Everything you need to know about retail branding
Retail branding is vital to differentiating your website, shop and product range from the rest of the market. It’s so important for modern businesses to engage with branding beyond logos and product taglines, connecting with consumers in ways that build affinity and make you memorable when someone is ready to purchase later on.
Retail branding strategies are effective when they create connections, whether they help consumers remember you, relate to you or understand how you are different. Strategies involve visuals, messaging and sensory experiences both on and offline.
What is retail branding?
Retail branding is a discipline which creates a unique identity for a retail business. Brands give consumers something to relate to, understand and remember about your business and product range. It includes all identifiable aspects of your business: everything from your logo and shopfront design to your customer service and marketing messages.
Retail branding builds loyal customers
Consistent branding helps customers recognise your products, website and shops as part of the same business. It helps make the mental link between your advertising and your business. It draws in your target audience by creating an affinity for the character you project, making them choose your products over others again and again.
With consistent and quality retail branding, your products gain a higher perceived value, and your customers get an improved experience, all of which lead to more revenue for your business.
How to create a powerful retail brand
1. Define your brand identity
Establish your brand’s mission and values as a foundation. Deciding what your brand stands for, whether it’s family, the environment, craftsmanship, tradition or something else. Are your values linked to your USP? For example, your products may be completely sustainable, so your values might be to protect nature, find new, clean methods, or to stand with your customers on what matters. Your values will guide your decision-making as you develop your brand identity.
Think of your brand like a personality that represents these values. Apple is intelligent, creative and simple. Cadbury is a treat, an affordable luxury, a fan of the small pleasures in life. What character traits does your brand show to the world?
2. Understand your target audience
Commission some research to understand the values and drivers of the people you most want to sell to. If you’re trying to sell to everyone, you’re usually talking to nobody – and you won’t become a great retail brand.
Choose a segment. It could be new parents, fashionable teenagers, drivers over 30 or rock music fans. Narrow down who you want your customers to be, then find out as much as you can about that group. When do they buy your type of product? Are they trying to be healthier, have more time to spend at home, or looking for ways to save money? Think demographics, psychographics and purchasing behaviour. All these factors will impact how your retail branding appears in the world.
3. Design a memorable brand experience
Good retail branding is all about experience. This is the overall impression a customer receives from interacting with all touchpoints, including in-store and online. These interactions could be emotional or transactional, but they will create a subjective experience that can be projected onto your business.
Designing a brand experience means thinking from the customer’s perspective and curating every aspect of your front-facing business to give the desired impression.
- Cognitive: Stimulate thought or curiosity, educate customers about your product, present a unique perspective in advertising
- Emotional: Create a positive feeling, such as trust, excitement, belonging or even recognition
- Sensory: Colour palettes, logos and typography are visual; music and sounds are aural; retail branding can even include texture
- Behavioural: Make your customer experience smooth and confident, with easily assembled products, simple in-store interactions, or a well-built website
- Relational: How you look after customers before and after purchase, tailor services, or respond to feedback creates a relational experience
4. Maintain brand consistency across channels
Develop ways to express your brand’s identity consistently at every point, from social media posting and website design to window displays and experiential marketing.
5. Engage and build community
Work with your consumers to create a sense of community around your products. If your brand is intellectual, create a discussion space for emerging thoughts. For creative brands, encourage people to customise or share their own creations. Think about what your customers need from you, why they will choose your products, and build infrastructure for engagement around it.
5 Types of Retail Branding
If you’re struggling to know where to start, we can point to various retail branding types and examples.
