What Is Product Branding: Complete Guide 2024

Last Updated on December 20, 2023 by DesignerPeople

Do you wonder why we all have specific choices regarding brand while making any purchase decision?

We have a specific requirement for each product, such as its USP; it can be quality, durability, cost, and value for money to make your customers stay loyal and sustain them.

There is a pool of “similar” products; the winner is the brand that successfully makes its distinct brand identity. That means it depends heavily on the appearance, visuals, packaging, logos of any other types of designs.

It also adds that the only way to lead your niche and boost sales is to build a recognizable brand. Contacting the correct branding agency will always ensure you make the right decisions. Let us talk below about how product branding comes into the picture and effectively implement it to evaluate your brand.

What is product branding? 

It is a predetermined strategy that will talk about a unique set of marketing elements to create a distinct value proposition of a given product. It is just an activity that defines the way the product’s image is said to its customers

To build a successful brand for a product, one should capture a specific target market along with some basic strategies, which can be:

• Having clarity of customer decisions
• Plan new horizon and markets
• Plan being risk-takers and experiment
• Construct brand identity
• Have clarity on target audience and platforms

Product Branding Elements

1.Brand Name

The brand name must be justifying your industry type and product category. Customers should not get confused, so there should be a justified level of familiarity with the name.

• It can be descriptive, which talks about brand purpose such as general motors.
• Associative product names which do not exist but relate to the product, such as Twitter
• Deviant name type is those who don’t relate with the purpose of product such as Apple.
• Neologistic non-word with no link with a product such as L&T

Also Read: How to Attract Customers by Your Product Packaging Design

2.Logo

There’s no such standard styling for a logo; it can be either minimal or detail-orientated. The colour, brand story, scheme, personality, fonts, or design style must communicate your product’s or brand type.

There should be a relevant message with visual clarity based components in product branding, so make sure that your logo is powerful enough to represent your whole brand.

3.Website

In today’s challenging phase, when customers first hear about your brand, you will learn more about the brand through their website design because now physicality is brutal. Here, they will expect to find your website and look around before deciding whether to buy from you.

In website design photographs and images enhance your brand and make people feel part of the unique clientele.

While the logo, typography on your website will remain the same, photographs and other supporting graphic elements can also vary to express messages such as new products, special promotions, new packaging, etc.

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4.Social media presence

Social media is having huge platforms, and depending upon your product industry, the correct platform is in use for branding. It will then enhance your brand voice and one of the vital elements of successful brand design today.

When we talk about social media branding, it is about brand personality, tone, positioning, font, graphics and creative visuals that spark the wanted interaction with the target audience. It would help if you were honest, interactive, and engage customers to stay loyal to your product brand.

5.Product packaging design

Product label and packaging design are another vital part of branding. You need to line up the product design and packaging with your brand values to attract your valuable customers.

The packaging alone can create the first impression and leave a lasting experience that customers have with your company, communicating through the brand’s story.

Packaging should have correct branding elements justifying its identity, including logo, message, typography, font, illustrations and many more.

6.Taglines

It is a short and memorable phrase used to convey the emotional value of its products.

In branding, your product must speak with customers that captures and projects the overall value you offer. It is a vital part of your brand identity that ensures clarity about who you are and its promise to your customers.

There is always confusion about a tagline and slogan while a motto applies to your entire business.

Procter & Gamble: Touching Lives and Improving Life.

A slogan specifically applies to a specific product of your business and is used in marketing campaigns.

P&G’s Pantene: For hair so healthy, it shines.

How is product branding different from branding?

Branding is a vast area in which product branding is just a part of it. In branding, there is a practice of creating a brand name, symbol, or design identified from other brands in the market.

• It promotes brand values, mission and vision of the company as a holistic approach. A productive brand strategy gives you a critical edge in increasingly competitive markets.
• Product branding’s objective is to promote a particular product or group of similar products.
• While branding aims to satisfy a massive group while product branding aims at the specific product in a selected market
• Market expansion in branding is high compared to product branding, where growth is not possible
• Branding promotes the company as whole qualities, while product branding is restricted to a single or group of similar product qualities.

Also Read: What is Co-Branding: Complete Guide

Benefits of product branding

1.Improves product identification 

Branding your product will enhance the return on your advertising and marketing budget. By communicating the same brand messages and using brand design elements such as colours, logos, graphics, and packaging continuously help out to reinforce the brand qualities.

Building a brand that customers can readily recall and recognize can reduce your marketing costs in the long term.

2.Easy purchasing process 

If a product branding carries out correctly, it will see many customers time they invest in the product trying to understand, which will help them vanish their pain points.

Such as products from the same brand but solving different purpose can identify if product branding is on point.

3.Market extension

When your product branding is substantial and, you can consider penetrating a new market for diversification which is an opportunity to capture a new zone. Giving new products the brand elements and brand qualities that customers recognize and trust reduces failure.

4.Act as competition to others in the market 

A strong product brand will give tough competition and acquire project market share. One has to make considerable investments in their brand development to match your standards.

A new pricing tag barrier can be set out for customers as they will insist on your specific brand because they will be more willing to go with your valuable products rather than other low-cost delivery.

5.Helps in developing market-based clarity 

Product branding, which represents a specific product, that helps to clarify the market to which it belongs.

