Good branding is one of the most successful tools in starting and growing a business. It does far more than advertising alone; it provides your company an identity, setting exact expectations for your potential clients. While good branding often provides a larger client base, its greatest asset is that it provides the golden egg of business: higher profit margins.

General advertising has one goal: bring in more customers. This is easy to measure; responses to a phone book ad can be measured, a coupon placed in the local penny saver can be tracked.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it may not. Branding does something different: its goal is simply to be the answer to a potential need a customer may have.
Let's use pizza as an example.

Consider a potential customer arriving home from work and looking through the mail. They see a flier for a competing pizza restaurant. To that point, they were not thinking of pizza, but since there is a coupon, and it's about dinner time, they call and enjoy pizza that evening. This is the goal of advertising. It can create a need when there was none previously. Now let's say that same potential customer, on his way home was thinking about pizza. And when he thinks about pizza, he thinks about your pizza place. In his mind, there is no other pizza place. When he gets home, he sees the same flier for your competition, but it goes ignored, since you have already branded yourself as the place to go for pizza. Now here is the largest advantage: there was no need to sell at a discount, no need for coupons to drag them in. In fact, you could even charge premium prices, increasing your profit margin. In your customers mind, you are not just an option; you are the only option.

Consider a women's clothing store that primarily sells dresses. There are a million such stores in every county; there are a few in every strip mall. And should a potential customer see your flier or commercial, they may get the idea to visit your store. And more than likely, they will visit your store between visits to similar stores; your competition. But let's say you have branded your dress store as the solution to a need they may have. For example, prom dresses. Through your logo, your website, and the copy in your advertisements, you have branded yourself as the place to visit for prom dresses. Now, when that need arises, you are the option.  Sure, you sell more than prom dresses, and you are free to point this out when your store is flooded with new customers every April that are willing to pay top dollar for their daughters prom dress.

The key is this: before you spend a fortune on full page phone book listings, television commercials, and magazine ads; focus on branding your company. Decide what need in your market you want to fill, and show it. Develop a logo and/or tag line that makes this clear. Consistently use it in all marketing. And watch the money roll in.