What is a Brand?
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Sometimes business owners think a brand is just a logo or a marketing message, but I think it’s much more:
- Visual - A brand usually has a visual
representation in terms of a logo or graphic that is easily
recognizable. Brands can also be identified by a spokesperson or icon
(for example, the energizer bunny). Sometimes there are also visual
representations that have been created by customers instead of the
company. - Auditory - Many brands have a signature theme song
or jingle (think rhapsody in blue for united airlines, or the Intel
chimes) which can bring to mind the company when heard outside of
advertisements. - Verbal - Through marketing, sales, and customer
service, a company creates verbal impressions of what the company
stands for in various situations. - Emotional - Brands evoke an emotional response in
customers (hopefully good emotions), which are influenced by their
interactions with the brand (advertising, purchasing, customer service,
other customers, etc.). - Communal - With the ease of communication
available on the Internet, customers can easily share opinions,
feelings, and experiences about your brand with or without your
influence. - Instinctive - Closely tied with emotional and
communal influences, customers have instinctual feelings and opinions
about your brand even before they’ve interacted with your company,
formed through advertising and information from other customers. - Evolutionary - Brands are constantly evolving
through interaction and shared experiences of customers, non-customers
and companies. A company can try to influence the evolution, but is no
longer in complete control of the brand. - Descriptive - By combining the various
interactions with a brand, an overall impression of what the company
stands for is shared among customers and non-customers. A brand is
descriptive of what a company, product, and/or service stands for, in
terms of all the elements above (visual, auditory, verbal, emotional,
etc.).
What else does a brand mean? What does your brand mean to
you? What do other brands mean? Please share your thoughts in the
comments below.
More on branding: How to Get Your Brand Noticed, Branding is Branding, Offline or Online
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Thanks for sharing. Very short and sweet to the point way of showing the components of branding. My 2 cents complimenting yours, above all, in branding, the single most important component is...
Understanding your customers : Branding is understanding the needs and wants of the prospect by integrating branding strategies with public contact. This is where market analysis and skills of a strategists comes into play.
"Your brand resides within the hearts and mind of your target prospect"
While we (DotSign) develop branding for our clients, I believe the audio, visual, verbal etc. are important but will not be effective if we don't understand the end user (client's client) & the vision of the company (my client).
For example: Can you imagine a total country style brand for Ipod.
Henry Joshua
.DotSign
www.dot-sign
"Gateway to Your web Identity"
---------------------------------
For clear understanding...a before & after example, by DotSign:
This is a financial organization (not financial adviser) that aims at making people stress free by education and transforming their financial situation because my client believes statistically finance is the primary area that makes people unhappy and stressed.
Old - http://www.projectyoucan.org <---> DotSign Developed (New) - http://dot-sign.com/projectyoucan/
Visual: The Logo tells the story how people come together and are happy with the hands up in joy ! The colors define the energy/ jubilant (Yellow) and Calm/understanding (Blue) at the same time.
Audio & Emotional: I also came up with the strategy of using her voice in the homepage (have dummy audio for now) that will build personal relationship. I have a specific reason why i did not use video in this case.
The rest of verbal, communal etc are all incorporated.
Hope you guys like it !
Sarah, your description of branding is very eloquent and comprehensive.
For anyone who may find the topic of branding confusing, you're not alone! Just imagine certain known individuals or brand names and the thoughts, feelings and sense you have of them.
Building a brand is far more than a process of developing a company name, logo and color scheme. It is communicating at every opportunity and every turn your company mission, values, style, and the impression you want your target audiences to have of your company.
In addition to your company materials, your people are major representatives of your brand; do you and they accurately and honorably communicate your company brand in their communications, tone, expertise, customer service?
Ask yourself, does your company reflect an impactful and memorable image or brand? If not, there ain't no time like the present to begin making a change.
Enjoy the process!
Hmm... I'm seeing a convergence between what Anahid is saying and Duane Ahola's discussion thread about customer service...
Yet another great reason to have that "customer service attitude"!
Whether you like it or not, your brand is shaped and refined every single time you interact with your target market. For many companies that can be a scary realization—branding never stops and your brand is ultimately defined your audience, not you. Knowing and understanding all those touchpoints helps you to better create a branding strategy that works for you and your company.