Branding, schmanding. Is a rose still a rose..?

Taking issue with the “brand babblers”

 

I can’t sit on my hands or bite my tongue any longer. I have to take issue with the plethora of PR companies, ad agencies and creative services firms masquerading as self-appointed “brand guardians.” More often than not, consultants slap a new coat of paint onto a small business and say “more branding” or, “we’re building the brand.”

I’m firmly of the view that in the business context, brand is a noun, not a verb

To that end, what currently poses as “branding” is usually no more than a thorough corporate identity system married to a marketing positioning exercise. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, provided that’s what it’s called. Except that many SMB owners have the impression that changing a brand is as easy as getting new business cards printed.

Corporate Identity/ Visual Identity/ Positioning

It’s old-school language, but at least it’s accurate. Brands came into being when traders needed to distinguish one parcel of a commodity from another. That’s why we started using the word to describe similar products eg. there are many brands of cereal in a supermarket. And I wish that’s where it had ended.

In the last 40 years, the ubiquitous brand and its upstart off-shoot branding have absorbed a range of previously very specific meanings. In the design industry, we used to talk about corporate and visual identity. They’ve gone.

Marketing professionals used to talk about positioning and character

They also now come under the heading of branding.

Corporate Identity was defined as: a combination between corporate conduct, appearance, communication and personality. Isn’t that what we now call “the brand”?

I betray my design background by preferring the terms visual identity to cover everything graphic and tangible; and reputation to cover everything else. While it’s true that the external appearance of your business can be changed relatively quickly, your reputation cannot.

I’m aware that it’s an old argument and much of it is semantics.

If we now define a brand as:

The promise of a desired, expected level of product/service delivery, then there is only one place to find it – in the mind of the customer. She is the sole definer of what your brand is and does. The degree of trust your customer gives the brand is a measure of the total experience she has with your business.

You are the sole custodian of your brand attributes because your brand is a direct reflection of the way you do business. If you’re running your business well, the values you impart through your product/service will be reflected in your brand.

There is a danger lying in our attachment to symbols. We use them as shorthand because it makes sense to reduce the amount of superfluous information our brains can carry. By reducing a brand down to just a logo, we can sort through the piles of messages we’re bombarded with every day. But the symbol is just convenient currency, nothing more.

Every single thing you do contributes to your brand

From the way the phone is answered to the box the product is delivered in; from the attitude and personality of the sales person to the advertising and communication. Of course, any well-run business ensures that all these things are consistent. Many would say that’s branding. I say it’s simply good management. Or good reputation management.

If you want to build your brand, change your business

Put another way, ensure your management and processes are running smoothly, efficiently and contain your desired values. Small improvements or changes made at this fundamental level will have far-reaching and major effects for your brand.