Understanding the Four Types of Branding to Leverage Your Business Potential + New Data

To Stand out in a sea of competitors, every person, product, service, and company need to develop a unique brand identity. What’s branding? What are the Types of branding? How to craft a strategy to build a unique brand? According to Google Pages, it seems to be a particular type of branding for almost everything in life. Are there really more than four types?

We’ll delve into that in this blog. So keep reading to get your creative juices flowing!

What’s Branding?

First of all, What is branding?

Simply put, it’s a process to create value for your product, services, people, and companies.

Value for what/for whom? Isn’t a person valuable for the mere fact he/she is a human being?

Absolutely. However, when branding experts talk about value, they refer to the one people perceive around business relationships. It’s the use-value classical economist wrote about at the beginning of the Modern Era (sixteenth Century up to the present).

What’s the use-value of a Coke? Hydrating? Certainly not; an endocrinologist would laugh about it. He would recommend water, isn’t he?

So let’s go into the nitty-gritty of branding.

The branding process is what improves brand recognition and retains existing customers —and convinces potential customers who might be on the fence. In practice, I’d say branding is a mix of Art, Science —Social Science, Economic sociology, Psychology, Marketing—, data-driven research, cultural awareness, empathy, and a great dose of creativity.

Think about it: how many times gurus have said, “Coke does not sell a carbonated drink, but Happiness”— at this point, you might be rolling your eyes. Lol.

Please Don’t.

Branding actually does create additional value, intangible value, in proportions it’s really hard to explain. At the moment, let’s say it’s a powerful tool to persuade people that your service, for instance, has an additional value —uniqueness, prestige, glamour, you name it. In fact, your brand might offer that additional value—but creating that additional value is the whole problem. How’s it done? It involves a lot of people working hand in hand. It implicates thinking out of the box 24/7; it’s about how-to-position-something-among-literally-hundreds-if-not-thousands-of-competitors.

The above poses a question: What’s marketing without branding?

Overlooking branding can lead to marketing campaigns falling on deaf ears, which at the same time translates into wasting a shedload of money. Branding provides everything a product —service, person, or company— needs to be “a thing,” to be unique, to be a saleable asset.

Brand Purpose: Setting out Mission, Vision, and Culture

Brand Values: Defining Your Brand Foundation, Brand Personality, Brand

Brand Identity: From Logo, Typography, and Color Palettes to Brand Positioning

Brand Guidelines: Using your brand identity consistently in every single marketing collateral

Branding strategy: Defining who’s your audience, what’s the brand voice and messaging you will communicate across all channels.

You have to come up with a well-thought-out brand strategy.  This ensures that you can send your message to your target audience and build a strong digital presence.

Meet The Four Types of Branding

There are different types of branding, each of which fits better your business needs. Here are the most relevant you need to know:

Service Branding

Service branding is a type of branding strategy that focuses on creating a unique identity for a company’s services. It involves creating a value proposition that sets the company apart from its competitors in the market. This type of branding focuses on the cultural and geographic aspects of the company’s services and how they relate to the target market.

Product Branding

If you offer products like clothing and accessories, represent a team, or offer a service, a strong product brand is what people recognize the most. For example, when you see the logo of Coca-Cola, you’ll recognize them right away.  Customers and leads identify it off the bat, and the product evokes emotions in them.

Often, there are several product brands within a company or organization. This is because these companies want to have efficient brand management. Integrating an umbrella brand system like what Unilever does is a prime example. It is a type of branding that requires additional resources.

Additionally, one of the main goals of product branding is to influence and simplify the buying decision of consumers. This is usually done by having a clear positioning. It helps to guarantee that the brand will have the right look, colors, and logos. Effective product branding plays a key role in a product or brand’s name and reputation across the market.

This should be one of the first types of branding you develop when launching your company or a new product. It should be catchy and recognizable enough.  It is very significant to have a product brand that will set you apart from the competition.

Personal Branding

A personal brand is how an individual can promote his or her image. It is the combination of experience, personality, and skills that a person aims to be known for. Personal branding is what helps you develop that image that will set you apart from other individuals. Oftentimes, personal branding is also tied to business or corporation, especially if you have your own business.    

For professional athletes, focusing on personal athlete branding is something that shouldn’t be overlooked.

Think about it: You represent your own company and what it stands for. You become a brand. This means you need to brand yourself.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF EFFECTIVE PERSONAL BRANDING?

Celebrities and politicians alike enjoy the benefits of personal branding, as this helps them have a good character in the eyes of their supporters. And you need to grow your visual representation and interact with fans, clients, customers, and sponsors through social media.

