Are you looking to improve a memorable brand? We often get new client inquiries for help with improving their brand. Depending on the business, and where it is in the life cycle, that can be a tall order.
Making promises and keeping them is a great way to build a brand.
Seth Godin
Neil Patel knows a thing or two about building memorable brands, also, doesn’t he?
There is a brand, and there is branding. One is a noun, and one is a verb.
But the funny thing is that when it comes to what defines a brand and what defines your branding, the noun and the verb are switched. Branding is defined by things like a logo, look and feel your website copy, and all the visual details that go into managing your brand. It sends out a vibe, but it’s made up of many things.
A brand is defined by your actions. How do you serve your customer? What interesting service do you offer? How do you approach relationships with business partners and vendors? A brand is defined by your actions, by what you want to stand for.
Related: Building Key Requirements for a Strong Brand Identity
A significant portion of a company’s value is intangible, so a strong brand is a significant competitive advantage. As Philip Kotler wrote:
The art of marketing is the art of brand building. If you are not a brand, you are a commodity. Then the price is everything, and the low-cost producer is the only winner.
Brands, marketing, and communication have long been highly related. From TV ads and press releases to events and endorsements, the way consumers view a brand will influence their decision making, so crafting and reinforcing a brand image has long been a top priority for marketers.
The most important thing to remember, it’s not about you in the sense that you are in control. You are not.
Here are seven ways we recommend to clients on how they can continue to make their brand better:
Deliver value in every interaction
Always strive to help people help themselves and achieve their goals.
Zappos is a favorite brand of ours who are always striving to add value to their customer service. They don’t sell shoes. They deliver that extra dose of love we all need from time to time. There is no secret here. Zappos became Zappos because of the fanatical customer support it offered. That is the company’s brand.
As Tony Hsieh, the Zappos CEO, puts it, back in 2003, we thought of ourselves as a shoe company that offered great service. Today, we think of the Zappos brand as adding great value through great service, and we just happen to sell shoes.
Bring your brand values to life
Illustrate values to show your brand has a conscience. Offer something that customers can buy into, not just buy from you.
Another favorite brand of ours is Toms. It is a great brand illustrating an extraordinary brand promise. And a promise that customers like to buy into.
With every product you purchase, TOMS will help a person in need. One for One.®
In today’s world, branding is more important than ever. A brand is a promise, pure and simple. It is a set of fundamental principles as understood by anyone who comes into contact with a company. A brand is an organization’s reason for existence.
Toms has this one nailed, doesn’t it?
Brand awareness marketing … build a brand personality
A brand personality is a set of human characteristics that are attributed to the brand. It is something to which the consumer can relate. An effective brand will increase its brand equity by having very distinctive traits.
The truth is many companies fail to recognize the importance of creating brand experiences through brand personality. They bog down their online persona with boring corporate speak and industry jargon. Or, they blow it by not keeping the experience consistent, ultimately confusing customers or making them feel as if something is amiss with the company.
Think about it – when it comes to our go-to brands, we choose the ones that often stand out with because of the feeling we get from them.
Define your brand by what you make happen
Your goal is to extend your unique selling positions beyond your products to influence perceptions of the brand.
Red Bull is an awesome example of showing what is humanly possible. One whose objective is to extend customer limits to achieve more.
JetBlue is another very distinct example. Their brand success centers on the achievable – the simple things – they knew would make a difference for their guests. This set the stage for direct TV and XM radio, the provision of first-class seats to everyone, more legroom, great snacks and high-end service at lower end pricing. No other airline others these value propositions. They are different, and their brand stands out because it represents those differences.
Simple. Attainable. Targeted. They made it happen.
Improve a memorable brand … co-create your brand with your customers
Instead of bombarding customers with interruptions, involve and engage them more.
Ask anyone who works in marketing what Nike stands for and you’re likely to hear the same three words: “authentic athletic performance.” Their goal is to be associated with customers that desire to be high performance, high notch athletes, achievers, and winners.
Nike is the name of the Greek winged goddess of victory, and the logo represents the spirit of this goddess. It is wrapped in emotional appeal.
Check out this Nike example of inclusive marketing using this Derek Jeter commercial.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X03_bNuihLU
Brand awareness strategy … aim for the heart
As often as you, engage the emotions of your audience and get them to resonate with their experiences. P&G examples of their ‘thank you mom’ videos are awesome. Here is a recent one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57e4t-fhXDs
There are no better means of influence or the power of persuasion than emotion. Hands down the best, in our opinion. Experiences that trigger our emotions are saved and consolidated in lasting memory because the emotions generated by the experiences signal our brains that the experiences are important to remember.
These videos grab and hold your emotion, don’t they?
Create a brand experience consistency
Much like the user-friendly and intuitive interface enjoyed on Apple devices, the clean Apple Store design makes the space easy for consumers to navigate and find what they need. From the employee enthusiasm that welcomes you into a store to innovations like geek chic gadgetry, the first of its kind Genius Bar for technical support, and even a cash register-less checkout—all of these factors work in unison to deliver an on-brand consumer experience.
The ultimate lesson: Never overlook or undervalue your brand organizational culture. Invest in quality internal communications and inspired brand training for your teams. Your employees are the advocates who keep the brand promises you make and deliver the consumer experience a brand needs to thrive.
Take advantage of what your competition forgets. Repeat after me: “culture and brand go hand in hand.”
The bottom line
Remarkable isn’t always the same. Get in the habit of doing the “unsafe” thing every time you have the opportunity is the best way to see what’s working and what’s not.
The key to being remembered is being remarkable. Don’t let your brand take the back seat, stand out.
Markets and customers are constantly changing. Therefore a business must constantly adapt its branding to the changes in the marketplace.
To be effective in this new era, we as marketers need to see our jobs differently. No more just focusing on metrics like clicks, video views or social media shares. We must successfully integrate our function with other business functions to create entire brand experiences that serve the customer all the way through their experiences throughout the business.
We can do better. Much better. But first, we need to stop seeing ourselves as crafters of clever brand messages and become creators of positive brand experiences.
And remember, brands are verbs … what they do matters more than what they say.
