No matter your size or sector you need a successful brand – one that is easily understood, has loyal customers, committed staff, and is financially sustainable.
Successful brands are those that are built on strong foundations. Like trees, with their sturdy roots, what goes on under the surface of a brand is far more important than simply its appearance. Strong brands know who they are, why they exist and what they are trying to achieve, in other words, they are brands that have a purpose.
These brands start from within, with the creation of their specific brand definition, consisting of six key elements – Vision, Mission, Values, Proposition, Personality and Reasons-to-believe. Your own brand definition is important because it is unique to you, reflecting your particular focus, set of strengths and operating environment. Getting it right will help you stand out effectively from your competitors and give your target audience clear and motivating reasons to support you and not any other brand.
We each develop our impression of a brand through how it looks and what it says. But for a brand to speak to us coherently, all its activity must be coordinated and controlled. Its visual identity and the key messages it emits must be part of a larger story all working seamlessly together to promote the image that we want to promote. We cannot leave it to chance, if we do, it is highly likely that we will portray a chaotic unappealing image, with competing messages thrown out by different people on different days, crossing their fingers, hoping that something good ‘sticks’.
It is the role of the brand definition to bring order and control instead of chaos. With a strong definition at the core of your brand, you will find it much easier, quicker and cheaper to build a strong, cohesive image. You will be in control of your marketing and communications activity, able to ensure that every initiative you undertake is working to build the brand image that you want, not the one that others thrust upon you.
Of course, you want to have a memorable logo and a coherent visual identity, these will catch the eye and help you stand out. But they must be created in line with your brand. A ‘pretty logo’ on its own is just that – a ‘pretty logo’. Using your carefully articulated brand definition as the brief for your visual identity will ensure that it has meaning and is not simply part of a beauty parade. A logo with meaning works hard for your brand, underpinning your strengths and attracting the right people.
In short, a strong definition will help you build a successful brand more quickly and more cheaply by providing focus and clarity; giving you a unifying framework for all your marketing communications; stream-lining your visual identity ensuring it is communicating what you want it to; helping to unite staff through a common sense of purpose and; helping you stand out from the crowd by offering a clear set of benefits to engage your supporters and help you win the necessary funding you deserve.
Committing your precious resources to creating your brand definition may sound like the last thing you want to do but do it right and it will repay you many times over.
And now there is a way that you can do it cheaply! Housebrands has just launched an online toolkit enabling organisations to define their own brands without needing to hire expensive consultants. Simply and clearly written it uses the established programme we use with our own clients. Starting at under £200 you really can now have a strong and professional brand at a fraction of the usual cost.
