What Is Branding? The Importance Of A Strong Identity & 10 Companies Creating Core Brand Values
Every one of us has at least one brand we’re loyal to. Whether it’s a drink, an electronic device or a piece of gym apparel, there is that one thing we keep on going back to. This bond can be based on a vast array of factors. A majority of them, though, are a result of carefully thought out branding.
What is a brand and why do you need it?
Defining the term is a hard issue to tackle. You’ve heard of it, and perhaps you already own, or work on building a brand.
It is very common for people to wrongly equalize the words “brand” and “company”. While there surely is some overlap, the two should be seen as separate terms. To put it simply, a “company” is the organization that produces or sells products or services; a “brand”, on the other hand, is the image a company creates for its product. In other words, a company or a product can be a brand, but brands are not companies. Examples of famous companies that are brands for themselves would be Sony and Nike, while branded product lines made by unbranded companies would be, for example, Gillette, Pampers and Duracell, all coming from a relatively lesser-known parent company – Procter & Gamble.
In a way, a brand is a promise to the customer. It lets them know what to expect from it. Through the way you market your product or service, prospective customers can envision what the product itself might be like. Customers rarely have the possibility to try out all the variations of a product, especially in highly saturated markets. Of course, this means that they can’t bring a completely objective decision when choosing which product to buy. This is where branding steps in – when it comes to bringing the final decision, associations we have to specific brands will often prevail. The role of branding is, thus, to define ways customers perceive your product before they even try it. Its importance lies in the fact that it informs prospective customers of your product and in which ways it differs from your competitors’ ones.
Defining your brand is the first step towards building a successful name. Having a badly defined, confusing brand is perhaps worse than not branding at all – it might leave the wrong impression. Wasting time and money on ill-defined branding is the last thing you want to do, so it’s important to approach branding strategically.
The ultimate goal of branding is to create something instantly recognizable. Whether that’s a logo, a color palette, a slogan or a song, for as long as it rings a bell, it serves the purpose. If you manage to create a positive association with it – you’re definitely on the right track. The moment a customer sees your product on the shelf, it will give them a positive cue.
If you’re still skeptical - there are even a plethora of “Guess the brand” games which show a part of a logo or slogan. It’s quite amazing how much we remember without even knowing it!
The types of brands
So, your company is finally done with the administrative mumbo-jumbo, and you’re ready to start working on your (re)branding? The first question you’ll need to answer is whether you’d like to brand a specific product line, your company name or both.
Corporate branding is an approach that puts your company and its identity first. When a corporation or a company is the main brand, all products and services are marketed under the wing of the big name. For example – Hoover, a famous vacuum cleaner producer, is so well-known that in the UK the company name is used as a synonym for the device, yet it has very few widely known model names.
Product branding, as the name suggests, focuses on the specific product line. Very often, the company name is not in the spotlight. Think Coke.
1. Coca-Cola
With their flagship product Coca-Cola carrying the same name, branding the corporation, called The Coca-Cola Company was not too hard. When talking about different products branded under the same umbrella name, think Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Coke Zero and Cherry Coke – all are covered under Coca-Cola’s brand. However, Sprite, another product marketed by the same company, is branded separately. This is a great example of a successful, though complicated, mixed branding.
The focus of product branding is on the services and products and their value to the customer. On the contrary, corporate branding focuses on the company values and ideologies. Of course, both can be applied at the same time, making it a combined approach. Separately or combined, these approaches all have value and produce (slightly different) results. All should be considered, but ultimately, the final decision should be based on your particular business plan.
Branding tips and tricks
There are various approaches to branding. Understandably so, as there are just as many different companies, with different business styles. However, there are ingredients present in all good brand identities – storytelling, differentiation and visual consistency.
Storytelling
Mark Truby, Vice President of Communications for Ford Motor Company once said about the importance of storytelling in brand building: “A good story makes you feel something and is universal. They want to grasp your values and your commitment to excellence; be inspired and intrigued. Storytelling is the most powerful way to convey these ideas.”
