Many people often think that a Brand is something frivolous, especially when selling POD or dropshipping products, the seller does not actually make or own the product. In fact, it is something very complex especially for e-commerce businesses. In the competitive environment of Print on Demand, it is more important to build a custom brand to stand out from the crowd and keep customers loyal.

Brand

There are many concepts when it comes to Brands.

The American Marketing Association defines a brand as “A name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller’s good or service as distinct from those of other sellers. The legal term for brand is trademark. A brand may identify one item, a family of items, or all items of that seller. If used for the firm as a whole, the preferred term is trade name.”

“A brand is the set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another. If the consumer (whether it’s a business, a buyer, a voter or a donor) doesn’t pay a premium, make a selection or spread the word, then no brand value exists for that consumer.” – Seth Godin.

With PODs, in addition to create your own brand signature, consistent them across all the channels you sell (store name, logo, …), on the products you selling (packaging, labels …), sellers need to create great customer experiences follow your brand positioning.

Some related terms

Custom brand

Custom brand in POD business is the activities of building the seller’s own brand, designing the brand identity, brand name, brand value positioning, store design, … according to the brand orientation, and use it consistently across products and all sales channels, regardless of the manufacturer’s brand or platform.

At BurgerPrints platform, sellers can build custom brands by the custom features on the platform and are being completing on the product.

White label products

White label products are products sold by retailers with their own brands and logos but manufactured by third parties. It usually appears when the seller wants to sell the product with their own brand name but is not the manufacture of the product, the manufacture uses the trademark required by the seller, instead of themself. The final product appears as it were made by sellers. This helps sellers to build their own brand without having to invest in manufacturing products.

Custom domain

This is a feature that allows sellers to build online stores on the BurgerPrints platform using their own domain name and customize the store according to their own brand (logo, color, brand name. ….)

Private label

The seller’s private label is attached to the Print on Demand products that have the information of seller’s custom brand.

Above are some basic information about branding in POD business, so why branding for POD business, whether it is feasible will be explored later.

Read more Part 2 here.