We often get new client inquiries for help with branding. Are you increasingly looking to make your brand awesome? Depending on the business, and where it is in the life cycle, that can be a tall order.
Feelings have a critical role in the way customers are influenced.
- David Freemantle
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, and it’s made up of many things.
Related: How Do You Continue to Improve a Memorable Brand
A brand, on the other hand, 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.
The most important thing to remember, it’s not about you in the sense that you are in control. You are not. But you can influence.
Brands deliver an emotional connection to a business’ products and services. Most purchase decisions have critical emotional components, which is why brand marketing is so important.
Your brand represents a collection of your customers’ perceptions of how they see you, how they feel about you, and what they say about you. It communicates every time it touches a customer. This makes you, as a marketer, responsible for this communication ‘moment of truth’.
Here are the key actions, you as the brand marketer, can take to improve each ‘moment of truth’:
The best brands extend their value propositions beyond products and services
Awesome brands change how people view the world surrounding the brand. Take the Red Bull brand as a great example. This brand wants consumers to explore their limits. Their advertisements are loaded with examples of these limits. They are illustrating that we are defined by what we make happen. If you relate, then you are pulled into their world views.
The best brands make a difference
You can probably name a few brands that do a great job of making such a difference that you remember and tell your friends about. These brands are consistently showing their conscience and offering it as something prospective customers can buy into.
Tom’s Shoes is such a brand. For each pair of shoes we buy, Tom’s donates a pair of shoes to the poor and needy. Many consumers buy from Tom’s for their promises as much as their products.
Or Zappos … 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.
