Branding is the cornerstone of every successful business, shaping how consumers perceive and connect with a company. This article explores the essentials of branding—from developing brand identity and strategy to understanding your target audience through brand research and surveys. It highlights the importance of consistent messaging, effective rebranding, and data-driven insights from brand perception and awareness surveys. Marketers will also discover 25 valuable resources, including books, blogs, podcasts, and webinars, to strengthen their branding skills. From storytelling and logo design to customer loyalty and rebranding strategies, these tools empower marketers to build stronger, more recognizable brands.
Create your free online branding survey, form, or poll now!
You know their logos. You know their names. Nike tells you to “just do it,” while Apple tells you to “think different.” This is all part of a branding effort, and for these companies, it has paid off in spades. But if you’re a small, up-and-coming company, you may be wondering how you can ever achieve these levels of success. So, let’s take a look at branding and its importance, and then dive into 25 branding resources sure to help you on your branding journey.
Brand research is a key step for companies aiming to achieve branding success, as it helps measure brand awareness, understand brand perception, and gather targeted insights. Branded surveys are an essential tool for conducting brand research and understanding customer opinions about your brand.
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Importance of Branding & Rebranding
Consistent branding should be part of any company’s strategy. Branding is also a core component of an effective marketing strategy, helping to align messaging and connect with target audiences. It should be given a lot of thought, and once a brand identity is developed, it needs to be maintained. Deviating from an established brand identity can confuse consumers and negatively impact brand image, customer loyalty, and ultimately, sales. Such inconsistencies can also harm brand reputation, making it harder to build trust and credibility with customers.
Of course, brands usually must evolve to keep up with the times, requiring rebranding, but this is something that must be done very carefully. Rebranding should also include conducting a lot of consumer marketing research surveys to gauge the response of the public before a rebranding launch.
Because of the sheer importance of branding, it helps to have a robust list of branding resources at your fingertips. So let’s get started!
Brand Strategy
A well-crafted brand strategy is the backbone of any successful business, guiding every aspect of your branding efforts and marketing campaigns. At its core, a brand strategy defines your brand’s mission, vision, and values, and establishes a unique value proposition that sets you apart from competing brands. To develop a strong brand identity and boost brand awareness, it’s essential to start by understanding your target audience—what they value, how they perceive your brand, and what motivates their loyalty.
Brand surveys, such as brand awareness surveys and brand perception surveys, are invaluable tools for gathering these insights. By regularly conducting these surveys, businesses can collect valuable data on how customers perceive their brand compared to competitors, identify areas for improvement, and track changes in brand perception over time. The results can inform your marketing efforts, helping you refine your messaging, adjust your positioning, and create marketing campaigns that truly resonate with your audience.
Ultimately, a data-driven brand strategy enables businesses to make informed decisions, strengthen their brand’s image, and build lasting relationships with customers. By leveraging the insights gained from brand surveys, you can ensure your brand reflects the qualities your target market values most, leading to increased brand awareness, loyalty, and long-term success.
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Understanding Target Audience
Knowing your target audience is the foundation of any effective brand strategy. To create a strong brand identity and drive successful marketing efforts, businesses must first gain a deep understanding of who their customers are, what they care about, and how they interact with brands in their market. This involves collecting information on demographics, preferences, behaviors, and—crucially—their perceptions and opinions about your brand.
Online surveys and brand tracking surveys are powerful tools for gathering this information. By deploying brand surveys tailored to your audience, you can uncover key trends and patterns that reveal what drives brand loyalty, how your brand is recognized, and where you stand among competitors. For example, a brand loyalty survey can help you identify what keeps customers coming back, while a brand awareness survey can show you how well your brand is known within your target market.
Analyzing the results of these surveys provides a better understanding of your audience’s needs and expectations, allowing you to tailor your branding and marketing strategies accordingly. This not only helps you build a strong brand identity but also ensures your marketing messages resonate with the right people, ultimately increasing brand recognition and customer engagement.
Creating Effective Brand Surveys
Designing effective brand surveys is key to unlocking valuable insights about your brand’s perception, awareness, and loyalty among your target audience. To get the most out of your brand surveys, it’s important to start with clear objectives and a solid understanding of what you want to learn—whether it’s how customers perceive your brand, what drives their loyalty, or how well your brand is recognized in the market.
