The marketing practice of giving a product or company a symbol or model that distinguishes it from other commodities is known as Branding, for profitability. In intensely challenging marketplaces, a powerful brand strategy gives you a competitive edge. A term, design, or concept that is easily recognizable by the public is regularly included in branding.

Branding is a subset of marketing. Marketing is defined as the set of tools, processes, and strategies you use to actively promote your product, service, and company, while branding, on the other hand, is the marketing practice of actively shaping your brand. Branding is about defining who you are and what your company stands for.

Branding can be done for a product or company. Likewise, personal branding can be done for a person, examples are sportsmen and women, musicians, and other celebrities.

Your brand is how people view you when they interact with your company—both the ones you can influence and the ones you can't. Branding is to increase the apparent value of a firm or its products to customers, hence increasing brand franchise and brand share values. Having a very good brand also enables manufacturers to charge more for the product. The value of the brand is determined by how much profit it generates for the manufacturer. This makes brand management a very important aspect of a company's growth.

Brand recognition is earned by a brand that is well-known in the marketplace. When a brand's recognition has grown to the point where it has widespread positive feelings in the market, it has reached brand franchise. One of the critical goals in brand recognition is building a brand to the extent that the brand can be widely identified without the name of the company present. Apple Inc. is an example of a company that has built a very successful brand. The logo, seen anywhere, will raise a feeling of quality, luxury, and reliability in consumers anywhere in the world. Companies like McDonald's, Coca-Cola, Google, Iker, and many more have also built a very successful brand which makes acceptability easy when new products are introduced.

Some elements of branding include the;

Logos (main logo, secondary logos, and icons), color palettes and schemes, typography, other images to be used, the voice and tone behind writings must all pass a message, clearly representing your company's core values.

Branding is a marketing strategy, the totality of ideas, imagery, pictures taken into consideration helps to form consumers' perspectives about a product. So branding is a marketing strategy , and the brand is what has a meaning to the consumer.

The term brand can be understood as many things, which can be summarized as follows;

It is simply a logo e.g., the Mark that signifies NIKE.

It is a company e.g., Coca-Cola.

It's a risk reducer. The brand reassures of quality, even in unfamiliar territory.

Branding means positioning. Branding helps in the categorization of brands in terms of quality, speed of delivery, and reliability in the minds of consumers.

It is a cluster of values e.g., Telegram is reliable, ethical, invaluable, innovative, and so on.

It signifies added value, where the consumer sees value in a brand over its competitors e.g., Apple EarPods over other brands of earbuds, a Versace branded shirt over a non-branded shirt, and Volkswagen over Skoda - despite similarities.

Branding the right way

There are some components that make up a good branding plan and these components are not independent of themselves, i.e., they have to run concurrently. They include:

1. One must have a “Clear Vision for a Brand”: Delivering value consistently is the only way to acquire a solid consumer base. So, there is a need to make what is being offered to consumers clear. Why does the business exist? Is it to help people, to make them feel good? Chances are the business means more to the individual than money. There is a need to formalize what that reason is in a vision statement. The vision statement tells employees and customers what the business is, to what purpose and also markets the core values directly to a target audience.
2. There must be “Consistency in Messages posted across all Platforms”: The importance of consistency in messages cannot be overemphasized to build a brand name people will remember. Ensure consistency with a style that will always clearly outline not only the logo and slogan, but also acceptable color schemes, fonts, and tones that the brand is to be known for.
3. You need to “Extend the Brand throughout the Company”: ensure everyone in your company is fully aware of your brand and what it stands for and understands how to communicate with customers to convey it. They are your unofficial marketing team members and it is crucial to note that all successful brands are strengthened by employee support.


4. An Emotional Connection must be created between the consumers and the Brand: The emotions of your different advert campaigns in the target audience matter a lot. Some strong emotional triggers elicit empathy, provide a feeling of connection, and make people's lives easier. Your brand voice is the conduit for your brand story and it should be leveraged strongly. You want your customer base to feel something when they see your logo or hear your company name. A good brand strategy will deliver that power to your business.
5. Loyalty to the brand needs to be nurtured in clients: a successful branding strategy should nurture loyalty in customers. This can be achieved by appreciating customers (in words, cash, and kind) and making them feel special with loyalty rewards like discounts and promos.

In conclusion, for you to build a very competitive and profitable business, it is of utmost importance to work on your branding. The stronger your brand, the greater chance your company has at being successful, reaching, converting, and retaining customers.