Before we understand what branding is, we must know what a brand is,
A lot of people dream of buying Apple products. Why? It serves essentially the same functions as an Android phone, then why do people want to buy an iPhone or a MacBook- because “brand”.
A brand is the perception your audience has towards your product/services and your organization itself.
When you think of Tata as a brand you would think:
Affordable cars, a legacy organization, middle-class friendly and more.
So is Tata’s branding its cars, legacy or its affordability?
Currently, Tata’s public perception can be summed up in these few words: Reliable, Low maintenance, Middle-class friendly, Widely available
However, Tata’s branding efforts are based on: Responsibility, Integrity, Excellence and Pioneering.
The clear distinction between brand & branding lies in who perceives it.
Let’s get back to the original point.
What does ‘
branding’ mean? Is it logo designing or writing its tagline? Is it choosing color palettes?
Well….. The answer to that is yes AND no. In our experience, ‘branding’ is creating a distinction between your brand & thousands of other brands in your segment.
Now, how do you ‘create’ that distinction? There are 2 ways to create it:
1. You can hire an agency to do the branding for you
2. You can self-create it
Let’s understand the first one, hiring an agency to do branding for you seem simple & straight-forward.
You tell them about your brand.
You tell them what you want your brand to look & sound like (visuals & tonality)
The result could be one of these three scenarios:
- The agency does an amazing job & you approve their work
- The agency didn’t catch your drift & you feel something is lacking
- The agency asks you more questions
The first is the best case scenario.
The second & third one is ironically even better. Why?
Because it shows that there’s a clear gap between your vision, mission, purpose & personality in how you portrayed your brand to the agency- it’s something that you can improve drastically by focusing on a few key things.
These 3 things are something that an agency cannot choose on your behalf.
- They work to bring your brand’s map into reality.
- You, as a brand owner have the onus of knowing your brand.
- Agency, as an organization has the onus of enhancing your brand.
Now, to the important question: WHY is branding important?
In short, branding is important because it helps the audience & the business to streamline a few things:
Essentially, you want to show exactly what you want to be perceived as.
Many would argue that we didn’t add logos & taglines to the list. It’s simply because logos and taglines are NOT the brand themselves.
The function of a logo and tagline is simply to be used an identifier, not as a stand-in for the public perception itself.
Here are some core functions that branding serves:
- Distinguishes your product/service from competitors
- Facilitates advertising, marketing & communication
- Helps create customer loyalty to get repeat purchases/orders
- Helps business charge more or less for their products/services
- Enables easier launching of new lines of products/services
From the viewpoint of an agency
We, as Substance Communications, believe strongly in 4W-1H of any organization to create ideas that make our client brand’s visibility beam through the competition.
Our teams are encouraged to self-question, cross-question & repeat questions for every single creative & asset to know whether the meaning & message of the brand is being conveyed in the best way possible.
The 5W-1H of our method includes the following questions:
W → What does this brand do?
W → Where does this brand operate?
W → Why does this brand exist?
W → Who does this brand cater to?
H → How does this brand see itself?
Brand & Branding are very vast subjects for which even books are insufficient.
However, we have compressed it down to what a brand is vs what a brand is not.
| WHAT A BRAND IS | WHAT A BRAND IS NOT |
|---|---|
| Public Perception | Logo |
| Vision | Colour Palette |
| Mission | Tagline |
| Purpose | Font |
| Personality | Products |
The fundamental truth about brand & branding is just 2 things: Perception & Brand’s Identity.
Stay tuned for more on branding, marketing, design & web development.
1 Comments
Very helpful information! You have explained nicely about the branding? Why is branding important for your business. The Neat Trick is the best design agency in delhi NCR helping top brands achieve their graphical goals. Thank you for such useful information.Keep posting!
ReplyDelete