A successful brand survey should include a mix of open-ended and closed-ended survey questions. Open-ended questions, such as “What words would you use to describe our brand?” or “How does our brand make you feel?”, allow respondents to share their thoughts in their own words, providing rich qualitative insights into brand perception. Closed-ended questions, like “Have you heard of our brand?” or “Which of the following brands do you recognize?”, offer quantitative data that can be easily analyzed to measure brand awareness and recognition.
Keep your surveys concise and focused, ensuring each question is relevant to your goals and easy for respondents to answer. By using engaging and targeted survey questions, businesses can increase response rates and gather more accurate data. The insights gained from brand perception surveys, brand awareness surveys, advertising surveys, and brand loyalty surveys can then be used to refine your brand strategy, improve customer experience, and strengthen your brand’s image in the minds of your audience.
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25 Great Branding Resources for Marketers
From books to blogs, podcasts to webinars, here are some of the best branding resources available to you. These resources can provide valuable feedback and insight for marketers seeking to improve their branding strategies and make informed decisions.
Books on Branding
1. Branding for Dummies
This book, one of the hundreds in the “Dummies” collection, gives you the nuts and bolts know-how to create, improve, or maintain a brand. This easy-to-understand guide helps you brand everything from products to services to individuals, with step-by-step advice on positioning your brand, advertising and promotion, avoiding blunders, and keeping your brand viable, visible, and healthy. It also covers the key questions to ask when developing or maintaining a brand, helping you assess brand perception and loyalty.
2. Branding Secrets: The Underground Playbook for Building a Great Brand with Very Little Money
Promising to teach you how to turn your branding around in just 30 days without having to build from the ground up, author Kevin Albert provides a step-by-step guide to low-budget branding the right way. He offers up strategies that can help you sell more, increase your prices, and grow your ROI by improving your market perception. The book also guides you in identifying and addressing customer pain points, which is essential for strengthening your brand and meeting your audience’s needs.
3. He Said, She Said: Branding
In this entertaining but highly informative book, married couple Michael and Jaci Russo team up to talk about their experience in helping to create brand strategies for companies of all sizes. Their agency has worked with businesses all around America, building brand images from the ground up and helping them tap into the local market. The book also explores how effective branding strategies contribute to building brand equity, emphasizing its importance in establishing long-term value and differentiation in the marketplace.
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4. Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen
Your ultimate goal may be to increase sales, but you can’t do that without making genuine and lasting connections with customers. To do this, you need to tell compelling stories. The book also explores how storytelling can build emotional attachment between customers and brands, helping to foster loyalty and deeper engagement. In Donald Miller’s book, he talks about the seven essential elements to any story, beginning with the main character who has a problem (i.e., your target customer) and ending with your call to action (i.e., “check out our solution!”) that results in a sale and a satisfied customer.
5. Branding in Five and a Half Steps
Author and designer Michael Johnson dives into what it is that makes iconic brands tick. He looks at how a given logo or other branding effort was conceived and executed, and ultimately how it performed. He also discusses some of his own designs and their impact on the clients’ branding efforts, focusing on both the art and science behind successful branding. The book also examines the critical role of quality in building a successful brand, highlighting how perceived quality influences brand identity and customer satisfaction.
Online Publications / Branding Resources
6. Branding Magazine
Branding Magazine covers thought leadership and conversations happening in the branding and marketing industries. The publication boasts a top-notch roster of writers, including many executive-level contributors from highly respected agencies and industries. In it, you’ll find C-suite and design interviews, strategy insights, and practical how-to ideas. The magazine often features case studies and tips on launching a successful marketing campaign. Branding Magazine has even expanded to include Branding News, a companion site providing updates on recent launches and upcoming events.
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7. Brand Quarterly
Brand Quarterly takes a holistic approach to brand management, pulling in relevant stories and data from various sectors of the marketing world. The publication frequently covers brand research and its impact on branding strategies, including how brand surveys and primary research can inform brand perception and awareness. A quick glance at their latest articles reveals timely topics such as branding on social media, inspiring brand loyalty, out-branding the competition, and branding internationally.
8. Transform Magazine
This quarterly publication calls itself the only global magazine dedicated to rebranding and brand development. As mentioned earlier, sometimes rebranding is a necessity, and Transform Magazine puts the spotlight on that topic. Not only will you discover how to successfully rebrand, but you’ll also hear from other brand leaders who have and learn important lessons on what to do – and what not to do. The magazine goes into more detail on the specific steps and challenges involved in the rebranding process, providing readers with comprehensive insights.
