Branding: What is it and Why is it Useful to Shopify eCommerce Stores Today? (2023)

It doesn't matter if you're starting a new e-commerce company or looking to take your current business to the next level, the strength of your brand plays a vital role in your potential success.

Your reputation in the eyes of your customers, competition, and community is entirely narrowed down to your brand.

Nevertheless, creating a respected and strong brand from scratch is no easy feat; you perhaps lack a clue on how to effectively do it. Neither can it be accomplished by checking off a few items on your to-do list. Naturally, numerous questions will cross your mind once you would have settled on building a brand around your Shopify store business. However, the truth of the matter is, it should be approached with the long-term goal in mind.

In this introductory guide, we'll introduce you to the basics of brand strategy and what branding is, and then discuss the merits of having a strong brand.

Branding your Shopify store is one surefire way to stay ahead in business in a highly competitive eCommerce industry.

Branding is the process of creating a unique identity for a business in the mind of your target audience and consumers. At the highest basic level, branding consists of a company's logo, visual design, mission, and tone of voice. Your brand identity is also depending upon the value of your products, customer service, and even how you place the cost of your products or services.

By carefully establishing a website that describes what you offer, designing ads that advertise your goods and services, picking specific corporate colors that will be associated with your company, coming up with a logo, and featuring it across all your social media accounts, you are in other words branding your company. That is, you are polishing how and what people’s perceptions of your business are.

Furthermore, even if you never invest in a strategic brand approach, you're still going to have a brand. In case you're a company with poor customer service for instance, that will in the long run affect how your customers view you. You can be termed as a company that doesn't care about your customers just as simply as you can establish yourself as a brand that goes above and beyond.

In conclusion, what your customers think and say about your brand is the reality on the ground (not what you wish they should think). It’s the immediate reflex that pops into their minds when they hear your business’ name. It’s all depending on a feeling they have from the experiences they’ve had with you, be it good or bad.

And that's why your branding approach and brand management plan are very crucial.

Basically, no business starts out with an aim of creating an unreliable or "uncouth" brand. Most entrepreneurs, if not all of them, start a company with a grand vision of delivering outstanding products, at an excellent value, and establishing loyal customers for life.

Additionally, you're going to have a brand irrespective of your investment in building a strong brand identity. Therefore, you might as well equip yourself with every opportunity to succeed.

The main purpose of branding building is to simply and easily assist your customers in understanding what you offer and have through strategic positioning. However, it’s not only a USP (unique selling proposition) that matters. Rather, it is the combination of all the ways you communicate what you are up to. In the branding scenario, what you do is far more significant than what you say. If your company's mission statement is based on your world-class quality service, yet you don't actually deliver great customer service, there's definitely a mismatch.

Competent branding needs a realistic plan, including vivid brand guidelines, as well as alignment as a company on the brand identity of your preference.

You have perhaps already known that branding is crucial, but you are always endeavoring to ask why? Why is branding a must-have? What purpose will it serve your business? Why should branding be taken seriously? Is it worth a venture?

A brand is beyond just a unique name and logo. It weighs the total experience customers get when they interact with your business and their perception of your brand.

Moreover, branding is the gateway between your products and your target audience. Therefore, in case you can build a bridge of trust that integrates a customer with your brand, you will be establishing a pivotal emotional connection that makes them more likely to buy from your store.

For instance, if you pay a visit to a brick-and-mortar store and you are unable to connect with what the business stands for or its products, it’s almost impossible you’ll buy anything.

On the contrary, if you walk into another store and come across someone who works there, have a conversation with them, and can connect with their vision and products, there is a high likelihood you will buy their product by the end of the conversation.

Despite the possibility that you might not buy anything at that time, you’d have still built an emotional connection with the store and will probably follow their social media accounts or subscribe to their mailing lists. In the future, you are likely to treat them condescendingly or recommend their products to friends and family.

A good brand has a powerful influence on the future performance of your business.

1. Acts as a powerful Guide to Help People Identify and Recognize Your Business

As we had already highlighted earlier, your brand is more than just your logo and name. It is the overall personality of your business. It is what makes your business unique and stands out.

By branding your business, you reveal its identity, making it a no-brainer for people to readily recognize it.

A few ways through which you can achieve branding include the following:

• Visualize brand identity elements like your logo, brand name, and colors
• Enhance brand tone and voice
• Highlight brand values
• Product and packaging design
• Create Pricing
• Shopping experience
• Effective Advertising and communications

2. Assists Your business in standing Out Among the Competition

It should be known that customers don’t build relationships with products. Their main commitment and loyalty go to the brand. So, branding your Shopify store assists your customers in associating your products with the personality of your business. This in essence makes them select your products over the competition since they can easily relate to your brand and the promises you have made to them.

3. It helps you to create An Emotional Connection With Customers

The values of your business are a core aspect of your brand, and they play a crucial role in creating an emotional connection with your customers. It’s through this connection that customers are influenced to come and buy from you.

With this emotional connection, you can build trust in a nick of time. After all, once trust exists, your customers will grow loyal to your brand, an indication that they will almost always return to buy from you.

4. It Assists You in Setting Your Customer Expectations

When you fuse branding with a cocksure customer experience, your customers are aware of what to anticipate each time they want to make a purchase. It establishes mental shortcuts in customers, and they feel relaxed and collected when buying from you.

