understanding branding: a crash course - Issue #12
Dear you,
I walked into a room one day and a guy was contemplating his next professional steps. He said he needed to brand himself so people could take him seriously. He said "all na packaging". He felt he needed to appear a certain way, even if that was was different from his ideals and what he believed in.
It made me think of my conversation with Seth Godin where he believed that branding is not necessarily who you are, it's how you present yourself to the world. I didn't quite agree and I shared my thoughts with him - I think branding is who you are consistently every time your stakeholders (customers, investors, team, etc.) interact with you. It is what they say and remember about you when you are not in the room. This applied to individuals and businesses.
Over the years, branding has become more and more popular. The COVID19 lockdown gave it an even bigger boost. People are taking it seriously but not a lot of people truly understand it. Today, I'll help you understand it better. It's one of my favourite topics to talk about. I mean, I have won an awards for it! (humble-brag) So trust me, it's about to be a masterclass!
Let's start with what a brand is not
A brand is not a logo, a font, a color, a product, a name, or any of that stuff. Those are all features of a brand, not the brand itself.
When I ask you to describe yourself to me, would you tell me just your gender, name, skin tone? Not really. Would you tell me just your occupation or personality in isolation? No!
You are unique because you are a combination of everything, your name, your features, and so much more. None can exist independently, everything is working together to make you, you. Same thing applies to a brand.
Branding is the process of building a brand. So, if I must define a brand, I would say, it is who you at every touch point where your audience experiences you. It is who your audience say you are when you are not in the room.
Think about it like this:
Apple is a fruit, and that’s not what makes Apple the tech company special. It is also not the product alone (because remember that they have many products), nor the logo alone. It is everything including their customer service, staff, online and offline assets, working together in unison to fulfil the mission.
You don't start branding after you have finished building a business or a product. You start branding as soon as you conceive the idea and guess what? You never stop.
You already have a brand
Whether you try or you don’t try, you already have a perceived brand. The question is, is it the one you are proud of? Is it what you intended? do you like how you are perceived? When you google your name or business, are you proud of the result? Because the goal of branding (the process) is to ensure that your intended brand becomes your perceived brand. The process of branding is simply just taking steps to ensure that your intended brand becomes close or equal to your perceived brand. Meaning, if my intention is to be a luxury brand and I am perceived as a mass-market brand, then I have failed in my branding. I would be left with two choices:
Adjust to fit the market’s perception.
Rebrand and re-adjust to influence my market’s perception.
Parts of a brand
Your brand is a sum of three parts, and these three parts that come together to help your audience KNOW, LIKE, and TRUST you, and to help you KNOW, LIKE, and TRUST yourself. These three parts are:
Identity =Know
Communication = Like
Credibility = Trust
Identity
Your identity is your knowledge of self in relation to your audience that makes you recognizable. The 3 key things to note: “Knowledge of self” and “in relation to your audience” that makes you “recognizable.” This means your identity is made up of you, your audience, and elements that make you recognizable. This is why the identity part is divided into visual and non-visual identities. Everything in the image below and much more. The five senses need to be engaged as you design your identity, in terms of sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. If you would like me to talk more about this in the next newsletter, please indicate in the comment section. The result of a good identity is that you are visible, recognizable, and even memorable. Your audience will know you.
Communication
This is how you explain your identity to your audience through what you say and do not say. It is a mix of promises, storytelling, and action. Communication transients what you say, it also involves what you do and how you do it. It is how you inform, persuade, enlighten, teach, remind, empower, and enrich your audience about your identity, and eventually your brand. Steve Jobs promised us minimalism with Apple, and he kept it; not only in the interface but in the motherboard of the Macs created, in the iPod, in every Apple product. Even now, Apple is consistently innovating around the concept of “less is more”, they even take it to the extremes like creating an iPhone 12 pack without chargers. The result of good communication is that it reinforces your audience's ability to remember you, and even like you.
Credibility
This is your stakeholder's believability in characteristics of your brand based on your identity and communication. It is your reputation and the result of this is trust. Think about brands you trust and why you trust them, it is either they have proven themselves to you or you have transferred trust from someone else to them.
In a nutshell
Your brand is a sum of many micro-actions that reinforce your identity to you and your audience. It is constantly evolving. It is best to build it on truth, keeping a balance between who you are now and who you aspire to be, just like you would do in life. It is easier to be consistent when your brand is built on truth, rather than lies. It is easier to make strides when you are intentional about your brand.
Feeling a little overwhelmed by this post and unsure about how to start, my free ebook - 9Ps of Branding will help guide you. It's free! Download it here.
If you have any questions, ask me in the comment sections. I'm here for you.
With Love,
Blessing Abeng.