Your Brand is Built on Substance

Logos are only part of a company's visual identity, which is a brand marker, but not a company's brand by itself. 

A brand is the result of experiences and communications that make up a consumer’s thoughts and feelings about a company, product or entity. A brand is good for the long haul, it comes to mean something to people, it supports a variety of business directions and products. It's critical to standing out in a sea of competition and clutter. 

Apart from creating awareness of a product or service, building brand is about letting people know what the business stands for. It needs to be authentic and believable, that is, upheld by the core concept, the competency of the business, business model and  consistent messaging. 

Brands are especially useful when consumers are making decisions about purchasing confusing, complex or status items – otherwise known as “high involvement” products or services. For example, a low involvement product is a packet of chewing gum. A dentist is a high involvement purchase.

The brand promise is what a company implies or says it’s going to deliver. It means setting customer expectations, and then consistently delivering on them over time. Reliable delivery and repetition builds trust, remembrance and reputation. In a social setting, sharing useful information and expertise is one way to build a positive reputation and amplify word of mouth.

If you’re a plumber, for example, you may tell customers that you’re always available in an emergency. Answering the office phone on the third ring may be a way to reinforce that brand promise. A way to visually communicate the brand to customers might include an illustration of a plumber driving a fast-moving ambulance. Delivering on the promise of fantastic service is the best way to build and reinforce the brand.

How We Help You Identify Your Brand

With any branding project, our shared objective is to bring your brand and your target market (audience) into alignment. It's a solid foundation for promoting a business, so you're clearly and consistently communicating what your company and products are about — in a way that's meaningful to buyers.

Our service starts with a Discovery Process. This includes reviewing available documents, like business or marketing plans, and your website. We provide a marketing input form to capture anything missed in the other materials. We also use your website analytics (typically Google Analytics) to determine how well your website is driving traffic. If we still need more information about your target audience(s), we can recommend various research methods. These often reveal hidden gems or insights about how to make a strong brand connection. Once we’ve gathered these materials, we’ll look for alignment or gaps between target audience psychographics and your brand.

After Discovery, we'll schedule whiteboarding sessions to discuss strategies and actions for bringing branding into focus and alignment with your target audience. We use various exercises to identify, analyze and capture your brand promise, personality and what and how you need to communicate to create an emotional connection through messaging.

​Ultimately, we'll provide you with documentation that defines what to keep, what to change, and what warrants further investigation along the following dimensions: your story (competencies, differentiators), target audience, messaging, positioning and branding.

---