In more ways than one, branding is a pillar of success. The benefits of branding can range from helping you develop a set of features unique to your business, like a logo and brand name, which allows customers to come to know your brand and associate it with what you have to offer.
Branding is impactful in and of itself, but co-branding can bring other benefits, including opportunities for different audiences to engage with your brand.
In this post, you’ll discover the advantages of generating brand individuality for your business and the benefits of co-branding with a partner.
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What is branding?
Branding is the process of creating a brand identity for a company. The process includes coming up with a brand persona and creating assets such as the logo, tagline, visual design, messaging, and tone guides.
Pro tip: Learn all about how to create and manage a brand that helps your business become known and loved among your target audience here.
What is co-branding?
Co-branding is a partnership between two businesses where one company’s success contributes to the success of the other. These companies combine their products or expertise to create a more valuable product or offer for their audiences.
These partnerships can be so effective that 54% of companies say partnerships drive more than 20% of total company revenue.
Co-branding partnerships are most impactful when they involve two similar companies working together, as audience members obtain unique value from their relationship. An example of co-branding you may already be familiar with is a sports company partnering with an athlete.
Pro tip: Discover the best tips and tricks for creating a successful co-marketing campaign and relationship from start to finish here.
Why Co-Branding Matters as Much as Branding
As modern marketing has continued to evolve, branding has become increasingly important to differentiate your business from competitors. Your brand is how your target audience will relate to your company.
It’s the personality you give your business to attract like-minded people to purchase your products and become brand advocates. Branding is essential for inbound marketing.
But co-branding, which is equally important, often gets overlooked. With co-branding, you’ll be able to work with other companies and introduce your brand to their audience.
For example, if you create a webinar in conjunction with another company, it will be promoted among both audiences, helping you increase brand awareness and reputation.
Co-branding, which is very similar to co-marketing, can help you increase leads and buzz online. Now, let’s dive deeper into the benefits of both branding and co-branding.
Benefits of Branding
- Branding is often the deciding factor for consumers making purchasing decisions.
- Branding gives your business an identity.
- Branding sets you apart from your competitors in a saturated market.
- Branding makes your business memorable.
- Branding supports your marketing efforts and promotes consistency.
- Branding builds credibility and trust.
- Branding inspires customer loyalty and retention.
- Branding encourages word-of-mouth marketing.
- Branding helps you share your values.
- Branding builds internal employee morale and pride.
- Branding helps you easily introduce new products.
- Branding brings a high ROI and increased profits.
1. Branding is often the deciding factor for consumers making purchasing decisions.
Branding is often the deciding factor for consumers when making a purchasing decision. In fact, consumers report being more likely to buy from brands they know or already have a positive experience with.
This is especially true for social media, as 89% of consumers say they’ll buy from a brand they already follow and recognize over a competitor.
Given this, having a recognizable and unique brand gives you a leg up with customers, as they would feel safer buying from a business they already know.
2. Branding gives your business an identity.
Branding gives your business an identity beyond just the products and services you sell. You become more than just a name, especially if you develop a brand mission separate from your products.
For example, if your brand is committed to social responsibility, you’ll become associated with those interests in addition to your products. Your business develops a personality outside of your sales, which consumers appreciate.
3. Branding sets you apart from competitors in a saturated market.
There’s no way to quantify how many brands there are globally, but there are certainly a lot. Given this, branding helps you stand out from the crowd and gain an edge in an increasingly competitive market.
Your brand identity differentiates you from your competitors, especially in industries where it’s not easy to stand out because you offer similar products.
If you have a unique identity, you can still offer those similar products, but your unique brand personality and reputation are what seals the deal.
4. Branding makes your business memorable.
Strong branding makes your business memorable and recognizable to consumers.
They’ll be able to quickly discern that the content you create belongs to you, especially if they see it on channels you don’t own, because it looks like and is in line with the content and content style they know you create.
Being memorable is also helpful when it comes to ad spend. A memorable brand can devote more resources to product promotion and less to brand awareness because consumers already know who you are.
For example, Coca-Cola doesn’t need to get the word out that they exist, as its brand already has universal awareness. Instead, the company can focus marketing efforts on advertising a new drink.
5. Branding supports your marketing efforts and promotes consistency.
With consistent branding, future business efforts always have a clear path to follow. You’ll spend less time coming up with ways to present yourself and more time ensuring that you consistently deliver high-quality content, products, and experiences that customers desire.
Here are some stats that support the benefits of branding consistency:
Consistency also helps build trust with your audience, which we’ll discuss further below.
6. Branding builds credibility and trust.
Inconsistency confuses, but strong branding does the opposite.
Customers don’t have to guess how or why your content and products relate to your business because it’s clear. This helps build credibility by showing consumers that you stick to your word and don’t engage in practices that seem misaligned with what you stand for.
When you build credibility, you also increase trust in your business, which influences consumers making purchasing decisions.
