Can I sell more as a brand? Will I grasp more market share? Will it be the next big thing?!!

These are questions you need to ask yourself before launching your product into the market. Because, not every brand in the market is a success, and not every brand has an easy ROI (Return On Investment).

So can you sell better by becoming a household or industry norm brand?

In this article, we've outlined a few pointers that you should consider in your marketing strategy. Read on..!

#1. The Bank Heist - Branding is costly (invest wisely)

Branding campaigns require companies to analyse and research markets, audiences, industries, design short and long term campaigns, put in days and weeks of man-hours...

A good branding campaign may span from 6 to 12 months.

[bctt tweet='"Nielsen’s Global New Product Innovation Survey found that nearly six-in-10 global respondents (59%) prefer to buy new products from brands familiar to them, and 21% say they purchased a new product because it was from a brand they like."' username="Nielsen"] Source: http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/news/2015/understanding-the-power-of-a-brand-name.html

You've got to be ready with a ton of cash to process, and progress, but take the the first small step, which will cost you very little.

However, ensure that you take the right step, and not make a mistake. Because the first step in the right direction, will be the best investment to come for ages.

You tarnish your first impressions, you're going to see your monetary resources depleting very fast in order to correct that mistake.

...In 2016, Samsung spent 11.5 trillion Won (around $10 billion) on marketing its brand and products to consumers all over the world. The tech giant spent 4.4 trillion won (around $4 billion) of its marketing budget on advertisements, which is 15 percent more compared to the year before.

LG also increased its advertising budget last year by spending 1.3 trillion Won (around $1 billion), representing a 21.4 percent increase compared to 2015...

- Mitja Rutnik

Got that? But wait on a second. We're talking about some of the big players in the industry.

The bigger fish you try to fry, the bigger a frying pan you need. In other words, the bigger you get, the bigger your competition gets. And this reflects upon your marketing budget, and your expenses, and revenues as well.

However if it is a product that begins within a close knit community, the probability of your brand being a huge success, on an extremely low budget, we believe is high. This would be because trust, is not in the brand that you created, but brand trust is in you. In other words, you are the initial brand. Although there are cases, where this scenario may be contrary.

And sometimes, there's...

#2. Just too much to choose from - Brand overcrowding?

Imagine this. You enter upon a banquet hall, invited to sample the hundred or more dishes laid out before you. Where would you begin, which would you prefer. Which would you nominate. It's your individual choice.

This is more or less what happens when a customer has too much to choose from. And there is a probability, that you'd finally go for the one your most familiar with.

On a regular day at a local food market, people would find a display table with 24 different kinds of jams. Then on another day, at that same food market, people were given only 6 different types of jam choices.

Iyengar and Lepper found was that while the big display table (with 24 jams) generated more interest, people were far less likely to purchase a jar of jam than in the case of the smaller display (about ten times less likely).

...And it’s not just the sales volume that’s impacted, customer satisfaction takes a hit as well....

...been a ton of research on the topic and studies in other areas (like food and clothing) have shown the same results.

- Florent Geerts

#3. The Brand Ambassador - Earning brand loyalty to cause brand advocacy

This could very well be the game changer of the season. Play your cards right.

Brand loyalty is not something that can be achieved overnight. One of the most important aspects that aids the level of loyalty towards a brand, is the level of trust a consumer will have in a product. For example, when you wish to purchase a smartphone, would you trust a device from Apple, Samsung, ZTE, or Huawei? Exactly. Your thoughts on the particular brand of choice will factor upon what you trust in that particular brand.

Sometimes an Apple fan would not trust in just the device, his trust would be in Steve Jobs who invented the brand.

"Steve Jobs, it's his product. Of course it's good!"

That's trust. And with trust comes loyalty. Win trust by taking the right steps, and don't compromise in the values that you portray to the customer.

Consider an Android device (Samsung, Huawei, ZTE, HTC, etc), you may find that trust here is based upon the operating system and functionality which particularly translates towards open source software, and towards variety and diversity. Diversity in terms of seeing the OS across a multitude of devices from different manufacturers. Each brand has it's own personality that resonates with a particular type of market. Low-end, high-end, the always latest, the unbreakable, etc...

This is just an example of how brand loyalty is built. In other words, build trust in the values you, your company, and your brand advocate. And in return, this will lead to brand loyalty. Once you've achieved brand loyalty, you can be sure that your fan base shall be brand advocates.

#4. The Type of Product (does it matter?)

In the research & analysis stage, prior to launching your brand, you've got be sure that the return on your investment is good, and whether or not you should launch a major brand campaign in order to create brand demand. A particular element that you need to consider is the type of product. Would your product work better as a brand? Does it need to be a brand? Should you invest in branding your product? The bottom line, Will it sell?

Take a look at the infographic below...

- Martin Armstrong / Statista

So as you can see, if you do launch as a brand into the market and your product falls in the Toys & baby products category, there is a chance you're not going to see much of a return on the investment. You may invest in creating and marketing a brand, and try your best to go global, but your return on a large investment, can be very poor.

However, not to put you off, the data in the chart above may be slightly off the mark. Take a peek at the data visualization below:

- Matt Stiles / The Daily Viz

Now compare the period of time when the Brands survey was done. It's from November 2017, to January 2018. While the most number of birth days seem to be in the month of September. Which means, that offtake of the goods in that particular category would have been 2 or 3 months prior to the Brands survey. By this time, new parents would probably be in a different mindset maybe..? There's room for possibilities.
*The 2 infographics above are both based in the United States. Countries, seasons, and cultures can radically effect different buying patterns, brand loyalty, and so on.

#5. The Domain Name

It today's world of marketing, one of the first things you need to do is secure a brand name on the internet. This starts with obtaining a domain name that represents your brand directly.

Apple, KFC, Discovery, DHL, Lenovo, Tesla, Google, Gentelle...

Go ahead, just add the .com in the end, and see for yourself.

Your marketing strategy will rely definitely on a good domain name. So make sure you secure one. It's worth the investment.

We find NameSilo.com and Name.com to be amazing brand domain name search tools.

All in all, this article covers just a few points that you need to consider if you wish to create, and sell your product as a brand.

So take the right steps from research and analysis, to proper planning long term, and short term, to budgeting and putting controls throughout the process. And thumbs up!