Why Branding in The Gas Industry is Overlooked.

For any type of business, it can be surprisingly easy to forget about the value of consistent, relatable branding – or to ignore branding entirely. Of course, this applies to companies like gas distributors; when you’re busy filling orders & day to day operations, building a coherent brand identity may seem like a low priority. Despite this, the successes and achievements of successful branding campaigns are proven and can make a significant difference in how your business is perceived by your customers.

At Ratermann Manufacturing, our custom label division specializes in providing custom status tags, shoulder labels, I.D. collars, medical labels, cryogenic labels, and more for businesses like yours. Wondering how you could benefit from our labels? Read on to learn why you should focus on branding in the cryogenic and compressed gas industry – and how Ratermann can help.

What Is A Brand?

First of all, let’s take a moment to make sure we’re on the same page. Before you can start working to enhance your brand, you’ll need to know just what a brand is. That may seem obvious on the surface, but if you’re not careful, you could end up confusing branding with any number of related ideas.

Put simply, a “brand” is an abstract concept used to represent businesses, products, and people. By using recognizable elements like logos and slogans, companies can build and develop their brand identity. When a brand is well-established and trusted by consumers, it can become one of the most important assets a business has.

Slogans, logos, and similar marks are important parts of branding, but a logo or slogan is not a brand on its own. For example, what’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of McDonald’s? It might be “I’m Lovin’ It,” or the Golden Arches, or the chain’s signature red and yellow color scheme. On their own, each of these elements are memorable – iconic, even. What they aren’t is a brand.

Instead, a brand identity is formed when you combine elements like these with your company’s mission statement, personality, and target market – all of which work together to create an image of your business in a potential customer’s mind. It may be impossible to totally control how your company is perceived, but strong branding can go a long way towards making a good first (and second, and third) impression.

Reasons Why Branding Is Overlooked

If you’re running a business in the compressed gas industry, your brand probably isn’t as well-known as McDonald’s. But that shouldn’t be an excuse to give up on branding entirely. Putting in time and effort to create a brand that works for you can give you a major edge over your direct competitors.

One reason why many small businesses don’t build memorable brands (no matter what industry they’re in) is that the people running them don’t understand branding! They may be working hard to advertise their business and create graphic design elements, but they aren’t thinking about how these steps will build their actual brand. Now that you’re armed with a base-level overview of this concept, you should be able to avoid this potential pitfall.

Another factor that can lead small businesses to settle for subpar branding is the “follow-the-leader” effect. When you’re not one of the biggest players in your industry, it can be tempting to look at what larger companies are doing so you can do something similar. There’s just one problem – if you do this, you’ll be copying a brand identity that was built to promote someone else’s strengths. You’d get better results by thinking about what makes your business special and working from there.

Meanwhile, some small businesses don’t bother to think about branding at all. Instead, they rely on factors like word of mouth – but this can be a big mistake. Building a healthy brand identity makes it much easier for people to remember and appreciate your company; because of that, satisfied customers will be more likely to recommend you to others.

Simple Steps to Build Your Brand

Creating a brand that will help your business stand out from the competition takes time and effort. For the sake of simplicity, we’ll break this process down into three phases:

Strategy

The first phase focuses on determining your company’s unique strengths and positive traits – essentially, what it brings to the table. Along with this, you’ll need to choose a target audience, create your brand’s “voice,” and do research on other businesses in your industry.

Identity

Once you have a strategy to work from, you’ll be ready to create slogans, logos, and other elements. Additionally, you’ll start looking at how to share your brand with the public, which can include everything from website design to advertising to packaging.

Marketing

The term “marketing” refers to all the ways your company communicates with people to fulfill their wants and needs – and, hopefully, to create long-lasting relationships with them. Advertising is a part of marketing, but marketing also involves elements such as social media, email, and SEO/content creation.

Let Us Help Promote Your Brand

As we mentioned above, one great way to get your brand identity out there is by using memorable labeling & packaging…but in the compressed gas industry, your products will usually be stored in industrial, cryogenic, or medical cylinders. It may seem impossible to make these containers stand out, but we have a solution.

Ratermann’s label division focuses on branding cylinders and liquid cryogenic tanks. We can create memorable custom labels, logo decals, status tags, pouches, 360 tape, and more. You’ll be able to get your brand in the public eye while staying in line with industry compliance & safety regulations!

Interested in collaborating with Ratermann? Our label director Mary Carter will help you design your branding campaign from start to finish. Send her an email at mary@rmimfg.com to get started or fill out the form below. We look forward to working with you!