WHAT IS BRAND?

Brand is perception! In today’s world, where products and services with similar features are offered to users’ tastes and preferences in order to meet different needs, companies, institutions and organizations compete with each other to be preferred by users. The efforts of all these businesses to differentiate their products and services from their competitors, which are similar in terms of their characteristics, correspond to the phrase “brand”.

What is the connection between E-Commerce and Brand? Electronic commerce is a big and opportunistic business line for electronic brands or those who want to move their brand to digital.

DIGITAL BRANDING CONCEPT FOR E-COMMERCE:

• Digital branding is a brand management business that is a combination of Interactive branding and digital marketing. Online marketing, data-based applications or media contents are used to develop brands in the digital world, including internet-based businesses.
• Digital channels and applications (Instagram, Youtube, Facebook) enable a brand to maintain brand communication across multiple channels. Brand awareness created in the digital world, besides managing sales, aims to create brand recognition, image and brand loyalty. It is an essential concept for businesses, companies and organizations that are digital brands, in short, for those who want to have a corporate identity in the virtual environment. In a short definition, what the institutions produce and develop while expressing their brands; websites, apps, videos, campaigns, etc. All content is focused on digital branding.
• Digital branding is the realization of processes or areas of expertise included in the concepts of “digital marketing and brand management-communication” by working in an integrated manner. The digital branding process can be fed simultaneously with the technologies developed by Web 2.0 and traditional brand communication processes. The main thing for this concept is digital. For this reason, the company is a result that should be reached for institutions and organizations, it has the quality of a target.

IS JUST A DIGITAL BRAND ENOUGH FOR E-COMMERCE?

There are some metrics that should be taken into account by institutions, organizations, businesses or individuals engaged in e-commerce before creating or developing their Brands. These are respectively:

1. Brand Marketplace Selection

It is possible to list the issues that a company aiming to choose the target market in e-export and e-commerce marketing should focus on as follows;

• Firm’s possibilities (whether it is limited or not) such as Production Capacity
• Features of the product/service (whether it is similar to competing products) Distinctive difference in taste, design, packaging
• Sustainability of the product. Such as constant need, seasonal product, instant trends
• Market structure (whether it meets consumer needs. Like selling red lipstick where the male population is high)
• Competition conditions (competitors’ strategies) such as location, raw material, price, familiar brand awareness

Considering these factors inside and outside the company, the most appropriate strategy should be determined for each situation.

2. Brand Positioning:

• The firm must decide what position it will be in as a target market.
• The market position of a product is its place in the mind of the consumer relative to the products of its competitors. As the product can be positioned according to its niche qualities or benefits or usage status; It can also be positioned directly against the big competitor or in a different direction from that big competitor.
• In order to make positioning, first of all, the characteristics and position of all competitors must be determined accurately and completely. The firm then determines a position for its product/service. At this stage, while determining the position of its own product, it should be able to reveal consumer benefits that are not offered by competitors but preferred by the target market. In this way, it will be possible for the consumer to be influenced by emphasizing that it is to their advantage to buy their own products and services, not their competitors’ products. In other words, the differences, advantages and reasons for choosing the product and service to be offered to the target market compared to the products and services of the competitors should be technically, systematically and consciously arranged in a strategy planning style.
• Whether foreign customers need products and services.
• Competition from other firms offering similar products and services in the current market class.
• Economic conditions in the country determined as the target market.
• The socio-cultural structure of the country determined as the target market.

THINGS TO BE CONSIDERED TO BE A BRAND IN E-COMMERCE:

Things to Consider for Being a Brand in E-Commerce:

1. Brand Name: The brand name is the concept that combines the features of the product produced by the brand with the promises they offer to customers. The name of the brand has to be chosen carefully because it conveys valuable information to the target market. The name should be distinctive, memorable, easy to understand and easy to say.
2. Symbol and Logo: Symbol and logo are parts of brands that we can see with our eyes but cannot say with words. A strong symbol or logo adds strength to the identity of the brand, makes it easier to be etched in people’s memories and not forgotten. Logo refers to the formal appearance of the brand or businesses. If the logo is designed well, it covers both functional needs and formal needs together. It is the corporate values and qualities that should reflect the use of the brand and the logo together.
3. Slogan: Slogans are short phrases usually created for a brand that helps to describe the brand. For example; Always getting better with Vezuve.
4. Color: Just like the others, colors contribute to the remembering of the brand in the minds of customers, and at the same time, it allows the brand to create the perception that it wants to create in the mind of the customer.
5. Packaging: Packaging has come to a very important position in order to create visual attention. The packaging should appeal to the customers’ eyes from an aesthetic point of view.
6. Quality Photo and Video Shoots: All users who want to know and buy the product without seeing it, primarily focus on the product photos. The product images should be of the same quality as the brand describes the product. Even in simple Chocolate commercials, we see a whole family having breakfast on a table, or with diamond rings shining against dark backgrounds in sumptuous boxes.
7. Visibility: The majority of users want to have everything they want right away. In an intensely competitive environment where alternatives are plentiful, the most accessible is always the first. Fast shipping options, special shipping methods are indispensable for digital brands.

When it comes to e-commerce, one of the first things that comes to our mind should be social platforms. The impact of social media on e-commerce is too valuable to ignore.

E-commerce, Brand and Social Media

Brands offer their products to market in social media, which is a developing web tool that is highly preferred by consumers today. The main reason for this situation is that they ensure that brands attract attention in this area where the target audience is in. It becomes easier for the target audience to find, review and give feedback on brands or vendors in social media environments that they use during the day. In today’s world, where the experiences and ideas of consumers are considered important, brands can learn these ideas and experiences from comments or from consumers who directly communicate with the brand. The difference between brands and fake accounts that can be opened on social media is the communication between brands and consumers. The important thing in the marketing strategy is the promotion of the product, price determination, campaigning and delivery of the product to the consumer. Social media ensures that the brand and the consumer stay in one-to-one communication on these issues, and thus the consumer chooses the brand again. This again ensures that the customer value, the pricing preferred by the customer, the relative use of the customer and the contact with the customer are used as a priority in the marketing strategy.

Digital Brand Efficiency

Communication is one of the most important factors that increase digital brand efficiency. It communicates directly or indirectly with the consumer by promoting its brand products and brand. When an effective communication is established between the consumer and the brand, the consumer respects the brand. As a result of trust-inducing communication, the consumer tends to buy the products of the brand. The right communication between the brand and the consumer ensures that the consumer prefers the brand more often.

Use of Digital Advertising Compared to traditional advertising, digital advertising allows the brand to easily reach the brand and products by paying more affordable prices. In addition, the fact that digital advertisements can be controlled, edited and measurable analyzes of advertising success become an advantage for brands. But digital advertisements also have a downside. This disadvantage is that internet users use blockers to avoid digital advertisements. Despite this situation, the advertising opportunities of social media tools are important in the marketing strategies of brands. Brands prefer social media ads more than conventional advertising. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube, which are the social media tools that internet users prefer, are advertising areas within brands. On the other hand, Facebook is frequently preferred by the brands you have various advertising methods for brands.

Digital advertising allows the target audience to quickly notice and buy the product, and to reach the brand with positive or negative comments about the product. This shows that digital advertising is more measurable. Social media tools can analyze which gender and age group users follow the brand more, like the content more and reach more purchase links. This ensures that the brand has information about its compatibility with its target audience and what needs to be done to expand the target audience. They also see the position of the brand against its competitors and the degree of directing the users to purchase. The purchasing tendency of the target audience depends on the brand’s social media activities, content suitable for the target audience, and reputation management as well as the brand’s communication.