Win customers and inspire employees with a solid brand strategy

When a customer is described as being “brand loyal” they’re not just committed to a company’s name and logo — they’re loyal because they believe in the story that the company’s branding tells. Branding is the foundation for everything a company wants or needs to communicate about itself to its target audience. Learn more about the power of great branding and its potential to impact your business.

Branding and Its Relation to Marketing

Branding is essentially the development of a company’s identity. This is achieved partly through using consistent imagery, colors, and fonts in branded materials, but also through messaging that consistently conveys the company’s identity. When done well, branding can evoke specific emotions or imagery at the mere mention of a brand’s name. The names Louis Vuitton, Nike, and Coca-Cola all bring to mind a certain perception of that brand, its products, and its customers.

Branding shows up in a company’s marketing materials, but branding as a concept isn’t the same as marketing. Marketing encompasses the actions a company takes to tell its story and connect it to products. Marketing campaigns retain the essence of a brand’s identity while illustrating for consumers why this company and its offerings are the solution to whatever need they want to have met.

So if branding is about story, then marketing is the tool companies use to tell that story.

What Branding Does for Your Company

With greater access to more companies and product options than ever before, consumers can afford to be more selective about who they buy from. Consider these statistics:

• A measured 81% of consumers want to trust a brand before buying from them.
• When making purchasing decisions, 62% of consumers are heavily influenced by a brand’s values.
• A whopping 94% of consumers recommend brands that they feel an emotional connection to.

In a crowded marketplace, it’s important for companies to be memorable. Branding gives organizations the stickiness they need to remain relevant and recognizable, especially with their target audience. The more consistent your branding is, the more people will remember and connect with your organization’s story, regardless of where they are in the world.

While good branding helps businesses communicate with customers, it’s important for connecting with employees, too. It’s becoming increasingly important for workers to feel a sense of connection with their employer. That could mean aligning on environmental outlooks, diversity initiatives, or the company’s stated beliefs and goals. Employees in search of meaningful work will often use branding to help them determine if a company would be a good fit for future employment.

How Sonic Drive-In Used Branding To Build Their Business

In the 1980s, the concept of branding wasn’t on the radar of most companies, including Sonic Drive-In. This was true until the company went public in the 1990s and brought in new leadership. Sonic CEO Clifford Hudson recalls when Bob Rosenberg, the CEO of Dunkin Donuts at the time, introduced the idea to his team.

“One of his first board meetings, let's say '92, '93, Bob asked at the board meeting, ‘How do you think about your brand?’ And my reaction was, ‘What's a brand?’ Bob really helped us start thinking about any aspect of the business you're thinking about — the physicality of the drive-in, the way your television creative looks, the products you're promoting, the way your employees dress. All these things play into building an image in a consumer's brain that, in essence, is your brand with the consumer.”

It was a transformative moment for Hudson and his employees. They undertook a massive branding initiative dubbed “Sonic 2000”, which included revamping and revising several key areas of the business. Some of this included:

• Revising and renegotiating new license agreements with franchisees
• Overhauling the menu, including the design and featured items
• Reconfiguring the physical restaurant space
• Ensuring nationwide consistency with all franchisees to retain and promote new branding

The methodical commitment to branding resulted in several positive returns for Sonic, and branding continues to guide the company forward, particularly regarding advertising campaigns and evolving its practices to meet consumer needs and preferences.