What Are the Advantages of Branding? (Updated August 2022)

What are the advantages of branding? It’s a fair question to ask, one that has many different answers.

It’s also a question asked by hundreds if not thousands of business-minded individuals — especially the startup founders out there looking to build a solid base to build their business on top of.

We’re always talking about branding, and have even touched on the benefits of branding before, only we’re taking things a step further this time by dedicating an entire blog on this subject.

As a bit of a primer to this article, check out our Ultimate Guide to Small Business Branding, which will guide you through a lot of the key terms and branding ideas to consider for your business.

Or, if you’re not the reading type, then why not check out the video we’ve produced here:

You could be the next Apple or Nike and not even know it yet.

Now, let’s dive in.

8 Advantages to Having a Strong Brand

Below you’ll find 8 benefits to branding that should answer the infamous ‘what are the advantages to branding’ question that we hear so often here at Canny.

Each advantage is so very different from the other, although some will have some level of crossover.

For example, ‘retention,’ could refer to customer loyalty in that someone who’s loyal is bound to keep doing business with a certain brand. It might also refer to the retention of staff members; individuals who are influenced by strong branding in a very different way.

Here are the 8 advantages that we’re about to get into:

1. Builds recognition
2. Increases customer loyalty
3. Allows you to dictate cost
4. Gives you the power to scale
5. Helps hire and retain staff
6. Increasing advertising effectiveness
7. It’s a quality check
8. Allows for an easy exit

Branding Builds Recognition

Brand recognition refers to how well your target audience, and any other potential customers, can recall your brand and identify with your products.

In other words, it’s one of the many ways that your audience separates you from a competitor.

Look at a brand like McDonald’s for example. This fast-food giant has built a name off the back of its golden arches and ‘I’m lovin it‘ tagline.

Every Maccies you enter also has a familiar feel to it, no matter where you happen to be in the world. The colours are mostly all the same — as is all of its advertising.

My point is:

These things are all recognisable, and are pretty consistent across the board.

Being as consistent as possible should be the goal of any aspiring business; more so when it comes to branding. So follow the lead of companies like McDonald’s — companies that show consistency with logos, colours, fonts, and messaging.

Increases Customer Loyalty

Establishing customer loyalty doesn’t happen overnight.

It takes time, and is often the natural effect of various interactions with your company.

For example, providing a continuous positive experience when your customers interact with you will almost always lead to an increase in customer loyalty. The same applies to the satisfaction rate of customers using your products/services directly.

65% of a company’s business comes from existing customers
— SmallBizGenius

One of the great things about increasing customer loyalty is that it often causes a ripple effect, where word-of-mouth marketing sells your brand, and your offering, for you!

Just look at what brands like Adidas and Reebok has been able to achieve through friends telling friends about its line of high-quality/comfortable/stylish products.

Perceived value plays a significant role in this too, where perception of a brand can impact how we think about and choose to interact with certain businesses.

Perceived Value Example

We know we’re taking somewhat of a detour instead of answering the ‘what are the advantages to branding’ question, but we wouldn’t interrupt if we didn’t think it wasn’t worth mentioning.

Here’s a real world example of perceived value, starring Domino’s:

When we went to visit Tokyo to meet with a client of ours (Shodai) Adrienne was struggling with what food they had available. Being a vegetarian in a foreign country made for quite the challenge.

On the fourth day of looking for places she could eat, we gave up, and ended up on the Japanese website for Domino’s to get her a plain cheese pizza.

We went with this popular pizza chain, because we knew they wouldn’t let us down.

Turns out Dominos tastes the same no matter where you go.

Perceived value led us here, and perceived value saved Adrienne from an empty stomach.

Thanks Domino’s!

Strong Branding Allows You to Charge a Premium

Building trust and loyalty amongst your customers does yield the sweetest fruit in time.

In other words:

You get to dictate the price of your products that are slightly higher than your competitors as you know your audience will continue to buy from you.

Look at Apple for the perfect example.

Apple is a company that charges a premium for its line of tech products, be it phones, tablets, or computers. Fundamentally, these products work the exact same as any other product in that they allow you to make phone calls, draw images, and send emails.

It’s true, these products tend to be a cut above some of the others available, but the point still stands.

