Five Ways Branding Can Increase ROI

But first, let’s define brand. A brand is the essence of one’s own story – it’s the discovery and promotion of the unique “you.” Branding is the art of aligning what you want people to think about your company and the sum total of how they perceive your organization. It’s not just a name and symbol; it is the encapsulation of how audiences connect emotionally and visually to your brand through people, visuals, culture, style, perception, words, messages, public relations, opinions, news media and social media.

Successful brands are the result of effective branding that positively shapes perception and can contribute to increased ROI in the following ways:

1. Brands attract great talent. Branding not only influences external business forces, it also strongly affects internal culture. Whether you’re a start-up or a Fortune 500 company, organizations undoubtedly strive to find great talent. Branding can help you attract the right talent by clearly communicating your brand story through your vision, mission, values and value proposition. Those key elements give you the foundation to not only help guide business decisions and strategically build your business, but also to help convey your culture in a way that aligns the right candidate to the right position. Hiring the right talent is crucial in building and maintaining a successful, profitable company.




2. Brands create brand ambassadors. In addition to attracting the right talent, employees can quickly become brand ambassadors. (Really good brands or companies that have invested in their brand, attract brand ambassadors prior to hire.) These ambassadors are a form of free advertising and they tout your company, product or service because they believe in it and are proud to be associated with it. In fact, brand ambassadors and word-of-mouth are a primary factor behind 20-50% of consumer buying decisions.¹




3. Brands attract customers. When selling your product or service, it’s not only imperative to understand who your target market is, but how to reach them and engage with them through marketing efforts. Take time to understand and shape your brand with supporting visual, verbal and written communications. This will provide your branding with strategic and measured channels for your customers to respond and react to. Brands can also reach audiences with consistent marketing messages to create product awareness and in return elevate products or services above competitors.




4. Brands create loyal customers. Sixty-five percent of a company’s business comes from existing customers and 80% of future profits will come from just 20% of current customers.² There’s no question as to why companies invest larger budgets in remarketing and why top brands go to great lengths to keep their customers satisfied.




5. Brands have inherent value. Over the past two years, Apple has ranked number one for having the most significant global brand value, now valued at $241.2 billion.³ How that brand value is determined is somewhat debatable, but most experts can agree key components include financial performance and a brand’s position in the marketplace. It’s understood most companies don’t have the resources to invest millions of dollars toward their brand, but at least seven percent of gross revenues should be allocated toward marketing if net profit margins are between 10-12%. If you are rebranding, at least half of that seven percent should be invested in your brand and then spend less to maintain it over time. However, a separate budget should ideally be earmarked for branding and the marketing budget should increase to account for an effective brand rollout.

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