As mentioned above, a customer is more likely to do business with a company they recognize and trust because they already know who you are and what you stand for.
7. Branding inspires customer loyalty and retention.
Branding increases trust, and trust is a pillar of customer loyalty.
Your identity attracts customers because they can tell what you stand for, which helps them feel connected to you. When customers feel connected to a business, they’re more likely to be loyal.
Loyal customers, in turn, drive revenue, as they’re more likely to make repeat purchases and draw in new clients to your business.
8. Branding encourages word-of-mouth marketing.
Consistent branding makes customers loyal and more likely to practice word-of-mouth marketing.
Word-of-mouth marketing is when consumers promote you to their friends, family, and even strangers online. This is highly beneficial for all businesses, as people trust other consumers more than marketers because they believe they have an agenda. Consider these statistics:
- 39% of consumers build trust in a brand from peer-to-peer conversations compared to 23% from a brand’s paid ads.
- Consumers report that a person like themselves (another consumer) is 14% more credible than a brand employee.
When you build a following of loyal customers, they provide your business with free marketing to draw in new clients and increase revenue.
9. Branding helps you share your values.
Customers are more interested than ever before in buying from companies that share their same values, so having a consistent message to share is critical.
In fact, if customers believe you’re making a positive impact on the world, they would pay 31% to 50% more for products and services.
Branding helps you appeal to this new consumer interest, as it goes beyond just a recognizable logo — it enables you to communicate your brand mission and values.
10. Branding builds internal employee morale and pride.
Branding benefits outward conceptions but also impacts internal employee retention, morale, and hiring processes. Consider these statistics from LinkedIn Business on the impacts of strong employer branding on hiring and retention:
- Well-regarded brands can bring down training expenses by as much as 50%.
- 72% of recruiting leaders worldwide say that the employer brand significantly impacts hiring.
- 50% of employers report more qualified applicants.
- Strong branding is associated with a 28% reduction in organizational turnover.
- Inconsistent branding has been found to embarrass employees and lower morale.
The statistics show that branding helps you position yourself as a reputable source, making employees feel like they’re working for something big and authentic.
They’re proud of representing your brand and business, ensuring everyone continually works to satisfy your customers.
11. Branding helps you easily introduce new products.
Branding helps you easily introduce new products to the market and drive sales for those products.
First, if you already have consistent branding, it doesn’t take much legwork to market a product so it aligns with your existing products and brand message. You don’t have to sit at a table and figure out how everything will fit in or rebrand your business; there is already a path for you to follow.
Second, when you launch these new products, customers already loyal, familiar with, and appreciative of your quality of service will be eager to try what you have to offer, generating sales and driving revenue.
12. Branding brings a high ROI and increased profits.
Being profitable is the ultimate goal, as it allows you to keep your business running, innovate continuously, and provide the delightful experiences that customers expect and desire.
As branding is a significant factor in achieving high ROI, it makes sense to invest in the practice.
The benefits discussed above are relevant to all businesses, regardless of size or maturity. Co-branding can bring about additional advantages, which we’ll discuss further below.
Benefits of Co-Branding
- Co-branding is exciting for consumers.
- Co-branding brings exposure to new audiences.
- Co-branding helps you generate trust with new audiences.
- Co-branding is cost-effective.
1. Co-branding is exciting for consumers.
When two businesses work together, the partnership is exciting for consumers. They may have never expected your collaboration, so they’re eager to see what’s to come.
Co-branding attracts interest and increased attention, as it is uncommon. You may have customers refreshing your social media feeds or checking your websites on launch days because they’re incredibly excited about what’s to come.
2. Co-branding brings exposure to new audiences.
Although you may operate in the same industry, you and your partner likely target different audience segments.
When you work together on a co-branding campaign, you gain exposure to their audience, and they gain exposure to yours, helping both of you increase brand awareness, draw in new clients, and grow your overall reach.
3. Co-branding helps you generate trust with new audiences.
When you’re advertising alone and emerging into new markets, you must build trust with your audience. However, a benefit to co-branding is that your partners vouch for your credibility.
Your new audiences may not trust you 100%, but the shoppers’ trust in your partner will transfer to you. Essentially, your partners are telling their audience that they can trust you because a brand they already love trusts you.
4. Co-branding is cost-effective.
When you work with another brand, you’re both committing to sharing resources and putting money into your advertising efforts. This means you can save money and spend more than you may have had access to with your individual budget.
For example, if you and your partners agree to share ad costs, you can use double the money to access resources to create your campaigns. If you’re a small brand, this can be highly beneficial, as you can branch out in ways you couldn’t do alone.
Getting Started
Regardless of whether you’re working with a partner, your business’ branding is the first thing consumers will see about your business.
If you take the time to prioritize strong branding for your individual business, you’ll find sales growth and retain new audiences when your co-branding campaigns go live.