To connect with another person, we need to get to know them. We ask them about their lives – their backgrounds, ideals and ambitions. We’re made that way – we understand, empathize with and remember stories easily. The most memorable things about others are the anecdotes and the stories – and companies are not an exception. Finally, both in friendship and branding, the goal is to make a connection.
Storytelling is an essential part of brand building. Sharing the story, the ideals and motivations of your company will shape the perception customers have of your company. It’s no longer enough to show and tell what it is you make or do. For brands that want to stand out, expressing who they are, or what their core brand value is, is an imperative. When people understand what your brand is and what it stands for, connections can be forged.
However, the stories told must be relevant to the listener in order to evoke empathy and affinity. How does your brand influence a problem the customers struggle with, or the issue they believe in? The matter that is addressed may be as wide as a pressing political issue, or as particular as the lack of suitable marathon running jacket.
While in some cases a risky move, taking a stance on pressing social issues creates reactions in lightning-speed. People are driven by the need to take part in the issues, partly by supporting a brand they believe in. Identifying shared values with a company creates strong engagement in the brand identity. However, the issue must be well-defined for the identity to be recognizable.
Storytelling does not need to be in written form. In fact, storytelling can be even more effective when it comes in an innovative format. However, an element that is constant throughout these formats is that brands need to establish a recognizable voice – the style in which they communicate. Whether that’s humorous, whimsical, businesslike, sympathetic or something else will completely depend on your company values, product and target audience.
We’ll take a look at a couple of bright examples of brand storytelling done right in video, text and comic strip formats.
2. Dollar Shave Club
Dollar Shave Club is a perfect example of amazing story-telling, with the one minute long video setting the brand up for overnight success.
The best part – the production of the entire ad const only $4,500, according to Michael Dubin, the founder and the superstar of Dollar Shave Club. The video advertisement is extraordinarily witty, but also unforgivably straightforward. In a short timeframe, the viewer is presented with a problem they can empathize with and explained how they, in contrast to other companies, solve it. There’s even time left to highlight the additional benefits of the enterprise, like creating jobs. These steps enable the viewer to identify with brand and start seeing it as a philanthropic solution to it. Overall, the video creates a strong, resonating emotional engagement in just a speck over a minute.
3. Warby Parker
Similar to Dollar Shave Club, a leading eyewear producer Warby Parker, uses a consistently lighthearted, humorous tone. Examples of this are seen throughout their website, a charming detail of which is their eyewear glossary full of witty copy which at the same time presents value to the customer through information sharing, but also advertises (see “iOS app”).
In order to introduce the story behind the company conception on their “about page”, they use a personal anecdote. This anecdote is caused by the problem they are aiming to fix, and one that everyone in need of glasses is familiar with – the high price of glasses. This way, they instantly connect with their target audience and create a friendly image of themselves. Their branding efforts are rounded up with sweet, whimsical illustrations and clean design. These elements create a memorable, warmhearted and sympathetic brand that’s easy to trust and relate to.
4. Nike
Celebrating the most iconic piece of athletic apparel, Nike takes a unique approach to storytelling. In a multi-frame comic strip, they tell the history of the Windrunner jacket in very few words and several drawings.
The colorful, yet simple, drawing style conveys the essence of the message clearly and directly.
While packaged to represent a historical timeline, this example of visual storytelling doesn’t lack the usual elements of a story. In fact, the protagonist, the problem and the solution are all plainly communicated. The storytelling format they employ is fun, enjoyable and easy to follow. Even more importantly, they tell a story a customer can relate to and understand the importance of.
In fact, Nike is one of the brands that employ strong storytelling and, thus, emotional engagement in almost every campaign they run since the late ‘90s.
