In today’s digital world, intentional business branding is the lifeblood of any company. And while it usually is thought of as creating a logo with a specific color palette and design, the reality is that true business branding goes beyond what can be printed on a product or displayed on a company website. At its heart, business branding is a multi-elemental process that seeks to establish an emotional connection between a business and its customer.
“Branding is not only how you as the brand view your product, your identity and your persona, but it is how the rest of the world views you as well,” said Abbi Whitaker, president of The Abbi Agency. “It is your personality, it’s your tone, it’s your voice, it’s your colors, it’s the authenticity that you put out into the world. Branding is not just a look or a feel. It’s everything that surrounds the product or the persona that you have created.”
The Psychology Behind a Brand
Preparing to launch a brand is an exciting time for any company. And behind any successful branding launch is a business that has spent months knee deep in research studying the core values of a business and seeking ways to intentionally communicate those to a target audience.
“I’ve seen big companies create logos and that is it. They have not really thought about the research that goes into [their brand],” said Whitaker. “[It is important to have] focus groups both online and in person and look at the psychology behind your brand and at all the different nuances that can be associated with a brand. You can come up with something and think that it is going to be edgy, but it could be something that is really going to upset a certain demographic and then your brand can end up falling flat on its face. We see that happen all the time.”
Once a company has done their due diligence and created their brand, it still takes considerable time, consistency and grit to establish that brand in the eyes of the consumer.
“The first thing [that goes into successfully branding a business] is really just relentless consistency,” said Rob Gaedtke, president and CEO of KPS3. “The hardest part of branding is doing the same thing over and over and over again and making sure you are not deviating from it.” This relentless consistency needs to be evident on every level of a business brand from the top down.
“It is important that [businesses] always have the same tone of voice,” said Bruce Logan, creative director at B&P Advertising. “Whether it is an email, website, customer service people [or] any touch points in their business, [the brand] should always be consistent. [Businesses] must make sure that they create a consistent brand so that the consumers are assured in their omnichannel presence [and] that it is the same company. The look and feel, the logo, the design, the company’s positioning, their brand promise, all of that needs to be consistent on every level.”
Be Authentic
Authenticity is vital for any business and is often an area where companies go wrong in their branding efforts.
“Don’t try to be something that you are not,” said Whitaker. “Don’t try to create something that is not authentic to who you really are. And don’t try to push something out there, whether it is a campaign, micro campaign or a content strategy that does not align with what you really are.”
A lack of authenticity can be a slippery slope for any business and perhaps one of the most common errors that companies make is losing sight of their target audience. “If you are not true to yourself, everything tends to fall apart,” said Michael Coldwell, CEO and cofounder of BrainTrust. “A lot of times companies can get off track by trying to be all things to all people. Instead of making a compelling powerful connection with a core audience, they tend to try to make the brand a little vanilla. And when you try to be everything to everyone, oftentimes you end up being nothing to nobody.”
Another common error in authenticity is the temptation of comparison. While comparing one business to another and modeling systems can improve branding efforts, it can also be harmful if it lacks authenticity.
“The biggest [mistake] I see is [businesses] try to be someone [that] they are not,” said Gaedtke. “They will say they want this brand that is beautiful and elegant, but their processes are clunky. You can’t make something up in a branding exercise. You can and it will be beautiful, but it will fail miserably. It has to be true. You can still aspire and shift the brand, but it has to be who you are still.”
Comparison can also have a negative impact on businesses and their branding efforts when comparing businesses of different sizes and scales, rather than making apple to apple comparisons. “Do take inspiration from global brands but do not look to global brands for tactical inspiration,” said Coldwell. “If Nike spends $3 billion in advertising globally every year and you are a bakery in Reno, don’t look at Nike and say, ‘Well Nike does it this way so that’s the way I am going to build my brand’. You are not quite there yet. Don’t get distracted by companies of much larger or much smaller scale than your own. It is okay to be inspired by them but technically understand there are some differences.”
A Digital Shift
The internet has unarguably changed the way business is done. From ordering online and the decline of brick-and-mortar stores, to a shift in advertising campaigns that partner with influencers on social media, the digital era demands businesses be intentional in establishing an online presence in order to survive.
“There are very few businesses in this world that are not benefited from an online presence,” said Gaedtke. “Consider the last 100 brands you have explored, and I can almost guarantee that the vast majority of those you typed into Google and you went to their site. Or you looked at a Yelp review or saw some form of their company in the digital world. On the flip side of that, if you didn’t find them, you probably didn’t use them unless it was a strong recommendation.”
Social media in particular has had a significant impact on the branding efforts of companies by allowing the consumer to engage with brands like never before.
“Social media has taken a lot of control away from corporations when it comes to telling their own brand story,” said Coldwell. “For example, a multimillion-dollar airline brand can be undermined by one viral video of a careless baggage handler throwing suitcases around. The egalitarian nature now of big multinational brands fighting on the same battlefield as the average consumer is a very interesting development and it gives power to the people when it comes to interacting with and engaging with brands. In the old days, you could write a letter to the company, but now you can post something that is going to be seen by literally millions of people. There is some benefit there, but with great power comes great responsibility.”
