The Value of Brand
What is a brand? A name? Logo? Colors? Tagline? Many experts have provided definitions but at the most basic level, your brand is your identity...it’s who you are, both internally and externally. For your team it’s why you are in business and why people come to work. It drives purpose, meaning and value. From a consumer perspective, it’s the feelings, thoughts, and simply what comes to mind when they think of your organization and why they choose to do business with you. The most powerful brands elicit strong feelings from consumers and employees; both positive and negative. Why?
INTENT vs EXECUTION
Most organizations have positive brand intentions. They spend time and money creating logos and taglines ensuring the colors and everything is just right. This is only a small part of the equation. What makes your logo and tagline elicit feelings is culture, corporate identity & citizenship, marketing, strategies, mission/vision/values, and how you relate, resonate and communicate with your target markets. Those organizations who are able to CONSISTENTLY EXECUTE throughout the organization can create a significant and sustainable competitive advantage.
HOW DO WE EXECUTE
MISSION-VISION-VALUES - What do you want your company to accomplish? What do we value? What’s our purpose? Your mission, vision & values should be at the core of everything you do.
STRATEGY – What’s our plan? Short vs long term? Goals – Individual, team, business unit, company? Implementation and change management? Communication, tracking and fluidity – how do we stay on track?
MARKETPLACE – Pay attention to the macro and micro. Stay focused on your brand but don’t forget about your competition. Are there new “players” or products? What are consumers saying? Be purposeful. Set hard deadlines when making creative decisions so that the process isn't prolonged by debated topics or questions like "What if we do this?"
CREATIVE - It's easy for “creatives” to get caught up in our own creativity--we have unlimited options available! But it’s just as important (if not more) than always asking yourself “How can I make my idea better? What will happen tomorrow when…..
REFRESH – If your organization has been in existence for a while, a brand refresh can create new energy and passion both internally and externally. Are we still relevant? Why or why not? Is our messaging consistent – look, feel, representative, up to date, compliant? Take time to consistently review your marketing assets and messaging.
DATA DRIVEN DECISIONS – It’s hard, if not impossible, to make impactful strategic decisions without data. What are you measuring? What’s the frequency? How, how often and who is receiving updates on our efforts? What’s the decision-making process.
LISTEN & EVALUATE - Be open minded to filtering your branding into other areas of your business, everyone should understand your branding within your organization, the more people who understand why you say what you say and what your branding pillars and principals are the more people will share your branding and company objectives. You will also attract similar minded talent to strengthen your internal branding and culture. Remember there many other benefits of strong branding for businesses aside from increased sales and profits,
Align18 has decades of experience helping some of the most iconic brands create differentiated brands and cultures. Regardless of your company stage, Align18’s experts can provide valuable guidance on creating a powerful brand to help your organization thrive in today’s fluid environment.
Please Share: