Before we discuss developing a brand we first need to understand what a brand is. The most common misconception is that a brand is a logo. While a brand does need a logo, a logo is not a brand. A brand is the feeling that someone gets when they look at your logo or when they think of your company. Much like a sports team needs a name and mascot, a mascot does not win games. In addition no matter how cool a mascot name is, it won’t win championships and ones logo doesn’t make sales. So when it comes to a logo it is only necessary to have a unique enough logo that stands out from the competition and is instantly recognizable once it becomes effective.
A Brand for the Ages
Take for instance the All Blacks, New Zealand’s Rugby team. The name All Black’s is rather uncreative, unimaginative and very simple. The silver fern leaf, their logo, doesn’t by itself say anything of the team it represents or the sport they play. As most sports logos go, it is rather unintimidating.
The name All Blacks refers to their uniform being all black. Back in the turn of the twentieth century, news journalists referred to the team by the color of their uniforms as they hadn’t had a name at that time. Their logo a silver fern leaf a native plant to New Zealand which is often represented in the country’s cultural representations.
That being said the All Black’s brand is one of the best brands of any team in any sport around the world. They have a reputation that is second to none. Let’s start with how they put fear into their opponents. Anyone who has ever seen an All Black’s game will have witnessed the Maori challenge, their ritualist dance. It is one of the most intimidating pre game spectacles in any sport. There are twenty savage looking men chanting a war cry in sync, staring down their opponents looking into their souls, foaming at the mouth as if they are preparing for a fight to the death.
None of this would matter if they were not the most consistently successful sports team in history of all sports worldwide over the past one hundred years. Recently they have maintained a winning percentage of 94% and their winning percentage since 1903 is 77%.
The All Blacks have been ranked number one in their league more than all the other teams combined. They hold more world records in the sport of Rugby than any other team. All of this creates a powerful brand of a team that is feared and respected.
Bad Branding
A brand is the outward perception of a company. There are really three simple ways of looking at a brand, it is either positive, negative or ineffective. The All Blacks were a great example of what a positive brand looks like. Now let’s take a look at a negative brand. Take Kmart for instance. Kmart for many years, was the number two retail brand in the country. They had developed a brand, but in the last 30 years they developed a horrible reputation as a company and severely tarnished their brand. For many years they refused to update their stores. Anyone who walks into one, fells like they are walking back in time and not in a nostalgic sort of way.
The most famous and effective aspect of their brand was the blue light special. Where the store would announce “attention Kmart shoppers” and attract customers to the days daily deal. While this was extremely effective campaign at the time, it became the butt of many comedic jokes. They have done nothing to improve the companies image in decades.
While Kmart has changed their logo on several occasions, they have failed to improve the public’s perception of their company. They have made the mistake that the logo is the brand. JCPenny’s, Sears, Long John Silver and Gateway computers have suffered similar fates. For More information on Kmart’s story click here.
Ineffective Branding
The most common type of brands are those that are really just ineffective. Most large and successful companies have some brand recognition and a well known logo, they are just not well branded. One of biggest issues is that most companies are truly indistinguishable from their competition. Here are a few examples: Delta and American Airlines, Hyatt and Marriott, AT&T and Verizon, Albertsons and Krogers, All and Tide, and Chevron and Shell to name a few.
These companies for the most part do not rely on developing a brand, but other factors to reach their customers. They often rely on convenience and/or price as their biggest selling points. Outside of Walmart and maybe Dollar Tree to a lesser degree, it is hard to find a company in recent times that has successfully capitalized consistently on convenience and price as a brand. Often when companies focuses on being the lowest price, those companies tend to be in a race to the bottom. Many of these companies use a rewards program to try to set themselves apart. This rarely creates true brand loyalty as they all do it.
Wireless companies will lock their clients into a contract and use cell phones with different sim cards making it more expensive and less convenient to switch. Microsoft may have developed the software “where business is done” but they did not develop brand loyalty. They were early to market and created more of a monopoly where people feel obligated to use their products. Outside a few airlines like Southwest, JetBlue and Virgin most of the major airlines compete on routes and on price. Most airlines have added and hidden charges that hit once the airline ticket has been purchased. They make their money on the backend of the sale.
The Face of your Brand
First one needs a logo. What should a logo be? This depends on your company. It could be just your company name with a cool font, color and a few design elements. It could be an image or symbol that represents the company’s name or what the company does a badge, like Apple, Shell and Firefox for example. A logo can also be totally unique and inventive having nothing or very little to do with the company’s mission statement. This could be the Nike’s Swoosh, Starbuck’s mermaid, Adidas’ Leaves or AT&T’s planet.
The key to a good logo is that it is unique enough to stand out and not be confused with another company’s logo. A great logo is instantly recognizable. The reason why one should not buy an inexpensive logo is because they often have borrowed elements from other logos, use the same fonts and don’t spend the time to come up with something truly unique. A reasonable price can be anywhere between $300 to $3000 dollars depending on what elements are included and who is creating it.
The chicken and the egg is one of life’s great conundrums and much like that, when designing the logo one should have an idea of what the company is going to be, how it is going to operate and how customers are going to perceive it. Unfortunately any new business that is looking to grow may have to change directions, change focus, and change with the times.
Promoting your Brand
The second factor to developing a brand is through external media. This can be anything from social media posts, free content, events and advertising used to promote the brand. It is important to understand your company’s avatar, to know the interests of those who will buy your products or services, what they are likely to respond to and what will turn them off. Marketing needs to appeal to your customers. The best way to know your customer is to develop a proper avatar. There are many factors that go into understanding your Avatar, click this link to download our free Avatar creation tool to help you develop yours.
Making the Brand Last
Lastly, there are your company’s core values, their mission statement or how your company interacts with their customers. Every touch point your company has is developing your brand. The first key element a company needs to take into account is the systems they have in place. These systems will be everything from employee training, dealing with customer service, logistics, customer engagement and perception of products or service. Is it a value or status purchase, is it a need or a want, a long sale process or an impulse buy? Do you have repeat customers or a one time purchase? All of these factors and more will shape your company’s brand.
The Brand Within
Let’s now get into aspects of developing a brand that many don’t consider. Culture, what happens when customers are not watching. Developing a brand is affected just as much by what happens behind the scenes as what is projected publicly. How a company treats its employees will have a direct effect on how those employees interact with customers.
Protect the Brand
your company’s brand needs to reflect many if not all aspects of those factors mentioned above. It is important to realize that your logo is just a reflection of how your customer and the general public perceive you. It is only when the public is first introduced to the logo do they see it as the company. Over time reputation becomes your brand. When developing your brand be like the All Blacks, do everything you can to build protect and grow your brand.
Lastly once your company develops a positive brand you must protect it, remember the swastika was a symbol that represented life, sun, power, strength, and good luck for 3000 years until the Nazis destroyed that symbol.
If you would like more information on how to build your brand click this link.
