Solving Business Problems Through Brand Building
Brand building is more than a creative idea, it's a strategic effort toward creative business solutions. We'll explore the what, when and who's involved.
When asked what brand is, many will say: a logo, colour palette or a tagline. They are not wrong but that’s not the whole picture, not even close. That’s the face of the brand – the symbolic representation – what we like to call Visual Identity.
Brand is about creating meaning (value and associations) for the product/service users, and leveraging that meaning to distinguish your product, company or self. This paper explores how brand building plays a bigger role in solving daily business problems.
The Business of Brand
Truth is that most clients come to us with business problems. Our value is in finding ways to solve these issues through brand. Why? Brand is long term. Its impact, when well-thought out and executed, reaches far beyond the marketing department to influence overall growth and success.
So, what are some of the business problems we have helped clients to solve as brand and design consultants? They’ve been disparate and include, how do we:
- restructure business operations to increase efficiency and ensure delivery of promise?
- make customers understand what we do?
- minimise employee turnover?
- expand our business?
- launch this new product/ service?
Knowing when to involve brand in your business
How does a business know when to start thinking about brand or engage with a brand consultant?
The answer is that businesses need to involve or at least start thinking about their brand from the very beginning (business strategy stage) and follow it through to the execution (marketing, sales and after-sales stages). The matrix below underscores the necessity of doing so.
Brand is a consistent component of business that should considered at every stage for it to have maximum efficiency.
Knowing who to involve in brand building
Successful businesses are those that are able to create lasting relationships with stakeholders, thereby increasing market share. Brand is able help achieve this through brand equity.
Brand equity is the idea that well-known brand names can generate more revenue from brand recognition than those products and services that are generic or less well-known. This is based on the perception that well-known brand names are synonymous with superior products, services and experiences. In effect, customers are willing to pay a premium for them.
Its potential to significantly impact the bottom-line means that brand touches across all points of the business. It should therefore involve the entire team/ company, starting at the visionaries and decision makers. They understand where the business is going and why.
Many companies make the mistake of leaving brand to the marketing department. You’ll notice that those companies aren’t leaders in their field (at least not for long).
Visionaries and decision makers should be heavily involved in creating the brand strategy, the team (top to bottom of the pyramid) should understand the essence of the brand and their part in building it, operational duties and their execution should then be aligned to the brand strategy. Consistency is key.
Invest in your business
All businesses need awareness, reputation and value in order to stay winning. Brand is the bridge that enables you to unite internal stakeholders towards a common goal and connect with your target audience. Businesses that seize every opportunity to communicate their company’s brand value and what the brand stands for reap the rewards. They are building a precious asset.