Whether your company is launching a new product, is changing its name, is repositioning or has merged with another company, branding plays an important role in building awareness and extending customer loyalty. While many people think of their brand in terms of identity, brand is so much more.
Brand expresses your values, your consolidated voice, your positioning, and your identity. Brand is not only who you say you are, but also who your competitors and customers say you are. Some companies live by their brand, others die by their brand. This article describes what branding is, why you should create a brand strategy, why you should invest in brand identity and what identities best advance a brand.
What is branding?
Branding is the process used to build awareness and extend customer loyalty. It requires a top-down approach and readiness to invest in the future of your business. Branding is a desire to lead, outpace your competition and give employees the best tools to reach customers.
Why should you create a brand strategy?
Creating a brand strategy provides a central unifying idea around which all behavior, actions and communications are aligned. It works across products and services and is effective over time. It helps your organization understand competitive differentiators. It organizes your brand in a way that is easy to talk about.
Why should you invest in brand identity?
A brand identity helps advance a company’s brand by supporting desired perceptions. The identity expresses itself in every touch point of the brand and becomes intrinsic to a company’s culture. The most successful brand identities make it easier for a customer to buy, makes it easier for a sales force to sell and makes it easy to easier to build brand equity.
What identities best advance a brand?
The best identities are both functional and meaningful. They are bold, memorable and appropriate. They use a consistent image that is immediately recognizable, clearly communicates the company’s persona; works well across media and scale and is legally protectable. The best brands stand for a big idea, a strategic position and a defined set of values. Many of the top brand identities use symbols or brand marks to engage intelligence, spark imagination and evoke emotion in a way that no other learning does.
Investing time and money in developing your brand is time and money well spent. How is your brand perceived? Do you live by your brand? Is your brand easily expressible and consistent throughout your company? The answers to these questions could be the difference between success and failure.