Loyal customers will pay these prices because they know that what they’re buying is quality, they also understand that they’re buying into the brand.

Apple customers are an interesting one to highlight as they tend to be relentless; waiting outside of stores overnight for something new and always going to bat for them should someone say anything negative on Twitter.

Again, brand loyalty is a powerful thing.

Branding Allows You To Scale

Another answer to the popular ‘what are the advantages of branding’ is an underrated one, and is so often ignored when I look at other blogs talking about this subject.

It goes without saying that scaling your business as you grow is very important; it allows you to expand into new markets and target a new set of customers. And scaling successfully is only possible when you have effective branding.

Think about it.

Would Starbucks’ have found as much success when it launched its food range had the brand not already established itself as a purveyor of quality?

The answer is no.

The Starbucks brand is that strong that it allows them to branch off and sell things like branded mugs and beakers, not to mention, sell a range of iced beverages that weren’t originally on the menu.

They can do this because there’s a level of trust between the brand and its customers.

Greggs are another great example, having recently collaborated with Primark to sell bucket hats, sliders, and underwear; products that have nothing to do with pasties, and yet, have sold like hot cakes.

A Strong Brand Helps With Recruitment and Retention

When people ask ‘what are the advantages of branding?’ employee recruitment and retention isn’t what comes to mind, at least not at first.

But that doesn’t change the fact that strong branding can do just that, which will only strengthen your business from the inside out.

If you can communicate a strong brand, then you should have no problem hiring the best candidates.

That’s right, branding alone has the power to make others think:

• You are a good company to work for
• People that work for you are highly motivated
• Working for you is a great opportunity for growth
• You work with only the best brands (B2B)

According to one LinkedIn study, a strong brand receives 2.5x the applicants per job post.

Another study by CareerArc found that 75% of job seekers consider an employer’s brand before even applying for a job.

If your branding is of a set standard, then there should be no reason why an employee of yours will stay within the company in knowing that they have it pretty sweet.

Of course, this will also come down to a variety of other factors, not just how you brand your company.

Do keep that in mind when hiring your next crop of staff.

But yeah, branding benefits aren’t just external; they benefit those within your organisation too!

Increases Advertising Effectiveness

When you’ve built up an established group of loyal customers, odds are, they’re going to be a lot more interested in whatever advertising you put in front of them.

Again, we could talk about Apple here again, but instead let’s look at street fashion, and the buzz surrounding that industry whenever the top brands do anything of note.

Nike is the perfect brand to look at here, mostly due to its ability to drum up hype through brand collaborations and advertising.

The Nike brand on its own is one of the GOATS as far as branding goes; everything from its swoosh logo, to its tagline, to its brand campaigns are all on point.

In 2022, Nike’s global revenue amounted to about 46.71 billion U.S. dollars, which is an increase of over two billion compared to the previous financial year.
— Statista

Because the brand is so strong, it makes anything and everything they do grab everyone’s attention — especially when they link up with other brands on a limited edition product.

If you ever find yourself asking “what are the advantages of branding,” just look at how successful Nike has become over the years.

Slightly off topic, but I’d highly recommend you read Shoe Dog which is the memoir from Phil Knight, the man that started this empire.

Branding Benefit: It’s a Quality Check

The size of your business, what type of business you are, and who your target audience is; all of these things can be determined simply by looking at a brand with little to no knowledge of them prior.

You typically know within the first 10 seconds of looking at a company’s branding whether or not they are worth remembering — or if you want to do business with them in the case of many B2B brands.

Which explains why so many of our branding projects consist of rebrands, where the previous identity of the company became outdated, causing these brands to lose out to a competitor; one that looks/feels a lot more modern.

Branding is a quality check in every way possible, and can lead to great things if you get it right.

Effective Branding Allows for an Easy Exit

This is one of the most overlooked advantages of branding, and something that most do think about but won’t admit, either due to committing too hard to the brand or fear of how staff might feel.

Here goes:

If you have a strong business/brand, you’re making it easy for when you want to exit your company.

A strong, attractive, money making business will make it a lot easier to sell when it comes time to hit the eject button.

Nine times out of ten, entrepreneurs would much rather take over a company that they know is stable rather than starting one from scratch. By selling them something established, you not only eliminate a headache for the new owner, but can also use it as a way to drive the price up.