Branding Podcasts
9. JUST Branding
This podcast, dedicated to helping entrepreneurs and designers build brands, is perfect for startups and up-and-comers. Each episode of the JUST Branding podcast explores the intimate details of the brand-building process with actionable tips from well-respected guest experts from all over the world, including thought-leaders such as Marty Neumeier and Chris Do. The podcast also covers strategies for becoming the first brand consumers think of in your category, focusing on brand recognition and awareness.
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10. How Brands Are Built
How Brands Are Built is hosted by Rob Meyerson, a San Francisco-based brand strategist. In each episode, he interviews other branding professionals, including leading writers, names, designers, researchers, and strategists. These branding professionals discuss, in detail, what they do and how they do it. The podcast also features comparisons and lessons learned from other brands in the industry, providing valuable insights into different approaches and strategies. If you want to understand how brands are built, this podcast is for you!
11. Brand Builder Podcast
Hosts Jordan Cohen, Jeff Murphy, and Sean Kelly bring you the stories, lessons, and people from the brands that have a reputation of being the most innovative in the world of branding. The podcast also explores what differentiates top brands from their competitors’ brands, providing insights into brand perception and market positioning. Tuning into this podcast is sure to help you gain knowledge about what’s working in the branding industry today.
12. The Brand Authority
A leading authority on social media and personal branding, Rebekah Radice hosts this weekly podcast that helps entrepreneurs build powerful online brands. Rebekah’s goal? To share “actionable strategies to generate more engagement, traffic, conversions, and sales through online, digital, and social media marketing.” Best of all, if you like your learning bite-sized, her insights can be consumed in 30 minutes or less! The podcast also provides tips for attracting and engaging potential customers through effective branding.
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13. Logo Geek Podcast
Nike. Apple. Mercedes. There’s no denying the importance of a logo. If you want to know how to create your own iconic logo, put the Logo Geek Podcast on your playlist. And while it will help you learn to design better logos and brand identities, host Ian Paget also interviews other successful entrepreneurs and graphic designers, diving into topics such as career advice, typography, mindset, and marketing.
Webinars / Branding Resources
14. Branding 101 Free Marketing Webinar
Want to move past transactions and into relationships? Or, are you tired of trying to win business by having the lowest price? In this webinar, you’ll learn how to create a brand that connects with consumers. It dives into what to say in all your marketing messages, how to inject personality into your marketing message and make your brand more attractive, and how to understand how customers feel about your brand. You’ll also learn how to create an attention-grabbing tagline and memorable logo, and more.
15. How To Build a Successful Small Business Brand
Want to make your brand a success? This webinar from Oniracom teaches the strategies, tactics, and secrets for building a recognizable brand that turns one-time shoppers into lifelong customers, showing you how to make your brand instantly recognizable, develop deep emotional connections with your customers, and clearly differentiate from the competition. You’ll also learn proven methods for cultivating loyal customers who will continue to choose and recommend your brand.
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Blogs on Branding
16. Sticky Branding
This business strategy company blog is filled with all sorts of helpful topics, including brand messaging, strategies, naming ideas, content marketing, and more. The blog covers different aspects of a brand’s development and communication, such as managing a brand’s identity, messaging consistency, and measuring a brand’s impact. There’s very little fluff or clickbait, and because of the vast amount of content, you’ll also find very current topics and ideas.
17. The Cult Branding Company
Wouldn’t it be great to have cult-level loyalty, like those Apple customers who camp outside the store awaiting the release of the new iPhone? Now, you can! While it’s difficult to develop that level of following overnight, Cult Branding attempts to help businesses grow their loyalty in this manner. Therefore, content is hyper-focused on understanding customer motivation and branding in ways that will appeal to them. The blog also addresses overcoming negative experiences, showing how turning adverse interactions into positive outcomes can foster stronger brand loyalty.
18. Craig McBreen
Branding expert McBreen wants to help entrepreneurs bring their brand to life. His blog offers something for everyone, with topics like personal branding, creativity, brand-building through SEO, and more. The blog also discusses the importance of using the right answer options in branding surveys to gather meaningful feedback. Perhaps more distinctive, McBreen gives each story a personal touch that makes you feel he’s talking directly to you.