A good brand provides people with reasons to select its products and services every time. If you have a vivid brand promise and impartially deliver on it, it transforms your customer’s expectations. This will, in turn, assist you in building a robust base of loyal customers over time.

5. Makes Marketing and Advertising Easier

By branding your Shopify store, your business becomes stunning and unique, making it possible for you to paint a mental picture in the minds of your target audience. If they can easily relate to your brand, they will respond to your marketing and advertising strategies better.

Having developed a firm belief in your brand, your customers are more likely to refer your brand to their friends and families.

6. It Inspires You and Your Employees

Branding gives you and your employees (if you have any) important values to live and work by. If your team trusts your brand values, it will serve as a source of inspiration. In addition, it will assist you in enhancing and creating a firm focus as your team will understand and believe in what you are trying to achieve.

It will also serve as a leader to drive your work attitude and reflect on your brand’s purpose, strategy, and communications.

7. Helps to Grow Your Business

Branding is also significant to business as it goes beyond just marketing and advertising. Every other importance of branding for your Shopify business is aimed at increasing your bottom line and realizing business growth which is the main reason you own a Shopify store in the first place.

Better still, with branding, you can drastically boost the financial value of your business. The more customers you can generate, the higher the revenue and profit you will realize.

Designing clear brand guidelines are important for keeping a compelling

and cohesive brand. Your brand not only includes your customers' perception of you but how your employees think of you as well.

Besides adding your logo and corporate colors, you can communicate your brand message and brand identity through:

1. Your store environment and atmosphere: Is your store environment inspiring and modern? Or is your atmosphere gloomy and boring?
2. Having a clear brand promise: What do you want to be recognized for by your customers?
3. How your staff members treat customers: Are you known for excellent customer service and a great customer experience?
4. The products you carry: Are your products known to be of great quality?
5. The price you charge: Is your branding adjusted more towards wealthy customers, or are you selling to customers who take a keen interest in great bargains or deals?
6. Product packaging: though often overlooked, strategic product packaging can have a valuable impact on your brand recognition, and brand value.
7. Public relations: Did you know that Public relations and branding strategy often go hand in hand? Well if not, then you should know. The way you respond to the challenges and mistakes realized while growing a business impacts your brand.
8. Sponsorships: Who your brand partners with also play a massive role in your brand image.
9. Advertising: Efficient advertising is critical for improving your brand recognition. Your communication to your target audience should speak directly to their pain points, challenges, and needs.

Practically, every decision you make in your business will in the long run impact the power of your brand.

If your business does not yet have a steady brand, or you are not satisfied with what your brand currently stands for, you may benefit from a "rebrand." Before you decide to throw out all the industrious work you've applied to your current brand, it's crucial to keep your target audience and loyal customers in mind.

Avoid the urge to "start from scratch" unless it is irresistibly needed. A new brand can consistently improve the health of your business, but you want to avoid alienating current customers in the process.

• Begin by identifying what your customers and target audience prefer most about your business. What makes your business stand out? What are your immediate strengths?
• Come up with a brand message and brand promise that highlights what your business aims to do for its customers – what you’re outstanding at. Genevieve promises to save you 20% in 20 minutes. That’s an example of a brand promise. Lexington promises quiet luxury. And you, what are you promising your customers? Here it can be prudent to list out between 3-6 brand attributes you want to completely excel at.
• Always ensure your visual elements match your desired visual identity and your brand. If for instance, you’re promising innovation, you should not use grays and boring images. Colors and design play a vital role in developing a strong brand image.
• Enhance standards for employees' dresses and behaviors that support your brand promise. Make sure they are acquainted with what your brand is and can support it.
• Connect your visuals across every marketing tool you use, from advertising to signage to store highlights to mailings to shopping bags. This assists both existing customers and new customers by providing a consistent brand message.

Branding is a sophisticated process, mainly because its success or failure depends on your customers’ reactions to the act of engaging in business with you. You will sometimes not get it right, but the costs of not investing in your branding are more painful than the negative consequences of being seen as an untrustworthy or reliable brand.

That aside, it is our hope that you have learned how to effectively create a brand around your Shopify store. We also believe you’ve seen that establishing a brand goes beyond just creating a mere logo and making a choice of a cool business name. Additionally, you need to be consistent with your brand experience whether your customers engage with your business or not

As your business enhances, the need for expanding your branding outlook may gradually evolve. Always know that your Shopify store's ultimate goal is to provide value to people and not just yourself. Moreover, you hardly totally control people’s perceptions of your brand. With your best foot placed forward, you can influence them, build on your first impression and manage your reputation.

At this point, we are sure you have gathered the right knowledge, tools, and resources to get you started. In case you may need assistance with creating outstanding branding our highly experienced Shopify experts will give you the deserved help at an affordable price.

The Webinopoly team consists of a group of Shopify experts with deep experience in helping businesses set up stores in Shopify. We have a large portfolio of successful Projects and a truckload of excited customers. Check out our Shopify expert Page and Contact us today.

What is branding in reference to marketing?

Branding in marketing is a way to build a positive perception of your company, products, and services, with the help of marketing communications such as email, social media, print, advertising, and many more.

What is a branding reference to business?

Branding in the context of business is the ceaseless process of polishing the public perception of your organization.