How Important is Branding?

What is Branding and how important is it to a machinery manufacturer? According to Wikipedia “a brand is a name, sign, symbol, slogan or anything that is used to identify and distinguish a specific product, service, or business.” Business Directory.com defines branding as: “Entire process involved in creating a unique name and image for a product (good or service) in the consumers' mind, through advertising campaigns with a consistent theme. Branding aims to establish a significant and differentiated presence in the market that attracts and retains loyal customers.”

To have a successful, world-wide recognized brand is every marketers dream. It creates immensely increased value for the product it represents. Several successful examples include the Nike name and ‘swish’ mark, the famous Coke name and font, the Apple computer apple-shaped logo, or Microsoft's flying windows logo. In most cases, you don’t even need to see the name of the company to know the brand. The obvious benefit of branding is that when a consumer is looking to purchase a product, they will automatically think of the well-‘branded’ item first. It comes to their mind immediately, because the "brand" is widely recognized.

Branding is just as important, if not more so, in B2B sales. Most packaging machinery manufacturers are competing with numerous other companies to sell similar products. Our customers are extremely busy and hard to reach. They often don’t have time to sit and listen to a twenty minute sales presentation. When they have the need for a new machine, they will contact the company that comes to their mind first. The machinery manufacturer that is the most successful in branding its name is the company that will get that first call.

So, how important is branding to a packaging machinery manufacturer? Very important. It could mean the difference between being asked to quote on a new project, or never even being considered.

The author, Marge Bonura, is the Director of Sales & Marketing for New England Machinery, Inc. (NEM). NEM is a leading manufacturer of bottle unscramblers, cappers, orienters, retorquers, lidders, pluggers, pump sorter/placers, scoop feeders, hopper elevators and much more. The company has been in business since 1974 selling to the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, personal care, chemical, household products, automotive and other industries. For more information on NEM, visit their website at www.neminc.com.