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19. The Fulfillment Lab
What does a fulfillment company have to do with branding? Turns out, quite a lot! This company, which invented the concept of fulfillment marketing, offers companies an easy way to brand themselves through their packaging. Great packaging not only helps with branding, but it can also lead to viral unboxing videos that can spread the word about your brand (1 in 5 consumers watch them).
20. Branding Strategy Insider
Since 2006, Branding Strategy Insider has been focused on delivering meaningful, thought-provoking content that promotes an elevated conversation on branding while fostering community among marketers.
21. BrandStruck
Developed as a searchable online database of brand strategy articles, BrandStruck also offers a blog complete with data-heavy topics and ideas. It covers current events that affect brands and branding, as well as branding strategies to guide readers to success. If you’re someone who loves data-backed information, BrandStruck is a blog you’ll want to follow. The blog also provides insights that are accessible and understandable to the average person.
Create your free online branding survey, form, or poll now!
Networking Resources
22. Meetups
Meetup allows people to organize online groups for in-person or virtual events. There are currently almost 80,000 branding members across 188 groups, around topics such as brand strategy, entrepreneurship, brand design, branding for startups, and more. Meetups can also be a valuable way to gather insights from non-customers as well as existing customers, helping you understand perceptions and barriers from those who have not yet engaged with your brand.
23. Conferences
Branding conferences were largely put on hold in 2020 due to the pandemic, or they went virtual. Now, they’re back on! You can see upcoming 2021 & 2022 online marketing-related conferences in the United States at the link above from Fili. These conferences often include sessions on crafting effective brand awareness survey questions to help measure and improve your brand’s visibility and recognition.
24. LinkedIn
A lot of people think of LinkedIn as nothing more than a website for job search and post resumes, or talent search and post jobs. However, there are also a lot of groups to join that are focused on branding, such as “Branding Professionals,” a group with more than 23,000 members looking to share and discuss brand marketing and PR strategies. These groups often exchange tips on writing effective brand perception survey questions to help members better understand customer opinions and improve their branding efforts.
Create your free online branding survey, form, or poll now!
Surveys
25. SurveyLegend
Last but not least is our company, SurveyLegend. Surveys are crucial when it comes to understanding your brand image, brand loyalty, brand perception, and more. For more details, check out the advantages of online surveys.
SurveyLegend supports a wide range of brand survey questions, including both unaided awareness and aided awareness questions. With our platform, you can easily design survey questions that measure spontaneous brand recall (unaided awareness) as well as recognition when respondents are presented with a list of options (aided awareness). This helps you gather both quantitative and qualitative data for comprehensive brand insights.
Our platform enables you to create a brand perception survey using ready-made templates and best practices for effective survey question design. You can include brand survey questions such as: “Which of the following messages do you associate with our brand?”, “Which of the following words best describes our brand?”, “In three words, how would you describe our brand?”, and “How would you describe our brand to a friend?” These types of survey questions help you explore how your target audience perceives your brand, their emotional connection, and their overall experience.
It can also help you gauge reactions to rebranding strategies and new logo designs before you go to market. Of course, SurveyLegend is more than just beautifully designed, secure, and responsive surveys; we also keep a blog that often features great branding ideas and tips, such as 6 Ways to Build Brand Awareness.
Conclusion
Branding is the basis for any successful company. So without branding, you’re likely to get lost in a sea of competitors and never make an impact in the minds of consumers. Surveys, again, are a great way to begin understanding your branding. So, are you ready to get started? Check out our design and branding templates, along with our market research templates, and check out how easy we make it to brand your surveys here! Then, join for free and begin creating your branding survey!
Have any great branding resources of your own that we may have missed? We’d love to include them next time, just let us know in the comments!
Create your free online branding survey, form, or poll now!
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is branding in marketing?
Branding is the process of giving meaning to a company, products, or services by creating and shaping a brand in consumers’ minds.
What is a branding survey?
A branding survey allows marketers to gain an understanding of consumers’ attitudes toward their brand. It helps marketers gauge brand awareness, loyalty, price perception, and more.
What is a rebranding survey?
Rebranding surveys allow marketers to gauge a segment of the population’s reaction to changes in branding. This could be the logo, tone, voice, slogans, etc.
Where can I find branding resources?
There are countless resources available as described in this blog (books, podcasts, webinars, etc). If you need to conduct surveys, SurveyLegend is always happy to help!
