There’s a lot that goes into creating a brand and it can be hard to know which kind of branding strategy is best suited for your own business. Firstly, your branding strategy needs to work well for both your particular industry and the current stage of your business.
Different types of brands will look to different types of branding strategies when implementing their business identity. Are you a new business needing a massive growth-focused approach? Or perhaps you’re a well-established business who is looking to move to eCommerce from a brick-and-mortar store with a new branding strategy.
Depending on how you market your brand and which strategy you use, you could find that you have a much larger audience than you initially thought!
Regardless of what you choose, you’ll need to know which types of branding are available for you. We’ll share seven types of branding strategies to help you make an informed decision when it comes to all things branding.
Types of Branding Strategies
- Personal Branding
When you think of personal branding as a primary branding strategy; celebrities, influencers, athletes, and other public figures should come to mind. As the name suggests, this is one of the types of branding strategies that can be used for individuals.
Often, the status of the person involved can be a significant driver for success for businesses. Utilising the social profile of someone who is already well-known can create new customers and generate a loyal fanbase for partnering brands.
You can also use personal branding as a strategy to establish the character, personality or voice of a brand.
- Service Branding
You may need to use more traditional types of branding in marketing. Service branding might be the right choice for your business!
Service branding is one of the types of branding that leverages what your customer needs. The core of this type of branding is to use a marketing strategy that provides your client base with top-notch service. Service branding is communicated as the way that value is added for prospective customers.
One of the key points to remember when looking at service branding is to maintain the relationship between yourself and your customer/service user.
There are many things that your ‘service’ will encompass, including the different contact methods and locations available, the in-store or online buying experience, and the various avenues of communication that you have for your customers. This combination of services is part of an omnichannel marketing or branding strategy and relies on many facets working well.
- Corporate Branding
Corporate branding is one of the types of branding strategies that might feel more familiar.
In essence, corporate branding is the marketing of the core values and philosophy of a business that is presented to the broader public.
Many corporate brands will aim to portray the company mission, personality and message at every point of contact with either existing or potential customers. Something important to remember with corporate branding is that it relies on the brand’s reputation to market itself.
Something that corporate brands do well is showcasing the overall brand of the business instead of pushing an individual product. Some examples of different types of corporate brands include Nike, Apple and Coca Cola.
What stands out about these brands is how they make the viewer feel about purchasing their products due to the broader brand experience.
- Product Branding
Product branding is perhaps the most common types of branding seen in marketing. It involves focusing on a single product (or variations of a singular product) to help it stand out.
Some of the elements that can be used in this branding strategy are words, symbols, designs, colours and images that work together to create a full product experience.
When looking to use product branding, you’ll need to understand your customer, their wants and needs, the market conditions and your closest competitors. If you are looking to launch an international product, you may consider changing a product to suit its local environment as a unique branding strategy.
- Co-Branding
If you’ve ever seen brands working together, then you’ve seen a form of co-branding. The basic idea behind co-branding is that two or more businesses agree to and develop a marketing partnership that is beneficial for all parties.
The impact of co-branding can result in growth, increased brand awareness and expansion into new markets.
For example, in South Africa, Oreos and Cadbury came together to make the ‘Cadbury Dairy Milk with Oreos’ chocolate bar that appealed to the audiences of both brands.
- Geographic Branding
This is one of the least common branding strategies. Geographic branding is one of the types of branding in marketing that leverages a geographic location to attract people to visit or invest in a country in a specific area due to the geographic association.
Cities, countries and regions all use geographic branding to entice visitors to unique attractions that other areas don’t have.
Some examples of geographic branding include the Statue of Liberty in New York, the Eiffel Tower in Paris and the London Eye. The inherent natural beauty and tourist attractions can be used for promotion in this type of branding.
While in this case, different types of brands may be countries or cities, businesses can also position themselves as attractive to a broader demographic.
An example of this is Parmesan cheese, which is produced in the region of Parmigiano-Reggiano in Italy. Similar products made elsewhere cannot be labelled as parmesan, because it is a product with a protected designation of origin.
- Retail Branding
Retail is a type of branding strategy that we should all know reasonably well. Retailers are stores that we engage with during our typical day.
Different retailers offer products from many other producers. For example, there are a variety of milk producers available at the grocery store for you to select from.
Most retail stores will showcase similar products side-by-side, while some retailers may only sell their own branded products. One of the most important things a retailer can do is create a unique brand for themselves – this is known as retail branding. For example, a retail store will use superior design, store layout, and a developed product selection to appeal to customers.
What’s the best way forward for your brand?
As a business owner, there are many types of branding in marketing that you can choose. From retail to personal, and geographic to a co-branding partnership.
First determine which kind of business you are, which types of products you are selling, your ideal customer and your future goals for your business. How you want to position yourself, your brand or your product should inform the branding strategy that you choose for your marketing strategy.
If you feel uncertain about where to begin with choosing a branding strategy, chat to us at BigToe Creatives. We are a brand agency that specialises in branding and web design. We’d love to help you discover your brand voice!