Differentiation
In order to build a memorable, compelling brand, it’s necessary to express what it is that makes you different from the competition. Building strong brand recognition requires constant reminders of these differences. A great way to succeed with this is to coordinate the differentiation aspect with the company’s unique value proposition, way of doing things, promise, and key characteristics.
The difference you can pick to be a defining feature of your brand may be anything. From some physical characteristics of your product, price point, through the brand’s story to customer experience, anything can be made into a defining feature of a brand. This is even possible if there aren’t any fundamental differences. Achieve that by focusing the consumers’ perception on a specific feature of our brand. Even if other brands have that same feature, they may not put emphasis on it. Almost anything can be a defining point of a brand. Say, great customer service in the tech industry, organic ingredients for food produce, or strong corporate social responsibility in the apparel sector. It’s about the promise that you make, that others don’t.
Many large companies entered the markets they are giants in today by answering a specific, underserved audience requirement. The entertainment giant Netflix is a perfect example.
5. Netlix
Back in 1997 Netflix started out as a DVD rental service that offered movie classics, which were unavailable for rent at Blockbuster. This way, they addressed the need of their target audience that wanted to watch older, classic movies, but couldn’t get it at the major movie-rental corporation. Netflix continued with their tradition of offering unique service when they launched their streaming service in 2007. Today, they are the big fish in this industry.
Groundbreaking startups, along with innovative established companies find early differentiation to be one of the key aspects of their success.
Successful marketing campaigns and other business ventures will stress the importance of these differences. However, it’s important to approach this problem strategically, as bashing competition head on is rarely a fruitful strategy. Instead, try to keep the viewer’s focus on your offer and its beneficial features. Make sure the differentiation point is clearly communicated to the customer, because this aspect of branding is the key to loyal customer base. In order to make your message resonate, you need to speak the language of your customers. This is, in part, why the previously mentioned Dollar Shave Club advertisement and Warby Parker website work so well – they use language that’s interesting, but more than anything, familiar to their target audience.
Finally, the core of brand differentiation is to define a market need, and to communicate a promise based on it. The kinds of promises that target customers’ pain points will yield results on both the emotional and rational level.
Want to see how this looks in practice? Read on for a couple of bright brand differentiation examples.
6. Trader Joe’s
A grocery store chain that remains wildly popular, Trader Joe’s uniqueness is reflected in their business model and company culture. It’s not only that cashiers in Hawaiian-style shirts always have smiles on their faces – the friendly atmosphere and nautical theme is conveyed through various other factors. The colorful, handwritten, witty store signs all over the place serve to both inform on special deals and reinforce the neighborly mood of the stores. Trader Joe’s specialize in exotic food produce and make it a priority to maintain an image of shopping at their stores being a “treasure hunt”.
Unlike their main competitor, Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s groceries do not compromise affordability for quality. Instead, with smaller stores, Trader Joe’s manages to find a good balance of both of these aspects. Accordingly, they do not advertise as a fancy brand. They place focus onto their unique, chirpy character, and many loyal customers describe them as being beyond any competition. Sounds like a branding dream come true!
7. Lush
Coming from humble beginnings in 1995, Lush is a cosmetics and makeup producer that stayed true to their brand for over 20 years. The main differentiation point of Lush is the “homemade craft” feel of their brand. All products are handmade and never tested on animals, along with using the ingredients that are vegan and from ethical sources. While this list of priorities might not be surprising for a food producer, as a cosmetics company, Lush stands out with these tags. Coupled with this are frequent social activism and strong stances on social and environmental issues, such as animal testing and ethics in police operations.
The point is – they know their audience well. When women complained about the unethical, chemically loaded, anything-goes mass production makeup and cosmetics industry, Lush listened. Instead of going for the luxurious vibe most makeup producers push, they chose a path of authenticity and ethical production. Along with fighting for the same issues, that is exactly how they remain appealing to their continually loyal customer base.
8. Tesla
While the electric vehicle market is still rather new, Tesla took the right approach to piercing the market. Starting out in a very limited, specific area of the still young market – luxurious electric cars, and with a plan to expand into more affordable models later on, Tesla took their differentiation strategy to the next level. Essentially, they do not feel it enough to use a differentiating aspect that sets them apart from direct competitors creating electric vehicles (like Toyota and Chevy) by going for the high-end market, but they are also looking into supplying parts and infrastructure like charging stations to their competitors, thus making Tesla the technological standard. Generating revenue from the high-end market, they plan to expand by investing in less expensive cars as the technology develops. Quite audacious, but it works!
For the time being, Tesla knows how to cater to their target audience quite well – the narrow consumer group of wealthy, environmentally conscious people with interest in hi-tech quickly became loyal fans of the ideology behind Tesla motors.
Visual consistency
Too often, visual identity and branding are wrongly considered the same thing. While creating a consistent, thoroughly thought-out and rigorously followed brand book is definitely a large part of branding, it’s by far not everything you need. Still, the visual aspect of your branding is as important as any other. So, what visual elements are essential for your brand?
What you need is a brand guide. It is a set of defining visual features of your brand. Whenever you’re developing a product, communication and marketing campaign, you should go back to your brand book to check for consistency in branding. Creating a brand book will ensure you avoid deviations from style, quality and character throughout your company’s lifespan, at least until the right moment for rebranding comes. It always includes your logo, but it typically also contains your color palette, font family, business card and letterhead design, website layout, and even photography and illustration style and other graphic elements you might want to use. However, logo is the most important part of it.
Logo is a visual symbol that will be the landmark of your company. When your prospective customers see your logo, the company name should be an instant association. It must be recognizable and memorable. Even more importantly, it needs to communicate the core brand values and be in tune with the ideologies of your company.
Logos are normally unchangeable and constant, adding to the factor of consistency. Using multiple logos, even for a while is generally frowned upon because it can create an image of an unreliable brand that can’t hold onto a decision. This is not always the case, but good examples of varying logos are few and far between. Some logos are designed to always appear in different color schemes, like FedEx’s color variance depending on the type of delivery service. This example is a smart execution of a practical goal.
9. FedEx
The iconic delivery company logo, apart from the already well-known right-pointing arrow hiding between the letters E and X, has another secret. Namely, it was made with extensive color variance in mind. Today, FedEx applies different color schemes to their different sub-brands – red for freight systems, green for ground delivery, blue for office and the original yellow for their express service.
However, when done skillfully and with a strong purpose in mind, temporary logo variations can also be good. Campaign bound logo variations can serve as a channel for an impactful message that only reinforces the brand. This is especially true when the campaigns are run for a limited time. Lacoste is a fantastic example of visual variations done in style!
10. Lacoste
With their world-famous crocodile logo launched in 1936, the French clothing company Lacoste is one of the iconic brands with long tradition. The open-mouthed crocodile embroidered on recognizable Lacoste shirts remained completely unchanged from its very beginnings. However, that changed this year, at least for a limited-time campaign.
Partnered with International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Lacoste launched a temporary campaign named “Save Our Species” during Paris Fashion week in March. The essence of the campaign are classic Lacoste shirts with a twist – embroidered instead of the legendary crocodile are ten endangered species. Out of the total of 1,775 shirts, the Burmese roofed turtle Vaquita has the smallest number of 30 shirts, and the Anegada iguana appears most frequently - on 450 shirts. The numbers are not arbitrary. The animal species, all facing extinction, appear on shirts in proportion to the numbers of remaining specimens.
The campaign proved that intentional visual inconsistencies can prove extremely powerful when executed right.
The essentials of branding
Branding is an extensive topic impossible to cover in a single take. However, there are universal principles that can be applied in any situation. Whether your goal is to create a recognizable soft drink or an agency known for its reliability, your story, unique features and visual identity are an essential part to creating a successful brand.
If you would like to consult a branding professional for further assistance, check out our agency listing!