- Luxury Branding: Showing that your products use premium materials, long-lasting construction, and belong in a luxurious lifestyle, such as Chanel, Yves St Laurent and Ferrari
- Discount Branding: Showing that your customers get a good deal with your products because of your business model, such as TKMaxx or Iceland
- Experiential Branding: Highlighting the experience of using your brand as the main selling point, such as Apple, RedBull or Pampers
- Digital-First Branding: Dispensing with the brick-and-mortar retail experience and focusing efforts on digital sales, like Sonos, Supreme and Louis Vuitton’s latest strategy
- Sustainable or Ethical Branding: Positioning your main USP as your ethical or environmental values is a strong strategy that sets you apart from most brands in most sectors, as long as it’s legitimate, like Lush, Patagonia or Lucy & Yak
Benefits of Retail Branding
Your Business Stands Out
Good retail branding grabs attention. When everyone is bombarded with advertising constantly, this is hard to do. But, there are still ways to cut through the noise with branding that reflects a unique proposition, challenges consumers to think differently, or makes them feel seen.
Your Marketing is More Efficient
When your retail business has a strong brand, every impression on your marketing content is someone being reminded you’re there. If your marketing also highlights how your products are different, shows a lifestyle your target consumers want, or is easy to remember, your brand awareness will skyrocket.
Your Brand is More Recognisable
A strong brand is instantly recognisable. People can pick your products out from a crowd, which shows them that you’re established, trusted by others and easily available.
Your Business is More Competitive
A unique brand identity helps you stay ‘Top of Mind’ even when new players enter the field. There’s no adequate replacement for the top retail brands in the minds of loyal customers, so strong retail branding is worth the effort.
You Make More Sales
All these benefits add up to the main reason for running a retail business: making sales. A powerful retail brand creates interest, drawing people in to find out why it is so compelling and even purchase your products as an expression of their own personal identities.
Common Challenges in Retail Branding
Differentiation in a Crowded Market
It’s hard to stand out when there are many similar products. Retail brands that stay true to their values and mission can find ways to show they are unique by using these as a guide.
Staying Consistent
When something isn’t working as well as you’d hoped, it’s tempting to keep trying new approaches. Stick with a single brand identity across all touchpoints, from physical stores to social media posts, so you can build trust and brand recognition.
Experiential Expectations
Whether online or offline, today’s consumers expect a retail experience to be seamless, with minimal friction or barriers to purchase.
Online, this looks like a well-designed user experience, optimised for a smooth journey to the checkout. Websites should be visually attractive and fast.
In retail shops, clear pathways to purchase are key to success, but they must be couched in a distinctive, memorable brand experience. The sounds, lighting, colour scheme, textures and even scent of your brick-and-mortar location all contribute to the vibe – curating it is a challenging balance.
Effective Retail Branding Strategies
Go Local
Location-based targeting in your marketing strategies can help retail brands connect with customers in their area. Use local SEO, store locator tools and social media to build visibility and foot traffic.
Tell a Story
Your retail brand identity can be communicated extremely well as a character across your advertising. This is why brand mascots are so compelling, whether for cereal or fried chicken. Use storytelling to highlight your uniqueness and make an emotional connection with your target audience.
Invest in Omnichannel Experiences
Integrate your digital and physical stores to create a unified experience. Use store locators, product catalogues and customer service channels to create a consistent experience for users at all locations. Curate your website and your shop interiors with the same care to help consumers marry the two in their minds.
Focus on Community
When customers engage with your product online, post about it or share feedback, respond. Create online experiences that align with your retail branding and gather your audience around something they all care about. A good social media community manager will be able to engage people, moderate communities and curate content that draws your audience in.
Use your USPs
You might have a commitment to sustainability, strength, or accessibility that resonates with your target audience. Turn this up to eleven, invest in making this USP dominant in all of your touchpoints, in person and online.
Build a Brand that Lasts with B_RD
Your physical location deserves quality retail branding. A plain shop-front and uninspiring interior can do nothing but blend in, so invest in designs that make your shop shout your identity throughout the high street. Whether you’re hosting a pop-up or opening a new flagship store, good design is always worthwhile.
B_RD is an experiential design agency that specialises in creating visually stunning spaces that audiences can’t help but explore. We create 360° displays, installations, props, décor, shop layouts and print products for global companies, helping retailers connect with their ideal audience in every market. Our designs are adaptable, and we apply them consistently across multiple locations and touchpoints.