Mae sure product in each category but with the same brand name should have its own distinct USP and identity. Else it is very confusing for customers while purchasing.

ITC is also in the clothing line and food items; hence, both should be positioned as per the product line to clarify.

7 Examples of successful product branding

1.Coca Cola

Coca Cola’s has always been consistent with its product branding. It may be its brand logos, social media campaigns, social media appearance, brand message, colour, ad spots, designs, label packaging.

Coca Cola also utilized the efficacy of its simplicity, visual with the peculiar yet authoritative cursive and also with its shocking red-colour psychology that evokes caution and warning.

2.Nike

Nike is selling more than a product; they’re aspiration of sale. Nike is shy of becoming the definition of sports themselves. The company has readdressed itself from just another shoe company to a young athletic and fitness lifestyle brand. Branding is one of the critical aspects that creates and defines a company’s strong identity.

By raising their brand, a company is taking steps to build brand visibility, value and make their products desirable. In the world based on sports, it has thrived on constructing its visibility and brand image and giving the company logo extremely high value.

3.Apple

The Apple brand is majorly based on emotion and experience, delivered through its fundamental values of design and innovation. Steve Jobs had found designers who always trust Apple’s vision about the human connection and could convert those beliefs into production.

The brand has a unique, distinct visual and verbal vocabulary expressed through advertising and product design.

4.Amul India

Amul long ago made its place in the consumer’s heart and mind. Most importantly, it is still maintaining the iconic brand’s name. The Amul mascot, a chubby and cute girl, usually dressed in a polka dot dress, is always recognizable in India. And the well-known tagline, ‘Utterly Butterly Delicious Amul‘, is just as catchy as it is known to all. Altogether, these two elements are a fantastic combination of brand elements for Amul. The brand recall for the Amulgirl is phenomenal across India today.

The biggest reason for this is the topical nature of the ads. The Amul ads are one of the longest-running ads based on a theme, now vying for the Guinness records for being the longest-running ad campaign ever.

5.Asian Paints

Asian Paints has always been enjoying such type kind of fan following for decades. The 73-year-old brand has become equivalent with the category humanizing the concept of home for all of us that it would not be wrong to call it a family brand.

The all-time favourite brand mascot of its times, ‘Gattu‘ created by a legendary RK Laxman aided Asian Paints. In 1954, Gattu, a naughty boy with a paint bucket in his hand, was launched and found its fan base in India’s middle-class population.

Gattu helped in bringing the commodity led business of painters to the actual end-users of homeowners. Then later when their infamous tagline “HarGharKuchKehtaHai” relate to the ad veteran PiyushPandey who took birth while working with Ogilvy, which became an instant hit.

6.Fevicol

Fevicol is a brand of adhering manufactured & marketed by Pidilite& synonymous with the word adhesives in India.

Fevicol adopted a twin approach of engaging successfully with its core target audience – the carpenters became their go-to brand, and innovative ads targeted the retail segment, which helped make it a strong brand.

Fevicol managed to build this relationship with carpenters & end-users through various programs. Fevicol Furniture Books, which showcases the carpenters’ current styles & trends in the furniture market, helped the company build awareness for the brand.

The branding strategy adopted by O&M for Fevicol was to make bonding a Fevicol attribute & the agency successfully used intelligent humour to convey this meaning. They also had a deep bond with print and television advertising with iconic ads like ‘Dum LagaKeHaisha‘, ‘Moochwali‘, ‘Egg‘, and m any more others.

7.Patanjali 

The Patanjali Ayurved Limited was registered in January 2006, known for its Ayurvedic Medicines. With its multiple medical clinics across the nation, under DivyaChikitsalaya, providing free diagnosis to poor people access to better health services.

One remarkable fact about Patanjali is that, unlike most other companies, they never depend upon other celebrity endorsers to endorse their specific products but rather made Baba Ramdev the whole sole face of the company.

His speeches have always considered patriotism in them, creating a sense of motivation in people a sense of love for their motherland. Patanjali markets its products positively among the target people of the entire nation.

The brand story communicates about being completely natural & better than its counterparts. The brand has very cleverly and sincerely worked on every aspect of their specific brand quality to completely stand out amidst the competitors.

Majorly consider the brand logo and name, for example; the name ‘Patanjali‘ comes from the name of a second-century scholar, who is said to be the Father of Yoga. Not only that, but their logo represents their name with a green & a saffron line below, invoking a sense of patriotism in the entire nation.

Conclusion

Product branding is not an easy task, and it’s more than just a simple product name or logo design.It also needs the right audiences, evoking emotions in them and building relationships with them.

Hence this is why you need to approach it strategically. The key takeaways from product branding are just a few keywords: brand identity, brand design, consistency, and human connections.

Under proper implementation, product branding can help you position your brand effectively and grow your brand tremendously. As a branding agency, we will align your product branding right direction to represent your product most effectively.

Author: Anush Malik

Being a strategist’s head and a long term visionary personality aims to achieve excellence in branding, packaging and digital marketing field. My 15 years of design experience and masters degree ais my strength which keeps me motivated and keep me going positively. I have participated in extensive branding design conquests in India, USA, Australia and New Zealand with winning zeal. My objective is to encourage start-ups and hence involves actively in the articles which will act as a productive intake of knowledge for them. Do connect me personally via my LinkedIn and I love to share my expertise with you.