Brand | Beyond Logos and Taglines and Talk, Oh My

When I talk to my clients about brand, many of them stop me and say: "Oh no, we do not need a logo," or "We already have a tagline for our business, and our customers really like it."

Brand is usually defined in limited terms, which is imprudent amid an ever-evolving, competitive, and global marketplace. More than ever, there is so much to consider when it comes to brand, it is ingrained in all aspects of business: user-centered solutions, communications, marketing campaigns, social media, customer service, and overall business transformation. Brand is about fluidity and differentiation, which cannot happen in a vacuum or confinement. 

I worked with a company in 2011 during an RFP process, and I thought this company captured a compelling definition of brand, by today's standards. Alabama-based o2Ideas, specializing in employment branding, defines brand as: "Everything that is observed, felt, seen, said, heard, encountered, and perceived about your company and its products. Brands contain the cumulative experience of interactions with who you are and what you do. A brand is not the product, its packaging, its promotion, its logo, its slogan, or its customer service. It's a collection of perceptions in the mind of the consumer driven by ALL of those things in combination. And everything you do (or don't do) communicates something about the brand." 

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-->Whew, that's what I'm talking about! Brand is about creating experiences that are compelling, recurring, and trustworthy--it’s about building relationships.

When it comes to building a viable brand strategy for your business or organization, your brand architecture should incorporate the following:

Brand Image -- Ensure positive perceptions and equities among key target audiences relative to a) Awareness: Do audiences know who you are, what is your fiber, why does your business exist? b) Relevance: What's your "secret sauce", what makes you different from your competition, what is your mark in the marketplace? c) Devotion: What is your value proposition, what is the connective tissue, what are you doing to ensure a positive recurring customer experience? d) Flexibility: Will you be here tomorrow, if so, what are you doing to ensure it, are you exploring all options and trends to evolve (e.g., social media, multichannel, niche markets)?

Brand Identity -- Your brand identity is foundational; it resonates through an essence of personality and positioning. 

Brand Personality

This essentially pertains to the characteristics of your brand; think of your brand as a person, now assign him or her traits such as affable, exciting, trustworthy, warm, authoritative. The personality is also about how your brand looks and how it sounds. This is where your logo comes into play or in the design world what we call "a visual system", which also incorporates typography or font treatment, color palette, imagery, layout, etc. Complementary, how your brand "sounds" entails its language system or editorial voice (how you communicate with your audience, your storytelling angle). And it's key to note that the language system should be consistent across all mediums or channels. 

Brand Positioning 
How well your brand is positioned determines its sustainability and viability in the marketplace. This pertains to what you offer (products and services), who you collaborate with or partner, how you interact with or engage your target audiences. 

As you can see, brand is akin to a head, heart, hand exercise--not simply a trademark symbol and catch phrase. It's about what do you want your target audience to "think" about your brand, what do you want them to "feel", and what do you want them to "do".

Brand is a beacon for your organization; don't snuff it out with limited leverage and perspicacity. 

Kimberly is Executive Director for WriteFusion, an end-to-end content services company; while she evolves her entrepreneurial spirit, she also serves during her day job as HR Brand & Content Strategy Manager for Lowe's Home Improvement. 

Kimberly has 20 years of content experience & 15 years of user experience knowledge and digital design solutions, having worked with companies and consultancies inclusive of IBM, Sapient, Macquarium, BP, and Lowe's, wherein she has designed complex and comprehensive content / business strategies for myriad of clients, across broad industries. She has worked on multidisciplinary teams comprising Brand Strategists, User Experience Architects, Anthropologists, Visual Designers, Content Strategists, Front-end Developers, Marketing Directors, Social Media Strategists, Mobile Technologists, and Business Developers. 

w: www.writefusion.blogspot.com
e: message@writefusion.com or writefusion@gmail.com