But yeah, if you’re looking to retire with a fair amount of cash lining your pockets, then you’ll want to establish something that’s worth paying for.

Advantages of Branding FAQs

Let’s answer some of your frequently asked questions on the advantages of branding before looking at two very important documents to have handy.

• What are the Advantages of Branding?

  Quality branding can help build recognition, increase customer loyalty, and allow you to dictate the price of your products.

  Here’s a complete list outlining every advantage to branding:

  1. Builds recognition
  2. Increases customer loyalty
  3. Allows you to dictate cost
  4. Gives you the power to scale
  5. Helps hire and retain staff
  6. Increasing advertising effectiveness
  7. It’s a quality check
  8. Allows for an easy exit

• How Does Branding Benefit Customers?

  Branding benefits customers in that it informs them of how effective/consistent that business is at what it does. It also relays information on its values, tone of voice, and who it’s customers are.

  You can usually tell within the first few seconds of looking at a brand whether or not they’re worth working with/buying from/looking into.

• How Does Branding Benefit Marketers?

  Branding benefits marketers in that it makes it a lot easier to sell products and services to prospective and established customers.

  A recognisable brand, or a brand that stays consistent, will influence customers to do business with that company over a competitor.

• People Also Ask: Where Can I Find the Best Branding Agency?

  Online searching and referrals from friends are two of the best ways to find a branding agency worth working with.

  We’d recommend doing as much research on the agencies you’re interested in as possible. This includes checking out case studies, looking at their social media pages, and maybe contacting former clients to ask about their experience.

  A lot of branding agencies claim to be the best at what they do, but that’s up for you to decide.

Advantages of Branding: Have These Documents Handy

For your branding to help your business thrive, you must ensure that you are keeping consistent in line with two very important documents that should keep everything on track.

These documents play a very important part of your brand guidelines — brand guidelines being the overarching document that every successful business should have.

The two documents we want to direct your attention to in this post are:

1. Brand Strategy Document
2. Brand Identity Document

Brand Strategy Document

Your brand strategy document gives you a key strategy that you can relate all brand and business decisions back to.

This document can help form the shape of your company. It tells people what you’re all about, and reminds you, when you get caught up in the day to day running of the business.

The advantage of having a brand strategy document clearly outlined can’t be overstated. Having it to hand gives you something to refer to, refer your employees to, and serves as an important reminder as to what you set out to do at the start.

It can also be used to help take your company into the future. A good brand strategy document should outline where you’re looking to go next.

And it should grow organically with your business! When you reach goal one, what happens next?

Having a brand strategy outlined is a massive competitive branding advantage. You know exactly where you’re headed, and that can put you leagues ahead of the competition.

Brand Identity Document

The visual element of branding is always the part that people want to discuss the most.

Your brand identity guideline document should outline how your brand identity looks, and how it should be visually represented in certain situations.

It can be used as an easy handover document when moving between agencies, or when having ads created in-house by someone else’s advertising department, and so on.

Your brand identity guideline is the lifeblood of your brand’s visual style. And you should protect it at all costs.

This is the key piece in the puzzle when it comes to building brand recognition. Your guidelines should be used to consistently ensure your brand is represented visually, in the right way.

These two documents combined are enough on their own to sell the advantages of branding for your business.

They form the backbone of any successful brand.

What Are The Advantages of Branding?

People buy into brands. Whether that’s customers, investors, or prospective new owners.

The first thing anyone is going to do when hearing about your brand is check out your website or social channels.

Then, they’re going to judge you.

What does the brand look like? Can I support them? Do I like what they stand for?

All are intimidating questions to an extent as many lack the answers, but if you understand your brand down to the nth degree then we see you having no problems in navigating these queries, and landing the right kind of attention!

We live in a brand aware world. If you don’t have a strong brand, you’re not benefiting from the advantages of branding.

Take stock of how your business is represented right now and ask yourself “do I have a brand that I’m proud of?”

If the answer is no, you know what to do (get in touch with Canny, in case that wasn’t clear).

What do you think? Is your business seeing the advantages of branding? Let us know via social media (links can be found at the bottom of this page)!