What is a brand, and why branding is important.

By Stuart Robertson

November 8, 2019

Read Time: 10 minutes

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The word ‘brand,’ its meaning and the power it holds when done well is so often misunderstood. And unfortunately, it’s often the people that stand to benefit most (SME’s, Government, Private Enterprise) that struggle to come to terms with it. In this article, we attempt to un-muddy the waters by explaining as simply as possible what a brand is, what it isn’t, and the power it holds if you get it right.

What is a brand?

First of all, let’s start by establishing what your brand is not - your brand is not your logo. Sure, it should form an important part of your overall brand strategy but in and of itself, your logo is not your brand.

Over the years I’ve heard countless descriptions of what a brand is and what it means. The truth is, it means different things to different people. It has a number of different but equally important attributes that make it difficult to succinctly describe in a sentence or two.

For a number of reasons, this is how we describe what a brand is.

So what happens if we get our brand right?

Nobody buys what they don’t understand. When you’ve got your brand right, people will understand it and buy it. They believe in the brand story, your vision and values resonate with them. They understand and seek the unique value you offer and they feel good about their interactions with your brand — to the point that they want to talk about it.

We’ve listed below what you’ll see when you get your branding right, supported by some real-world data and examples. To help illustrate some of the ways brands leverage basic branding fundamentals, we’ve tried to find examples that you may have already seen, but not fully appreciated. These are big brands with big budgets, but the important thing to remember is that you can use these examples to inspire your thinking at the local level, for your market. You don’t need massive budgets and film crews of forty people to take the first step.

Ok, so what happens when you have a brand that people believe in.

1.
Higher conversion rates and sales, driven by a better understanding of your unique value.

This is usually desired outcome number one when investing in branding and in many cases, it certainly should be. Organisations need growth in sales and revenue to keep ownership happy — and an increase in sales is a solid KPI for the health of any business.

In order to maximise sales and revenue, the ability to clearly communicate how you are different and how you provide the customer value is absolutely critical in a world of brand and advertising saturation. People simply don’t buy what they don’t understand. You need to be clear in declaring who you are, what you do and why you do it.

Your Brand Positioning and Unique Value Proposition are two critical elements in play here.

Brand Positioning proclaims how your brand is differentiated from your competition and where it should sit in the consumer’s decision-making world. Are you exclusive or accessible? Expensive or affordable? Are you safe, or does your brand have an edge to it? Are you ethical, and do you serve a deeper social purpose?

Communicating your Brand Position is usually achieved through a Positioning Statement which clearly communicates your Unique Value Proposition (UVP). You can also use a tagline for additional support.

Your UVP is a clear statement that describes the benefit of your offer, how you solve your customer's needs and what distinguishes you from the competition. In this, you can address the rational or emotional buyers you desire to connect with (more on that below). Your unique value proposition should appear prominently on your website and in every marketing campaign. Consistency is essential in ensuring your message is heard and remembered.

Some really smart brands have even integrated their value proposition into their Visual Identity or Logo, to further reinforce their most important messages. You might not realise this on first look but Amazon has integrated their ‘everything from A to Z’ value proposition into their logo. You can see that the arrow sweeps from the letter “a” to the letter “z” to form the cheeks of a smiley face, the emotional reaction you get when you find what you need quicker and cheaper than anywhere else.

Amazon logo | https://www.amazon.com.au

2.
Increased revenue driven by a deeper connection with your customers.

One of the key outcomes in branding is to create better connections with your desired audience. We’ve already mentioned that your brand is essentially a collection of thoughts and feelings in your customers’ mind, but it’s worth expanding on this further. Your brand will build stronger connections if it is both logically and emotionally relevant to your customers and their needs.

Modern behavioural science has made it clear: we are emotional, instinctive creatures. We all want to be rational. We create pros-and-cons lists. We call referrals or talk to colleagues who have used a service before, but at the end of the day, your decision, unconsciously, will come down to how you feel. An emotion you have around that decision.

Your Brand Vision, Mission and Values should be used to create more meaningful connections with your audience (as well as staff and stakeholders as discussed in the points below) to increase sales.

