Even though we are in the naming business, we are the first to say a name is not a brand. And we continue to be frustrated by all the small design agencies who say they do branding, when all they really do is corporate or product identity. Similarly for an agency that really only does advertising and claims they are doing branding.
A Brand is the Golden Thread that runs through all your Business Decisions.
A Brand is?
- A name.
- A logo.
- A mark or symbol.
- A famous company or product.
- A set of values.
- A name and logo.
- An advertised product.
- An identity.
- An image in someone’s brain.
- One’s perceptions and feelings about a product.
When I ask a group of students or non-marketeers what a Brand is, these are the typical kind of answers I hear. If you read a lot of fancy consumer books on the subject, they so often take a different tack and produce high brow quotes like: “The sum total of all the buyers impressions and values associated with a product”.
However, if you are the marketer of the product, the answer is very simple:
A Brand is a Promise
To clarify a brand even further, a promise of what? Well, that is also simple to summarize:
A Brand is a Promise of an Experience
A brand exists solely in the customer’s mind. It cuts through the clutter of marketing and product messages and carries an implicit and powerful message of differentiation. The experience of this brand promise creates loyalty. This is both an emotional and factual bond between you and your customers, however technical the products or services.
Creating and preserving a brand is a process that requires consistency. To keep everyone focused on doing the best they can for the brand, remind all employees:
Your brand is the Golden Thread that runs through all your product, business, and customer actions.
[This article is a short extract from Brighter Branding: Branding for the Smaller Business. Please see Amazon.com or www.FodenPress.com for full details.]
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