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BRANDING
“Identity is cause;
brand is effect.”
Larry Ackerman
branding
/ˈbrandiNG/
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the promotion of a particular product or company by means of advertising and distinctive design.
"the process of branding should be considered in global terms"
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What Is Branding?
Branding, by definition, is a marketing practice in which a company creates a name, symbol or design that is easily identifiable as belonging to the company. This helps to identify a product and distinguish it from other products and services. Branding is important because not only is it what makes a memorable impression on consumers but it allows your customers and clients to know what to expect from your company. It is a way of distinguishing yourself from the competitors and clarifying what it is you offer that makes you the better choice. Your brand is built to be a true representation of who you are as a business, and how you wish to be perceived.
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Why Is Branding Important?
Branding is absolutely critical to a business because of the overall impact it makes on your company. Branding can change how people perceive your brand, it can drive new business and increase brand awareness.
STRATEGY
“However beautiful the strategy,
you should occasionally
look at the results.”
Winston Churchill
What is a brand strategy?
A brand strategy can be hard to define but encompasses:
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What your brand stands for.
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What promises your brand makes to customers.
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What personality your brand conveys through its marketing.
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As you can see, many of these things are intangible. How do you measure how successful you are at conveying a certain personality? How do you measure if you’ve successfully stood for what your brand represents, or if you could be doing it better?
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The one main metric for successful brand strategy is brand sentiment. And just because it’s hard to measure, it doesn’t mean that you should dismiss it. It may not be as easy to quantify, but it’s too easy for analytical CEOs to dismiss the qualitative work involved in branding. As Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky made so clear:
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The designing of experience is a different part of your brain than the scaling [of] your experience. It’s a different skill set. The scaling experience is a highly analytical, operations-oriented, and technology-oriented problem. The designing of experience is a more intuition-based human, empathetic, end-to-end experience.
It seems almost trivial, but in a larger company, these two different skill sets would be handled by two entirely different teams that probably don’t often commingle, let alone agree on everything. That’s how you waste time, money and energy. In a small startup, you might be missing a “creative” angle altogether.
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Does this resonate? Some see branding as fluffy, touchy-feely emotional stuff. But that’s a superficial way to describe it. Branding is critical to your brand’s existence! It also feeds your entire team’s culture. Let’s dive into this skill set.
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