The average person will likely come across many different business brands by adulthood. Some arouse a sense of excitement while others are off-putting, but all brands have distinctive features. They will have distinguishing colors and a logo that helps customers and prospective buyers identify them.
A business brand identifies a business and its products and espouses the ideals or the vision that your enterprise hopes to achieve. It also embodies the values that your business stands by. Ideally, people who resonate with your vision and values will identify with your brand.
Personal branding seems to be becoming more and more of a thing, especially in this age of social media influencers and content creators. You have probably seen the sites and social media pages of such individuals.
They will usually have high-quality images of the person and wording that showcase them as a trendy individual or an elegant professional you can trust with your legal matters, accounting, advertising, or website content. It gives the idea of creating a relationship that is based on personal trust.
As an entrepreneur or budding business owner, you need to study the pros and cons of both types of branding so that you get the best value for your money. Establishing a brand can be a costly affair, and you will want to make every dime count.
Personal Branding
A personal brand bears the same name as the person and cannot be separated from the person. It is a reflection of your personality, your tastes, your interests, and your values. Your personal brand will also be manifested in your reputation. Having said that, you have to be very careful about what you release into the public sphere about yourself.
Everything from a bad hair day to a view that grates against a certain community can be detrimental to your business. But there are a number of good reasons you may want to go with personal branding, the scrutiny notwithstanding.
Firstly, personal brands are much more malleable than business brands. If you wish to switch from content marketing to fashion, you can do more effortlessly with a personal brand than a business brand. A personal brand allows you to repackage yourself easily. You may have to come up with an entirely new business brand if you move into a new line of business.
A key part of any business is trust. It takes time for potential buyers to build enough trust in a brand for them to become regular users of its products. The process of establishing trust is shorter when you have a real person to connect with as opposed to just a logo and a slogan.
Once that bond has been established, you can take your followers with you into new product lines and even new business lines altogether. Transitioning into new spheres is much easier with personal branding than it is with a business brand. However, if you want to retire, you may have to retire your business with you.
Business Branding
Business branding doesn’t need much of an explanation as you see it around you every day. Most of the products you consume daily are produced under established business brands. That is the beauty of a business brand; it doesn’t need to be associated with a face or personality to sell.
As they don’t rely on a personal touch, businesses can take longer to establish a trusting connection with potential buyers. But once the brand is entrenched in the public consciousness, they are more likely to buy products without much need for persuasion.
A business brand will also allow you to reinvent your business and its products infinite times, depending on what benefits you hope the changes will achieve. If your business hinges on your persona, there is not much you can do to change how the world perceives it.
When you wish to switch gears and focus on something else in life, you can easily sell your business to someone else if it is marketed as a business brand. This is not the case with a personal brand.
Business and personal branding don’t have to be mutually exclusive. You can use your personal touch to help market your business brand. A high-quality branding agency can help you develop a strategy and effectively achieve this.
Where Are You Going?
The key to choosing the right type of branding is having a clear idea of your target audience and their preferences. You also need to look into the crystal ball and envision where you want your business to be in the coming years. Only then can you come up with a marketing strategy that incorporates the right kind of branding.