How Branding strategies Helps International Businesses for Long-Term Growth

Only a few successful businesses required effective branding strategies prior to the internet. These were the biggest names in business, with global operations and employees all over the world. Coca-Cola is one such company. For decades, the beverage corporation has catered to a global customer base, tailoring advertising, distribution, and pricing to each market while adhering to its global brand strategy of sharing happiness. Fast forward to the 2000s, and most businesses are global from the beginning. Anyone can create an online business presence, whether it's a one-page website, an e-commerce store, or a social media profile, thanks to the internet. Companies of all sizes can launch global marketing campaigns and attract more customers without dedicated marketing teams with reasonable budgets and marketing creativity. It's essential to create a deliberate global brand strategy before executing marketing campaigns. A solid strategy increases your chances of connecting with your target market and converting prospects to customers.

How Branding Works?

A brand is more than just a name, a logo design, or a snazzy strapline it is everything that encompasses your organization and helps to set you apart from others. For example, branding can be achieved through:

• The visual identity of the brand (logo, website, and colors, are just some examples).

• Advertising and Communications

• Product and Packaging design

• In-Store Experience

• Pricing

• Sponsoring and Partnerships

Think of a brand as a person, each individual has their own personality, way of dressing, communicating, their own values, friends, characteristics, and story to tell. It is this that makes businesses who they are and it is also these characteristics that make a brand.

“In essence, brand strategies and emotion are two sides of the same coin. Successful businesses develop a strong emotional bond with their customers. To "build loyalty and garner trust, ensure that your image will resonate with your target audience" through extensive customer research and analysis.” Global Brand Strategy of International Businesses

To create a successful brand, everyone must be on board. Everyone, from the CEO to the shop floor worker, must share the same vision and purpose.This drive will also propel your company to success. Customers will benefit from employees who truly understand and believe in what they are doing and why they are doing it. This is why it is critical to have a clear brand strategy and provide structured and detailed brand guidelines to everyone who works for your company, which will reflect the brand's purpose, values, strategy, and communication codes. Branding has grown in importance for international businesses over the years, and for some, it is now even included on the balance sheet.

Why? Because having a valuable brand helps in the development of a profitable business. Yes, it will be adapted and modified over time, but a strong brand that can adapt will withstand any test of time and ensure future business. To understand the value of these international brands, consider Coca-Cola, Apple, and McDonald's. Your brand strategy should enable you to target and attract new customers as well as retain your loyal customer base. As a result, sales will rise! Furthermore, companies are now looking to buy or invest in other companies for the value of the brand attached to it rather than the raw materials or employees.

Branding-: A Way to Play in the Big Leagues

An effective brand strategy gives you a major edge in increasingly competitive markets. It is derived from who you are, who you want to be and who people perceive you to be. Are you the innovative maverick in your industry? Or the experienced, reliable one? Is your product the high-cost, high-quality option, or the low-cost, high-value option? You can't be both, and you can't be all things to all people. Who you are should be based to some extent on who your target customers want and need you to be. The foundation of your brand is your logo. Your website, packaging and promotional materials--all of which should integrate your logo--communicate your brand.Your brand strategy is how, what, where, when and to whom you plan on communicating and delivering on your brand messages. Where you advertise is part of your brand strategy.

Your distribution channels are also part of your brand strategy. And what you communicate visually and verbally is part of your brand strategy, too. Consistent, strategic branding leads to a strong brand equity, which means the added value brought to your company's products or services that allows you to charge more for your brand than what identical, unbranded products command. The most obvious example of this is Coke vs. a generic soda. Because Coca-Cola has built a powerful brand equity, it can charge more for its product--and customers will pay that higher price. The added value intrinsic to brand equity frequently comes in the form of perceived quality or emotional attachment. For example, Nike associates its products with star athletes, hoping customers will transfer their emotional attachment from the athlete to the product. For example Nike, it's not just the shoe's features that sell the shoe.

How do International brands compete?

Some examples of global brands that are in on-going competition with each other include; Apple vs OnePlus, Pepsi vs Coca-Cola, HP vs Dell and Lindt vs Ghirardelli. In an attempt to stand out or get one over their competition, global brands try implementing several strategies, including:

Thinking globally:

Top firms aim to be perceived as a global brand because this is what attracts consumers to their products. Airbnb used this global thought process in a business marketing strategy where they asked people across the world to accomplish random acts of hospitality for strangers and then upload a photo editor or a video of it, with the hashtag #OneLessStranger. This example of a marketing strategy worked wonders as within three weeks of its launch, more than 3,000,000 were following or participating in it.

Controlling the dark side:

Even though some firms are international brands, it does not mean that consumers always view them in a positive manner. If there are some negative perceptions of your firm, it is advisable to create campaigns that show your firm in a positive light. Another way of portraying this is to display consumer and client testimonials in advertisements and on your website and social media.

Converting corporate social responsibility into entrepreneurship opportunities:

CSR has become an important feature in top organisations across the world. However, the impact of these activities is questionable with most of these efforts directed towards public relations. Consumers are able to see through such activities, which end up harming the goodwill and image of the firm. Hence firms must be seen doing something that actually benefits or helps the society in general. CSR is a management concept in which organisations incorporate environmental and social concerns into their business operations. This is the best method in which organisations can achieve a balance of economic, environmental and social objectives. In fact, according to a study conducted by Cone Communications in 2017, 78% of consumers wanted organisations to address social justice issues, and a whopping 87% of consumers said they would purchase a product because the organisation supported a cause they care about. On the other hand, 76% of consumers stated that they will refuse to buy products from an organisation if it supported an issue contrary to their beliefs.

Final Notes

Branding is more than just a product design, a logo, or a catchphrase. Customer experience, brand promises, company philosophy, and culture are all important considerations. It is all of the characteristics that define you. Returning to the human example, each individual is distinct and has something unique to offer. This distinction is what distinguishes us; how this is portrayed and marketed is what distinguishes companies as leaders in their industry. A branding strategy that is integrated into your overall business strategy is unquestionably a growth and success strategy.