Define Your Brand

What is a brand?

From FreshSparks https://freshsparks.com/successful-brand-building-process/ 

Make no mistake about it: a recognizable and loved brand is one of the most valuable assets a company owns.

Branding is much more than just a cool logo or a well-placed advertisement.

You need to do more.

Simply put, your brand is defined by a customer’s overall perception of your business.

A successful brand has to be consistent in communication and experience, across many applications:

• Environment (storefront or office)
• Print, signage, packaging
• Website & online advertising
• Content publishing
• Sales & customer service

The founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, says it even better: “Your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room.”

Your brand is your reputation!

Now, brand building being simple? The truth is: branding doesn’t happen overnight…or even in a few months.

Building a brand is definitely a process. However, the ongoing effort will result in establishing long-term relationships with your customers.

This can lead to a steady increase in sales, more projects, word-of-mouth referrals, and advocacy for your products or services.

How to Build a Brand

1. Determine your brand’s target audience.

2. Establish a brand mission statement.

3. Research brands within your industry niche.

4. Outline the key qualities & benefits your brand offers.

5. Create a brand logo & tagline.

6. Form your brand voice.

7. Build a brand message and elevator pitch.

8. Let your brand personality shine.

9. Integrate your brand into every aspect of your business.

10. Stay true to your brand building.

11. Be your brand’s biggest advocate.

from Brandanew http://www.brandanew.co/10-branding-elements-and-what-they-mean/ 

10 Branding Elements and What They Mean

1. Brand identity

Let us begin with the very basic. What exactly is a brand and what is brand identity? The brand, of course, is an easily recognizable name that immediately tells people about a certain organization that manufactures certain products or renders certain services. Brand identity is the way people recognize the brand. It may be through the logo or other associated visuals. The Swoosh logo of Nike is very simple, but is immediately recognizable worldwide along with its punchline, “Just Do It”.

2. Brand image

Brand image is the idea of the brand that people develop in their minds. It also dictates what they expect from the brand. For instance, Rolls Royce has the image of a luxury car maker. So, it cannot be making a budget car even if there is a market. Its existing premium customers won’t take it kindly as it dilutes the said image. It’s hard and sometimes impossible to change the brand image, so it’s best to know what you’re aiming at before you invest hard-earned dollars.

3. Brand positioning

Positioning is the way a product is placed in the market. It basically defines what segments of the market it is targeting. For instance, Virginia Slims is a cigarette targeted at women. Basic ingredients in all cigarettes are the same but this one has been positioned to attract women by making it slimmer in size and making the packaging sleeker.

4. Brand personality

Brand personality is just like the personality of human beings. It is certain emotional or personal qualities that we associate with a particular brand. For example, we can associate youthfulness with Pepsi or ruggedness with Wrangler. Every element of the brand identity including the colour of the logo and the typography on the brand name adds to the personality.

5. Brand equity

Brand equity is the value of a brand. It may include a tangible financial value such as market share and revenue as well as intangible aspects such as strategic benefits of the brand. For example, Apple is a major technology brand and people perceive it is a premium, cutting edge manufacturer of quality products. So, it is not only the sales but the sheer image that takes the equity to a different level altogether.

6. Brand experience

Brand experience is a combination of everything that a customer goes through while purchasing and using that brand. For example how does one feel while ordering food and eating at KFC? How does the staff behave and how fast do they deliver and of course how did the food taste? Also, since it has many outlets all over the world, all of them are expected to maintain uniform standards of experience.

7. Brand Differentiation

Differentiation, as the word suggests is how a brand stands out in the crowd. For instance Dell Computers lets people choose their components and assemble their own system, thus making it different from others who just sell readymade machines at the shop with no scope for customization.

8. Brand communication

Brand communication is the message it delivers through various sources like adverts, brochures, punchlines and hoardings. If the brand has to grow, it must be able to clearly communicate its core benefits to the customers.

9. Brand gap

Brand gap is the difference between what a brand promises to deliver in its communications and what it actually does. For its own sake, the gap should not be very high. A successful brand must be able to deliver what it promises. No amount of advertising or content marketing efforts can save a bad product.

10. Brand extension

Brand extension is basically the idea of going beyond one’s origins and exploring newer fields. For example, Google started as a search engine. But now it provides many other services including emails and mobile operating systems. This is how it has extended the brand but it must be done in a manner so that the existing operations complement the newer initiatives. Google gained market intelligence through its search operations and this is what enabled it to develop other services. Films sell merchandise like clothes or toys pre/post-release, which are also extensions as they go beyond the main product (the film).

Example

London Symphony Orchestra (LSO)

IN BRIEF

The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) is one of the world’s top five orchestras and boasts a truly pioneering spirit.

From running its own record label, LSO Live, and music education to community programmes and performing to one billion people at the opening ceremony for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, the LSO is passionate about finding innovative ways to connect with audiences.

WHAT WE DID

If an orchestra takes inspiration from its conductor, why shouldn’t it’s brand? 

Our work with the LSO coincided with the appointment of Sir Simon Rattle as its new Musical Director, so we decided to put him at the centre of our thinking.

We embraced this forward-thinking spirit to create a brand identity that captures the emotional power, texture and movement of classical music and makes it relevant to a new generation.

Placing Sir Simon Rattle at the heart of the brand brings new life to the LSO’s conductor identity – an evolved version of our own design, in use since 2004. A demonstration of how the brand can evolve over time to support the new vision, the identity now stands where the LSO’s real-life conductor stands: front and centre, the source of direction and interpretation for the LSO’s musicians.

“The process we have been taken through has been enlightening and made us question many aspects of how a 21st century orchestra should appear to its audience, with the end result being both bold, confident and forward-thinking, and a stunning reflection of how music can inspire, and now exist, in design.”

EDWARD APPLEYARD

LSO Senior Marketing Manager, Brand & Communications

Additional Resources:

• A Brand Building Process