In the business world, there’s always a lot of talk – and a lot of misconceptions – regarding the concept and implementation of branding.
For instance, is branding your logo? The colors your company uses? Perhaps it’s about the feel of your company?
In reality, branding combines all of these concepts and more – both tangible and intangible – to make up the look and feel of your company. Why? Because branding is the culmination of not only what you want to say to your customers, but also how you want to say it. To stand the test of time your brand must deliver what it promises as well as what your customers expect. In short, branding includes multiple characteristics to create the brand identity for your company, which includes the brand image, brand personality, and brand experience. Today we’re just going to touch on brand image – check back next Friday for part two of this series, which includes information on brand personality and brand experience, as well as some helpful information on branding guidelines.
Now, your brand image is just that – a representation of how you want your customer to think of your brand. Your image should be easily remembered and stand out from your competitors. Early on we learn to recognize brands based on the consistency of type, shapes and colors. In all honesty, you don’t necessarily need a logo present to know which brand is being represented. Remember, your branding isn’t all about your logo; however, it does play an important part in regards to the uniformity and recognition to your consumers. The bottom line here is this – if you don’t have the rest of your branding down pat, your logo won’t really mean all that much in the long run.
One of the best branded companies that I’ve seen is Nike. They have stayed amazingly tried and true to their brand guidelines and have been very successful in doing so! In fact, since 1971 they have only gone through four changes in their logo. Four. In 42 years. Nike has kept their ads, commercials, and products all extremely consistent which has clearly paid off! It’s precisely because of that stalwart consistency that consumers now know almost instantaneously when they’re viewing a Nike ad or commercial, even before the logo is ever displayed. And, yes, Nike brings in new colors and shapes all the time, which is essential to keeping things fresh – however, the feel of their pieces is always the same: classic, strong, bold, and encouraging.
In contrast, as of late I’ve stumbled across an extremely poorly branded company – so much so that, since July of 2012, this particular business {owner} has burned through 15 different logos (see below). FIFTEEN!!! Now, while her work may be phenomenal, her branding certainly is not. Some of those logos haven’t been particularly phenomenal, but most of them have been decent – some even great. However, the fact that she doesn’t possess the ability to remain consistent in her own branding makes me wonder how I can trust her to stay consistent with the work I need from her. In short, poor branding makes it very difficult for a customer to easily recognize YOU or your brand from the competition, and accomplishes nothing more than ensuring your status as a business wallflower of sorts.
Branding and logo design are just a few of the areas we specialize in here at Transformation Marketing – if you’re interested in learning more about the branding process AND how we can help you, give us a call! And, make sure to check back next week for more great information on branding.