The psychology of a company’s brand has always fascinated me. My initial understanding of branding was limited to the aesthetic nature rather than the true substance of a business or personal brand. I recently came across one of the most thorough examinations of branding in Priyanka Prakash’s 3 part series written for Fundera, How to Establish Your Brand Identity: Small Business Branding Made Simple. Though it is framed for small business, the principles apply to any business. As she quickly points out every size business needs a positive brand to thrive. Clarifying that a business’ brand is not just a pretty logo and clever tagline. A company’s brand is represented across every aspect of it’s business, including the following four areas:
- Visual Brand Identity, such as your logo, website, and color scheme
- Brand Voice, such as your blog posts, mission statement, and website copy
- Brand Values, such as the types of causes your company supports
- Brand Personality, such as your company’s culture and customer service philosophy
It cannot be overstated that your brand is a combination of your company’s reputation and personality, to include what customers, suppliers and employees say about you. Priyanka quotes Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on his definition of brand as simply “what people say about you when you’re not in the room.”
What sets your brand apart? Essential to any brand identity is the distinction of what is unique to the brand compared to its competitors. Customers need a reason to prefer one business over another. Generally, this discovery of a brand’s unique distinction is an exercise of brand development, whereas branding is the tactical application of that positioning or distinction. Make sure that the distinct value your business offers is clearly communicated in your messaging, marketing and social media platforms.
Be Social or Be Gone! Brands change and evolve over time just as people do. Businesses that engage socially are the most successful. And, make social media work for you! According to data from Mainstreethost, social networks are the 2nd most popular way to research brands, just behind search engines. Being social has never been more important to business as reported by SproutSocial: Social networks are the biggest source of inspiration for consumer purchases with 37% of consumers finding purchase inspiration through the channel. And, 21% of consumers are more likely to buy from brands that they can reach on social media.
