BRANDING

DEFINE: BRAND

First, a quick question: What is a brand? Is it a store where certain products can be bought? Is it an office where professionals offer a particular service? Or could it be a trademark, an online business, a non-profit organization or a musical band? The answer is yes to all of the above. A brand is pretty much any business entity, regardless of what it offers to its users, consumers or followers.

However, the real question that true entrepreneurs should ask is: what is a great brand? In an increasingly competitive world, what makes some brands so compelling that consumers are willing to pay the extra money for a product or service that could be purchased for less elsewhere? What keeps them coming back and choosing that product or service again and again? What increases their loyalty and trust? Of course, the first thing that comes to mind is that a great brand offers a great product and service. But is that all? Although definitely the most important aspect, the brand’s products and services are not the only thing that shape the consumer’s opinion.

Strong brands connect and resonate with their clientele. They find ways to offer a unique experience that goes beyond a product or service: they’re storytellers who create memories, educators who offer valuable advice and, above all, people who build trust and real relationships. All this drives brand value and encourages customer word of mouth, thus adding to the brand’s notoriety.

DEFINE: BRANDING

If a brand is the sum of the above-mentioned values, what is branding?

Branding is a process of communicating your brand’s core messages to your clientele. The communication channel can be visual, written or verbal and the platforms used for communicating can range from web and print to radio and television. While these channels and platforms can vary greatly from one business to the next, one thing must remain constant: your brand’s identity. Any type of corporate marketing or communication collateral must have your company’s unique imprint on it and avoid being generic. Absolutely everything that your company produces must consistently convey your brand’s messages to your clientele.

Although the logo is the most commonly accepted form of branding, it shouldn’t be the only brand element on your products. Take the example of Apple. While its logo is among the most recognizable in the world, it is just one element of its success. Another key factor is that, over the years, Apple has carefully and strategically built a strong brand based on its core values and communicated it to its users by keeping its branding 100% consistent and aligned with its brand’s message.

Branding applies to anything, including the visual identification of your company and all its written content. Branding elements are developed in keeping with your brand’s core message and must follow through everywhere: your stationery, your website, your presentations and so on. All of your marketing and communication collateral must be easily identifiable as your brand. Moreover, your identity should not only be supported by visual elements such as typography, colors and graphic elements, but also by written messages that align with your brand’s core values.

BRANDING: OUR APPROACH

Our approach to creating a strong brand identity begins with studying who is your target market, what your company’s story is and how your competition stacks up. We take it a step further by looking at what’s trending in your industry, what customers’ expectations are and how they communicate with a business like yours as well as the unique attributes of your products and services that set you apart from everyone else.

The process of nailing down your identity then involves taking all we’ve learned about your company and putting it together in a way that resonates with your clients’ expectations. That runs the gamut of coming up with your logo to creating your company’s color palette, as well as developing the unique graphic elements that will be used to design everything from your business letterheads to employee uniforms. We also establish clear visual and written guidelines for all of your marketing and communication needs, making sure that your brand’s values are supported by consistent visual and written messages.

We follow through by not only maintaining your brand’s identity, but also by regularly tweaking and updating your branding techniques to increase their relevance in today’s world and making sure that any material produced by your brand is firmly aligned with your brand’s core values and well suited to your target clientele.