WHAT IS IT?
Branding is a disciplined process used to build awareness and connect emotionally that extends to customer loyalty.
Branding is a tangible asset that appeals to the senses of it's owner, employees and intended audience or customers. More than a logo, it is a visual, verbal and written expression of identity. It should be maintained and protected from the top down and be reviewed as business changes reflect growth and emerging technology. It works to unify elements into a visual system that reinforces core strengths + goals to define what matters the most giving meaning to the big idea. When this happens, a brands unique qualities are amplified fueling recognition. Intrinsic to brand identity is growth as it is always in a state of becoming. Brand consulting provides strategic planning and maps visual presence.
Branding is about seizing every opportunity to express why people should choose one brand over another. A desire to lead, outpace the competition and give employees the best tools to reach new customers.
Creating a unified brand includes visually linking all elements—logo, font, color and imagery forming a system. The unspoken visual cues identify the who and what just as much as the written word. Brand identity is an asset that becomes the totem pole everything works around.
Types of Branding
Brands should have consistent qualities in appearance, tone and feel that impact the whole experience of the identity. Color is one of the most powerful indicators.
+ Digital Branding
Web, social media, video + SEO.
+ Co-Branding
Partnering with another brand to increase awareness + recognition.
+ Regional Branding
Brand effort to attract business development + tourism.
+ Cause Branding
Aligning your brand with a charity or non-profit with social responsibility.
+ Personal Branding
An increase awareness, build reputation, share beliefs + convictions.
+ Emotional Branding
A dynamic combination interweaving imagination, history, sensory experiences + visual approach to change.
Touch Points
Brand touch points are an opportunity to increase awareness and build customer loyalty putting your mark in front of the customer.
Touch points are any and every visual associated with your brand that works to reinforce your message. Consistency rules as only 5 - 7 impressions are required for a brand to become memorable. All touch points are considered to be a "brand experience".
Brand DNA
Brand DNA can be defined as the words and perceptions of users contained in memory over time.
—Greenberg, 2003, Marsden, 2000
The brand DNA metaphor describes the interaction of fundamental elements (the combinations of the essential building blocks of a brand) that lead to the evolution of the brand as a living organism. Brands grow and change over time making updates and revisions necessary to continue growth.
Why Invest?
It makes it easy for the customers to buy, the sales force to sell + creates brand equity for the future.
The importance of brand strategy and the cost of building brand identity should be understood at the highest levels of an organization and across functional areas—not just sales + marketing but in legal, finance, operations and human resources too.
The best and longest lasting identity programs embody and promote the company's brand by supporting desired perceptions. Identity is an expression of the company's culture, and a symbol of its core values and history.
Impact to the bottom line: Brand identity guides the creative output to maintain consistency in visual voice, tone and message. In a world where reading is becoming less, visual impact must grab attention and share the message simultaneously.