If you have good personal branding, it will give you the opportunity to highlight your passion and strength, as this will help in making sure people will get to know you better and gain their trust even though you haven’t met them personally.

People make some common mistakes in personal branding, and you need to avoid them to build a solid reputation, whether developing online branding (on LinkedIn) or offline branding (Speaking engagement). Some personal branding examples are:

Professionals in general: Marketers, Project Managers, Engineers, Physicians, etc.

Freelancers: Web developers, Graphic designers, Content Writers, Seo Strategists.

Business owners: Those who are authorities in a wide range of niches, such as fitness, e-commerce, healthcare, and others.

Social Media Influencers: Fitness influencers, Personal Trainers, Personal Coaches, etc.

Industry thought leaders: Chris Doe, Tony Robbins, Darrell Franklin, etc.

Corporate Branding

Among different types of branding, corporate branding is perhaps the most expensive and complex. So, what’s involved in branding an entire corporation? I’d suggest looking upon a company as wholeness with its own brand values, mission, culture, personality, with their own identity, and the impact it makes on consumers.

Corporate branding helps to integrate a company’s brand at all levels, from its visual representation and communication style to its overall company culture. Not to mention companies’ brand identities cannot be compared to other types of brand identities since they imply a more complex analysis level.

Fortunately, Harvard’s Professor Stephen Greyser and Mat Urder developed The Corporate Brand Identity Matrix, which has enhanced worldwide corporate brands, such as The Nobel Organization, IKEA, and Maersk. You can read all about it in our blog.

On the other hand, these branding strategies are best for corporate brands worried about promoting their benefits to target audiences. Job applicants are more interested in the company brand than any product brands you have. If the company brand is stellar, you’ll attract better applicants and long-term team members.

THREE WAYS CORPORATE BRANDING SETS YOUR BRAND UP FOR SUCCESS

1. sTAY ONE STEP AHEAD OF THE COMPETItION

It offers a competitive advantage for your company, and at the same time that you are selling or offering your product into the market, consumer awareness is enhanced because you have a strong corporate brand name and identity,

2. MAKES EASIER NEW PRODUCt launch

If you have effective corporate branding, launching a new product is seamless. It can be just easy for you to offer them to your target market without spending too much time and effort in marketing or promotion because, with your strong brand, it is easy for them to identify that product in the company.

3. Expands your business into new markets

Having recognizable corporate branding is very useful for a company that aims to enter a new market. This is easier for one to penetrate a new target or location (domestic or international). 

Develop Your Brand Strategy Today!

Understanding these types of branding in marketing is essential as this will help you determine the right strategy that will work perfectly for your business.

We are familiar with the ins and outs of branding. If you need to create value for yourself, your products, or your services, let’s jump on a free consultation. After our brand discovery session, we’ll craft a unique and convincing strategy to retain customers and attract new ones.

Do you want to leverage your brand?

Start a new project together!

FAQ

What are the 4 Cs of branding?

The 4 C’s of branding are customer, company, competition, and clarity.

These key points are crucial to developing effective strategies for branding.

1. Customer refers to understanding the target audience and their needs.
2. Company refers to the values and culture of the business.
3. Competition refers to analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of competitors in the market.
4. Clarity refers to having a clear and consistent message in all branding efforts.

Overall, branding is a critical aspect of marketing that involves creating a unique identity for a brand that sets it apart from competitors. This identity can be created through various types of branding, such as personal branding, corporate branding, product branding, and service branding. Effective branding strategies must consider key points such as the target audience, competition, and brand values to create a unique and successful brand.

Are There Any Other Types of Branding?

Google search suggests a wide range of types of branding; the truth is scholars’ research and branding thought leaders only identify four subcategories: Service Branding, Product Branding, Personal Branding, and Corporate Branding.

Let’s see what Google Pages Suggest:

• Product branding.
• Service branding.
• Personal branding.
• Corporate branding.
• Retail branding.
• Geographical branding, a.k.a geographic and cultural branding
• Cultural branding, a.k.a cultural and geographic branding
• Online branding.
• Offline branding.

Let’s double-check this information.

For example, retail branding is a type of branding strategy that involves creating a unique identity for a company’s products and services in the retail market. It focuses on creating a visual identity of the brand —logo, typography, color palette— that is instantly recognizable to potential and existing customers. That said, this type of branding involves creating a brand identity that is closely linked with the company’s products and services.

Let’s highlight “services” and “products” and think for a moment. A Retail store or brick-and-mortar requires service branding and product branding. So we can say retail branding is entailed by service and product branding. Thus, we stand by the four types of branding explained above.