**Contrary to popular belief, a brand is much more than just a logo.**
A logo marks a brand’s existence; acting as a visual representation of a company, and allowing a consumer to create a psychological connection between that logo and the product or service a company offers.
In contrast, a brand goes much deeper than this.
A brand is essentially how your customers think and feel about your product or service. It’s a culmination of experience, recommendations, and memories that work together to encourage consumers to subconsciously choose **you** over your competitors, time and time again. A brand is intangible, which is why it’s so hard to define and understand.
Advertisers work on branding not only to (link: https://www.superdream.co.uk/building-an-iconic-brand/ text: build brand recognition popup: true title: How Do You Build an Iconic Brand?), but also to build a company’s recognition within the marketplace as a leading and trusted supplier of goods or services. The more trusted a reputation, the more valuable the brand; a brand’s value being the sum total of how much and how often consumers will pay for a product or service. This trust can take years to build but can be destroyed overnight.
Branding creates an expectation and plays a huge part in how your company is perceived by consumers. If expectations are met, customers will return and will be encouraged to recommend your business, which in turn strengthens the brand and grows your business.
As consumers, what sways our decision making towards one brand rather than another? Are we fooling ourselves when we think we have the freedom to buy whatever we like? Or are we in fact subconsciously programmed to rely on reviews and recommendations from fellow consumers in order to buy into already trusted, well known brands?
For example, how likely would you be to spend hundreds of pounds on a new kitchen if you hadn’t done any research on your purchase beforehand? More often than not we will have either read countless customer reviews of a product, have been referred by a friend or seen a tantalising offer on an advert which has made us turn to a particular company.
**Where to start**
By answering the following three questions clearly and succinctly and you have the beginnings of your brand story:
***Who are you?***
What is your company name?
***What do you do?***
What service or product does your company offer?
***What makes your business unique?***
This is the tricky one. What truly makes your business stand out from others in the same marketplace? What would make a consumer choose to spend their money with **you **rather than with your competitor? In other words what is your unique selling point – and being good at what you do doesn’t cut it nowadays – people want proof, and something extra-special.
This question is usually the hardest to answer because it involves self-evaluation and simplicity. Branding experts often talk about brand pillars which summarise the core values of a company (think of summarising your company’s USP in 3 key words). It is these brand pillars that a company must keep in mind throughout an entire branding process in order to be successful. Lose sight of the pillars and your brand loses its definition – remember your customers need to trust your business, so the truth is always a good place to start.
**Brands to admire**
Branding is big business
The value of a brand can be quite dramatic, take for example Coca Cola, who’s brand is estimated at more than 60% of its worth. Without their brand, they become just another fizzy drink company. Said to be recognised more than any other brand in the world, Coca Cola has a unique brand positioning.
It’s no coincidence that Coca Cola correlate emotions such as happiness with drinking their product – they want to create a connection with an emotion that people enjoy and want to revisit.
Apple is another multi-million pound company with a highly successful brand, despite it’s simplicity.
The first logo was designed in 1976 and showed Isaac Newton sitting under a tree with an apple dangling above his head, waiting for gravity to work its magic. The strapline that accompanied it was ”Newton… A Mind Forever Voyaging Through Strange Seas of Thought … Alone.” Not the catchiest strapline, and no wonder Steve Jobs decided to have a rethink, bringing the branding in line with their cutting edge technology. The change apple up to be the huge company it is today – its brand is now reflective of the company’s position within the marketplace. (insert images x 2)
**Maintaining the brand**
Successful brands build on trust through consistent brand messaging, so without consistency your brand will run into trouble. Have you ever heard a graphic designer harp on about colour consistency or correct use of fonts? There is a reason they are so particular about it.
It’s important that your client base recognises your marketing efforts as yours – whether that be on a leaflet, advert or billboard; consistency is key to delivering your brand message effectively.
This consistency should happen at every level of your business; for example your tone of voice, office spaces and day-to-day customer service should also be consistent with your brand messaging. It sounds simple but if your brand pitches you as friendly and easy to deal with, your customers will expect that at every level of contact with your organisation.
Again, it’s all about meeting and exceeding the expectations set by your brand.
It is a lot easier to damage a brand than it is to build one, so look after yours!
The illusion that a brand is merely a logo and colour scheme is something that many businesses believe. But by understanding exactly what a brand is, you will be able to build a robust, memorable, and trustworthy one for your company.
*To find out more about what is involved in a large-scale corporate rebrand, check out our case study of the (link: https://www.superdream.co.uk/creative/branding-brand-management/core-assets-group-rebrand/ text: Core Assets Group rebrand popup: true title: Core Assets Group Rebrand).*