2023 Marketing Trends: Brand is Everything
Darcy Neighbors
Founder and CEO, CIM Marketing Partners
Building a company’s brand will continue to be imperative for successful positioning and growth. In 2023, there are several emerging trends companies will notice. Responding to these trends is key, and companies that are laser focused on building their brands will prove to be most successful.
Data collection will continue to be more challenging. Companies strive to collect customers’ (actual and potential) data so they can communicate with them to build awareness, build trust and encourage business interactions. Privacy regulations, laws and policies continue to tighten and restrict marketers. Companies need to remain in compliance while still being proactive to collect consumer data and expand/update their databases.
Strategy will take an even higher role. With the ever changing plethora of marketing tactics available, developing a comprehensive marketing strategy and choosing and implementing right-fit tactics is critical.
The customer-focus approach will be more important than ever. Companies know customers have options, and attracting them involves so many factors: Initiating awareness, building trust, focusing on “what’s in it for them,” and retaining those customers over time.
What can a company do to truly build its brand?
Be intentional with all marketing tactics. Many are not one-and-done actions; they need to be done on an ongoing basis. Examples include soliciting reviews and keeping online company profiles updated.
Take time to develop a cohesive marketing strategy. Bring key internal stakeholders together to agree on business goals and direction for the new year. Develop and follow a strategy that will focus marketing efforts in a meaningful way.
Perform a brand synchronization. Since a company’s logo and related branding elements are a significant “face” of a company, it’s important to ensure that logo’s proper use. Over time, with employees coming and going and general logo sharing and usage, the logo may be being used incorrectly. Perform an audit of everywhere your logo appears (printed pieces, online, signage/vehicles, promotional items, etc.) and make sure it is being used correctly (proper colors, proportions, fonts, etc.).
By focusing on building a brand and awareness of that brand, a domino effect will occur. Building a brand creates increased awareness of that brand, which leads to trust and desire to engage with the brand, which leads to customer interaction and loyalty. All of this leads to increased revenue, profit and overall brand/company value.
Preparing for a Crisis
With internet access that allows news to spread like wildfire with the touch of a button, it is rarely a matter of if there will be a crisis that will threaten a company’s brand, but rather when it will occur. When faced with a crisis, businesses have the immense task of trying to get in front of it and determine the best way of minimizing the impact on their company brand.
“Before we had social media, part of the crisis communications plan always included ambush interviews as if somebody was knocking on your door at 2:00 a.m. and sticking a camera and light in your face,” said Elizabeth Trosper, CEO and founder of Trosper Public Relations. “In today’s market, that happens all the time, except it is an amateur. Everybody has a phone and everybody is taking photos and videos, 24/7. There are no news cycles, just a continuous wave of information. It has changed the way that we communicate. And one of the things we really stress in PR is the first voice out there wins. You need to make sure that your message is out there first before somebody else starts telling your story.”
The first step in taking control of a narrative in a crisis is to avoid blame shifting. “This is still hard for some people to grasp, but assume responsibility, apologize, and then take steps to make sure it never happens again,” said Trosper. “The best way to do that is, number one, be prepared and have a plan in place. And [then] look at it as an opportunity to put something good out there about your brand. If you handle a crisis well, that increases the trust factor [in your brand] because everybody knows that at some point in life or in time, everybody will have a crisis.”
Sometimes a crisis will be so significant it will force a business to completely rebrand in order to survive. Although not ideal, rebranding presents businesses with the challenge of moving forward from a crisis while still maintaining a sense of honesty about past events in the eyes of the public. “Today’s consumer has a very strong intuition about what is authentic and what is truthful,” said Coldwell. “When a company is in a position to have to change what they are representing to the public, it all comes down to trust and truthfulness. The most essential element to a rebranding after a crisis or a change in your brand is to get back to that inherent truth.”
One practical way of avoiding the need to rebrand a company after a crisis is for businesses to be intentionally proactive and hire a PR agency before a crisis hits. “Whenever there is a crisis, don’t let the lawyers take over,” said Whitaker. “Don’t let the creative agency take over. That is when you bring in your PR agency [and] if you have included your PR agency at the beginning of your branding process and through all of your campaigns, then they are going to notice red flags that creative agencies do not. They are going to be able to push you in the right direction because they understand the nuances of public opinion so much more. Rule number one [is to] always includes your PR agency in everything.”
Being Intentional
Establishing a business brand goes beyond creating a logo and a company slogan. It is an intentional process that involves creating a relationship between a company and a consumer and is built on trust.
“A good brand is your reputation,” said Trosper. “It is how you do business, it’s how you treat your employees, it’s how you treat your colleagues, it’s how you treat your vendors. It is your reputation. That is your brand. Everything else is supportive. There are some businesses that folks stay away from because even though they look good on paper, their reputation precedes them, and their brand backfires on them.”
And whether a company is intentional about establishing a positive reputation in their branding efforts or not, every business has a brand. And the truth is that if that brand is not determined by the company, it will be determined by the consumer.
“A company is going to have a brand whether [or not] they invest all their time and money in that brand,” said Logan. “It is important to make that a priority and to invest in the brand. If you do nothing, people will determine what your brand is, and that may not be what you want to communicate. It is important to be consistent with your brand and own that brand so that somebody else doesn’t own it for you.”
