brandarticles brandbasics What is brand?
What is brand?
Written by Alan Bright and Phil Parr (edited extracts from ‘Step away from the crayons’)-
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It’s probably not what you think it is
In the global, web-enabled, crowded place that is 21st century B2B trading, where SMEs are in the ascendance, we can no longer rely on a product-based, visually-led view of branding to be sufficient to ‘achieve stand-out’ as the design world of the late 20th century would put it. It’s time to take a long hard look at the world and take a view of branding that fits the landscape. Let’s start by looking at brand itself; what it isn’t and what it is.
What brand isn’t
Brand isn’t visual identity
There is a lot of bunkum spoken about brand. Many design agencies offer ‘full service branding’. This usually means that they will create a logo, stationery set and, if you’re lucky, a brand style guide. They will take your money, thank you kindly and send you off to enjoy your new ‘branded’ status.
Will the exercise impress your network?
Certainly, but so what?
Will it lead to more business?
Maybe, but on its own it probably won’t.
Will you have a brand?
No – you’ll have a visual identity.
Visual identity is a vitally important element of brand, and no brand will survive for long without a well-designed identity. But what a great identity does is to act as a trigger that allows pre-existing perceptions, understanding and trust to be recalled. The key word here is pre-existing. The real work of branding is to build and manage those perceptions, that understanding and that trust. Visual identity in and of itself can never create anything more than subjective opinion. The problem with this is that subjective opinions are transient, fragile and very often wrong.
In this context, the Wikipedia definition of brand as ‘a symbolic embodiment of all the information connected to the product and serves to create associations and expectations around it.’ works much better if we replace the word ‘brand’ with the words ‘visual identity’. Your visual identity is a tool. Used carefully, it will enhance the effectiveness of your brand. Just don’t get seduced into thinking that on its own it is your brand. So stop thinking visually for a moment and let’s get to the heart of the matter.
Brand isn’t just a marketing function
In most large corporates, the branding function is left fairly and squarely in the hands of the marketing department. It is commonplace to hear of ‘this year’s brand strategy’. What is called strategy though is often just another way of describing the latest marketing campaign. The unfortunate truth is that, in so many organisations, brand has become so completely subsumed into the marketing mix, and focus has become so concentrated on the business/client interface, that any thoughts of the wider implications of brand are lost.
When we lump marketing and branding together as though they are subsets of the same activity, the end result is that both activities become devalued. Marketing is largely, by definition, a tactical activity. Tactical marketing is an essential activity if businesses are to take advantage of market conditions. Rapid action based on sound market research is the key to effective marketing activity. This tactical activity should happen within the framework of wider strategic brand considerations. It should be guided by the brand; it should not try to be the guide.
So why does it matter? Welcome to the real world of business in the UK. This is the world where only 0.1% of an estimated 4.5 million businesses1 fall into the ‘large’2 category. For the other 99.9% the need for intelligent, holistic branding is pressing. The necessity for SMEs to build clear, compelling and robust brands in order to lift themselves above the ‘more of the same’ brigade is greater now than at any time since the invention of corporate identity in the ‘60s. This is the world where quality, reliability and service are taken for granted. This is the world where marketing alone is not sufficient to build a loyal customer base. Something more is needed, and that is a holistic brand.
So, just what is a brand?
The traditional view that it is a graphical representation of a product or company just won’t do any more. Research shows that as little as 15% of any brand is ‘visual’ like an oil rig, whose impressive superstructure belies the activity beneath. The ‘business end’ is many hundreds or even thousands of metres below the surface. Indeed, to take a purely visual approach to branding in the B2B sector would, we suggest, be an expensive waste of time, effort and resources.
More importantly it doesn’t offer the edge that is required in an increasingly crowded marketplace. It’s no longer enough to just stand out in the crowd. To succeed in the 21st century, business must build long-term relationships with customers who return time and again. The brand rubber really hits the road after the first sale is made.
Brand is: ‘The culmination of a person’s total experience of your organisation, good or bad. It is the effect on your stake holders of all that your company says and does.’
Brand is dynamic
Brand lives in the mind of your customer, your staff member and your shareholder. Brand is only truly yours when you take time to build, develop and manage it. Branding is about spending time below the waterline, positioning and maintaining the culture of a business. Branding is a lifetime activity.
The first step to defining your brand is to understand what it means to you, and to your stake holders. Describing your brand will help to build a vocabulary that, over time, will become incorporated within conversation at all levels of the business.
Any brand only truly becomes holistic when it has permeated the thought and speech patterns of everyone in the business in such a way that the day-to-day behaviours of the organisation are at one with the brand.
Having understood the concept of the holistic brand and its implications on your business, how do you set about defining your brand? In approaching this question, it is helpful to personalise your brand. The model described here allows you to articulate brand attributes so that they may be used across the organisation to inform and drive planning and decision making.
Traditionally, branding has been seen as a marketing function. Because it has been limited to visuals, the focus within most organisations is on the ‘above-the-waterline’ stuff, much of which is strongly linked to strategic marketing activity. Given that 85% of brand is under the water however, there is a strong case for re-evaluating the status quo.
Quality, service, efficiency, sales effectiveness et al. are certainly not marketing activities but belong firmly in the boardroom. This is the realm of strategy and long-term thinking.
So, what do we make of it all?
Great branding is not a mystery, it doesn’t take a PHD in rocket science and it needn’t cost the earth. That’s not to say that it’s easy; actually quite the reverse. The difficulties though don’t lie in complexity, but in the ability to show dogged determination and single mindedness in driving the business forward with one value-set, one purpose and one direction.
Great brands are built by business leaders who take hold of their responsibilities to deliver on the brand promises that their business makes and who refuse to abdicate responsibility for their brand to people who are not empowered or equipped to build it!
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