into action i.e, purchases and engagement with the help of branding.

5. Building Trust

Building trust is one thing that advertising complicates but branding resolves. Branding makes the company or the product a part of the daily life of the consumers. Plus, the impact of visuals on memory works like a magic tool.

The logos of brands are extremely crucial to branding because once the logos become recognizable, people start to remember the brands. The consumers start to associate this symbol (logo) with trust and familiarity.

6. Efficiently Reaching Your Target Consumer

Each brand or product has its target consumer; the consumer it is built for. The target consumer is indeed targeted with a proliferation of advertisements and several brands with their marketing strategy. Taking a professional brand management team's help is much recommended to set your brand apart from others.

The creative and imaginative branding types and strategies are up against professionals' sleeves. Branding campaigns are designed with specific considerations to reach the target consumers and beyond.

For example, in a metropolitan city with long traffic hours, branding is directed at commuters. The best example of it is Hong Kong. The creative allure of out-of-home digital marketing and branding strategies are increasing there. FoodPanda and Trip(.)com are examples of two of the most effective branding strategies from Hong Kong.

To Conclude

Digital marketing buys attention and sells products to consumers. Branding tends to work quickly and grab attention instantly. Therefore, the element of attention-economy is taken into account when it comes to branding. Branding establishes a public image of the brand, creates a perspective, and draws new consumers.

Digital marketing is happening not only on screens but on roads as well with taxi screens, digital billboards, single dashboard quick apps, smart campaigns, and audience interaction, etc, capturing the market from all places. Thus, branding is a must for a company that wants to compete.

Which aspect of branding makes it the most critical for your business? Let us know in the comments section.