Branding

Brand Marketing

Never has it been more important to understand the power of having, maintaining and developing a strong online brand. Never has a simple Google search been able to tell us more about a person, who they are, what they do, and why they matter. We no longer need just to worry about what people see and hear about us face-to-face but we also need to consider our digital presence.

It’s no wonder that Brand Management is stepping up to deliver significant opportunities to job seekers, professionals and businesses. The career shrewd, professionals and businesses are now thinking of themselves as products and creating online brands that get them noticed.

Why Branding is Important

Celebrities have it, businesses have it, sports stars have it. We aren’t talking about the latest game box or scandal, we are talking brand. Think Donald Trump, Oprah Winfrey, Google, Pepsi Cola.

Branding is the relationships an individual, product or service has with its public online and offline. How others feel about your brand determines whether or not they want to have a business relationship with you.

Branding Revolution

Digital Branding has come of age. No longer is it solely a marketing discipline, confined to managing the promotion of products. Today, brand management is also a skill of self promotion. People want to proactively differentiate themselves from their competition.

A good personal, professional or business brand creates a point of distinction. It helps you stand apart from the crowd. No two grains of sand are exactly alike and no two brands are exactly alike.

Branding is all about You

Your brand is all about who you are and how you are perceived in the market. Everything about you, from the way you look and how your voice sounds to what you drive, speaks something about you.

In marketing branding is about working on your personal style, positioning and uniqueness to create a valued brand. This can help you to build your reputation as an expert in your field and to develop trusting relationships with your stakeholders.

Whether its a personal, professional or business brand or that of a product or service, the value of a brand is in the promise that it makes. A brand can help a customer recall positive or negative experiences and emotions which influence how people behave towards your brand. For the individual, this means that its important to create a personal brand that will deliver on the expectations of the customer.

If you do not take control of your own brand, then somebody else will. And unless its a highly paid SEO consultant with your interests at heart then its time for you to start thinking about branding services.

These services take key branding principles and apply them to individuals, products or services. This gives those individuals or companies a considerable edge and can differentiate them from the competition for jobs, promotion and sales.

• More than 80 percent of executive and corporate recruiters research job candidates online, and 43 percent say they have turned down job seekers because of what they found, according to a study released August 2008 by ExecuNet.

• Online reviews are second only to personal advice from a friend as the driver of purchase decisions; user reviews are more influential than third-party reviews. (”Web users and web community,” Rubicon Consulting, Inc. October 2008)

• 86% of consumers read online business reviews before making purchasing decisions; 90% of whom say they trust these reviews. (Kudzu.com survey of 600 users, December 2008)

• Almost two-thirds (62%) of consumers read consumer-written product reviews on the Internet. (Deloitte & Touche, September 2007)

• When asked what sources of information they are “very likely” to consult before making a decision about their entertainment options, 62% named Web sites with user reviews as their top choice, even beating out a knowledgeable friend (59%). (Marketing Sherpa, July 2007)

• Seven in 10 (69%) consumers who read reviews share them with friends, family or colleagues, thus amplifying their impact. (Deloitte & Touche, September 2007)

• 74% agree-including 14% who strongly agree-that they choose companies and brands based on what others say online about their customer service experiences, the survey shows. (Society for New Communications Research, May 2008)

• More than eight in ten (82%) of those who read reviews said that their purchasing decisions have been directly influenced by those reviews. (Deloitte & Touche, September 2007)

Gadook services a diverse Branding customer composition from our Orlando, Florida headquarters. In essence, no matter what the nature of your organization, or what industry you operate in, we have solutions to fit your brand marketing needs.