People tend to equate Branding to just logo, name, colors, and messages. Is that ‘branding’, and why as of late everyone seems to be an expert at it?
The answer has historical roots. Until the mid 1990s, the business was Corporate Identity, focused on sophisticated logos and visual systems. Then, and partially coinciding with the acquisitions of all the leading Identity firms by large conglomerates (WPP, Omnicom, Interpublic) and with the rise of Brand as a financial asset (pioneered by my alma mater Interbrand) the discipline was flooded with business and marketing strategists. The notion of Corporate Branding took hold and became increasingly a leftbrain ‘science’, and that gave license to do Branding to anyone who was into any type of optimization of a business – using Brand as a lever for business success.
So what exactly is Brand, and what exactly is Branding?
A couple of accurate definitions: Brand is a central organizing principle which, if properly managed, creates influence and generates value” — “a brand is a relationship that creates and secures future earnings by growing customer preference and loyalty.” I use them, but also explain things more practically:
– Branding is the process to create a layer between your business proposition and your marketplace – one that translates the proposition into terms that are relevant, understandable, and valued by your intended audiences.
Then, as the result of the process of Branding, …
– … Brand is the perception that others have of you, one that transcends the merits of what you actually do or make; or as Jeff Bezos famously noted “Brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room”.
As an example: you can promote your Pen Factory as the maker of the best pens and tout quality and features; or you can promote it in a ‘branded’ way by saying that you enable people to write.
Inside-out vs outside-in, features vs benefits: this perspective is the very core of the concept of Brand.
What is the most important takeaway from those definitions?
As the perception of you resides in the audience’s mind, you don’t own and never will own your brand. You can only define what you’d like it to be, then operate & behave & communicate in such a way as to keep earning that perception – and then work hard at letting it stay that way.
Are the laws of Brand & Branding immutable?
The definitions/laws at large are immutable, but how they are developed have changed.
Ideally, a business is examined, then the outside-in core brand concept is crafted, and then expressed in multiple ways.
For example, Airbnb’s brand is rooted in the notion of ‘Belong Anywhere’, a concept that is then articulated in multiple but aligned ways. But unfortunately for many years now leftbrained strategists define an accurate business-savvy but factually dry foundation, and then:
– either come up themselves with a translation for the marketplace, which most often results in slogan-ish ‘clever’ wording of the business realities – say, ‘A New Way To Hotel’; or
– ask creatives to take that dry foundation and make it sing, which results in multiple mis-aligned interpretations and expressions – albeit perhaps relevant and memorable.
In today’s digital age people think they can twist anything and still call it branding, including what AI can generate. Your view?
The process of Branding does include any and all perception-generating activities; but the issue is … are they intentional or accidental? Do they just grab attention, or are organized to establish a long-lasting persona? As to AI, it is helpful in many way – but brand-wise it’ll generate many A New Way To Hotel kind of ideas, but not quite the Belong Anywhere type. Can/will it get there? Maybe.
You’ve just launched an online Branding Course. What is it, and how is it different than the many branding courses out there?
The www.masterbranded.com website has a FAQ section that answers this question in detail. Briefly here:
– They are generally about the science of Brand/ing, its management, and how/why Brand is important, but offer little on how to actually do it. Masterbrander.com is professional-grade specific about crafting the fundamentals of a Brand.
– They are based on the teachers’ purview: MBA-types see Branding through a leftbrain business lens and creatives through a rightbrain expressional lens. Masterbrander.com is brand-foundational, and background- and -applications agnostic.
– They aim to “make branding simple”, offer “four things to boost …”, and based on “you’re busy and so here are quick …”. Masterbrander.com examines and teaches the complexity – then, it’s the job of the consultant to simplify it for their clients.
– They tend to use standardized models, but as every client and challenge is different. Masterbranded.com teaches you how to think with an outside-in perspective within flexible frameworks, so that solution can be bespoke to what each client needs.
