Some people spend a lot of money in decorating their business outlet – especially if these are client interaction places. And some companies spend money on core product or service development rather than spending on overall packaging or presentation of the product. Which one is a better marketing or business model?

Now many people ask which one is the best strategy if you want to develop a good brand in any niche. Let us try to find out an answer to this question.

Before answering the question let us find out what we understand about brand.

A brand is mainly a perception – the way you perceive something or someone. Thus you cannot always determine what shod be your brand in the truest sense of the term. Your brand is determined by your target market. To add to this, two individuals of your target market may have completely different views about your brand.

A lot of people believe that the product you are selling is your brand. This is not true. To the most, the product may be a visual representation of your brand like your logo. We always think is terms of associations. We always try to associate something with another known thing for easy and better understanding and remembrance. Thus, your brand identity gets associated with your logo, company name, product range or even the telephone operator of your company.

It is always important that you invest on core product development. People will not buy your product if it fails to deliver desired result. At the same time, if you only focus on core product development rather than developing a proper brand marketing strategy, there are high chances that it will be lost in such a competitive market. They go hand in hand to reach the desired object – business.

So, if you cannot determine how your brand will be perceived, is there any need to spend on branding?

Yes; if you want a sustainable growth in your business, you must invest on proper branding. This will guide your business in the long run. People invest on branding because they want to guide people on how to identify the company or the product. Even if you do not invest on brand identity marketing and development, people will develop a brand identity for your company. However, the problem is that, in most of the cases it will not help your business. On the contrary, it may degrade your business.

What are the elements that may determine my brand?

This is one of the most important questions that you must answer to allocate your budget. A brand is normally a story that you tell people about you, your company or the product you are selling. This is a story that you believe and you target market would be interested to believe. A brand is a story that will engage the target market to talk about you.

Thus, you need to take care of all the visual aspects of your company like logo, color scheme, people, brochures etc. and what people are talking about you like newspaper coverage. All these things should have the same comprehensive story to tell about you. No one knows at what point of time your target market would develop an identity for you and thus you need to stay prepared for all occasions.

Do not forget to develop a story that your target market would like to believe and tell others.