Why do we brand?
Branding is essential for building trust and loyalty, making it a foundation of marketing for nearly all products, services, charities and organisations.
But isn’t a brand your logo?
Marking products with an owner’s, or originator’s, identifying symbol is seen thoughout history on pottery, buildings and jewellery etc., and the word brand is thought to originate from the ancient Norse word ‘brandr’ — meaning ‘to burn’, a method to identify ownership of cattle, still practiced today in some countries.
So you would think that a logo is your brand, however it is important to know that a brand goes well beyond a logo — a brand goes a lot further in fact, it describes who you are and how you operate, the logo is an extremely important identifier but is just part of your brand’s arsenal.
What is a brand then?
A brand is a collection of elements that define your business and how consumers relate to you. It is a unity of many important components that when used together are a powerful force, and actually when used individually can all be pointers to your company’s brand values — a sort of subliminal flag.
Examples being:
- The company’s ‘tone of voice’ (— how it chooses to speak to its consumers) like the humorous stories written in the recent campaign to point you to the insurance comparison site confused.com…
- The ‘soundtrack’ to this campaign — the unforgettable ditty by Roger Whittaker the Finnish Whistler folk tune
- A company’s beliefs or values
- A ‘strapline’ like Nike’s ‘Just do it’
- Your colour palette or colour like B&Q’s orange — seen on all advertsing, livery and clothing.
- The company logo — a great example is the Apple logo — you do not need to see anything else to know the quality of this product.
- The corporate stationery — letterheads, with compliment slips, business cards etc
- Advertising style
- In print it is leaflets, brochures, books etc.
- It is the type or style of imagery used — photograpy style — eg. Chanel’s celebrity endorced perfume products, or illustration style like Red Bull’s ‘Gives you wings’ — I am sure you are singing this in your head when you read this!
- It is also your font choice, and font pairing, for headings and body text.
- In digital it is your website, your emails your videos, your PDFs and your social media etc.
All these elements are used by companies to subliminally encourage consumers to make their company the favourite choice over its competitor thus it is enriched with a distinctive set of values that define its character.
Your brand is a like a contract with your consumer — a commitment to deliver quality and consistency. A brand would guage its success by the level of consumer appreciation and its ability to sustain it. The reputation of the brand however is dependent on consistently achieving this level of satisfaction.
One of the most important factors to consider when building and owning a brand is consistency, to facilitate this businesses usually have ‘Brand Guidelines’ (also known as a Brand Style Guide). This is a carefully crafted document produced to show how the brand works, it comprehensively acts as a go-to reference for internal staff. A condensed version can also be prepared for external suppliers (often called the Brand Book). This is a manual of the rules behind the brand, if everyone adheres to this set of instructions the brand will always be consistent.
If you need help with your brand, and don’t know where to start, wotUwant offer a full brand service, contact us on 07974 890 462, or fill out the online form and we will be really happy to help.