How often do you hang out with people that have completely different interests and values to you? Hardly ever, right? Well, our relationship with brands is no different. We’re constantly seeking out brands that share our own values, and care about the things that we do so we can buy their product and feel good about ourselves while handing over our money!

Your Brand Vision and Mission are tightly linked. Your vision statement should describe where your brand aspires to be upon achieving its mission. This statement should describe the "where" of a business. Great vision statements don’t just describe where the company seeks to be, they also describe where the company wants a community, or the world, to be as a result of the company's services.

A mission statement should be seen as an action-oriented vision statement, declaring the purpose you serve to your audience. That often includes a general description of the organisation, its function, and its objectives. A mission statement is intended to clarify the "what," the "who," and the "why" of a company and should be the roadmap for the company's vision statement.

Combined with your Brand Values, which form the foundation for employee actions and behaviours, and how customers experience a brand - you can now consider how to communicate these attributes to create a deeper connection with your customers.

Watch how Dove aligns its brand with ‘real women’ in this video focusing on common issues of self-confidence and self-worth.

Dove - Real Beauty Sketches | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=litXW91UauE

3.
You see better profit margins, driven by increased brand desire, loyalty and advocacy.

A branding exercise, in essence, ultimately comes down to one goal - creating demand for a product or service by making it desirable. Creating your logo and identity, value proposition and every other tangible or intangible brand attribute ultimately aims to create a connection deep enough that your customers are willing to seek out your product, and pay more for it than your competition.

It’s this deep connection and desire that makes us want to pay more for the feeling of power and confidence that the Nike ‘Swoosh’ and ‘Just Do It’ attitude gives us. It’s why we are willing to pay double for a can of Coke than a can of Kirks Cola.

When your customers have these positive brand experiences, they will usually stay loyal to the brand and will want to share these moments with friends and family - driving further revenue at higher margins.

Arguably the greatest brand marketing company on the planet is Nike. I could’ve easily picked 10 Nike videos that made me want to run through a wall, but I landed on a recent video created to encourage women to ‘dream crazier.’ The perfect example of using emotion and storytelling around a relevant, important topic to create a memorable connection with its audience.

Nike - Dream Crazier | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whpJ19RJ4JY

4.
You’re able to attract and retain talent, and improve staff performance.

Your staff are human. Look back throughout human history, and even in your own life and experiences, and tell me that great things have been achieved with no vision, greater cause or collective goal.

The key to bringing people together and improving performance is to give them something to work towards, something bigger than themselves that they can embrace, believe in, feel part of, feel responsible for and most importantly, be proud of.

Your Brand Vision, Mission and Values play an essential role in bringing the best out of your people, retaining them and attracting quality candidates as you grow.

Many industries are experiencing issues connecting with talent. Top candidates are switching off to traditional job ads and recruiting tactics. The best have pretty much stopped applying.

So how does Google do it? The company gets over 3 million high quality applicants every year. Only 7,000 are hired which gives candidates a 0.2% chance of getting hired. Getting a job at Google is reportedly 10x harder than getting a place at US academic institutions like Harvard or Yale. So why do the world's best and brightest apply in droves every year?

5.
Strong financial value in your brand for further growth or sale

When you nail your brand and start seeing the outcomes described in points 1-4 above, there’s often one more key benefit that comes out of it. Reputation and increased financial value in your brand.

Your brand doesn’t just become more desirable to your customers, it becomes more appealing to investors and banks — making it much easier to finance further growth or even seek a buyer for your business.

6.
When branding doesn’t matter

The first, second and third rule in brand development is this: it has to be authentic. Your audience is too smart — they won’t buy lies. You can’t sell what you hope you can someday be. Overpromising and under-delivering, at best, makes for terrible customer experiences and in the digital world we live in now, a bunch of negative Google or Facebook reviews can bring a brand to its knees.

This is why integrating your brand strategy into the core of your business and operations strategy is vital.

You have to live what you sell, or sooner or later you will fail. If you don’t branding doesn’t matter.