When it’s boiled down to basics, a brand is simply your reputation.
“A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person. You earn reputation by trying to do hard things well.”
Jeff Bezos, Founder, Amazon.com
What are the elements of a strong brand reputation? At SmartImage Media we think they include the following:
- Brand Name
- Logo Design
- Trust & Brand Promise
- Consistency
Let’s start with the name. Does it have to mean something? Kodak, McDonald’s, Cheerios, and Apple don’t have built-in meaning, but they’ve been painstakingly built through many years of advertising and exposure. It doesn’t have to mean something, but having a name that means something makes the job of creating a successful brand image much easier. Examples that come to mind are “Jiffy Lube”, “Close-Up” and “Puppy Chow.” Can you think of other examples?
What about the logo design? What image does it convey and is it consistent with the brand promise? Is it modern or traditional? Are the colors loud or muted? Is the design “clean” or “busy?” Is it associated with a symbol or does it stand on its own? Does it stand out from the competition? Does it make you look professional? Is it a custom designed brand logo, or does it look like it was designed by your brother-in-law? All of these factors must be considered in developing a strong logo.
With a strong brand, consumers TRUST your brand promise. The corollary is also true – when people TRUST your brand promise, you develop a strong brand.
For example when FedEx promises overnight delivery, how confident are you that it’ll arrive the next day? What about “Joe’s Courier Service?” What’s your trust level with them?
When you buy tainted pet food from China, what happens to their brand promise to produce healthy pets? What happens to a brand’s reputation when children’s’ toys are found to have lead contamination?
So one of the most critical functions of a strong brand is “Can it consistently deliver on its promise?” Just as in life, a broken promise can take years to mend.
Although your brand promise encompasses many things it starts with the tag line. This is what you’re promising your brand will do. For example, at SmartImage Media, we use BROADEN YOUR IMPACT because we’re confident we can deliver on that promise, time after time.
One of the best tag lines ever is Energizer’s “It keeps going and going and going……..” Brian Till and Donna Heckler say that powerful taglines should embody three characteristics. They should be meaningful, motivating and memorable. Energizer certainly meets those criteria.
Small businesses face challenges that are particular to them, the most important usually being tighter cash flow, tougher budgets and lack of access to capital. Limited resources make it critical that your brand is differentiated from its competition. What makes it different? What makes it better? Why does it offer more value? Is it more convenient? Who does it target? Is it a niche product?
Limited budgets make it imperative that you have a well designed logo that is consistent with your brand promise. Limited budgets also mean that advertising communication cannot rely as much on traditional forms of advertising, but must concentrate more on the new media: websites that reflect your company image, your brand image and your brand promise, websites that include superior graphic design and are SEO optimized, as well as social media marketing such as blogs, Facebook, Twitter etc. that gets you in touch with potentially very large audiences. Vehicle wraps are another way to reach potentially large audiences for a fraction of the cost of traditional media. A caveat on vehicle wraps: many wrap designs are too busy. Effective vehicle wraps must communicate who you are, what you do and how you can be reached in 5 seconds or less, because in effect it’s a “moving billboard” and should get your message and brand image across quickly. So, even though times are tough right now, the good news is that these forms of communication are much more cost effective and can build greater trust and credibility, because you’re being talked about, you’re not doing all the talking.
Consistency is the final element in a strong brand image. The design and communication elements of your brand should carry through in everything from logo to packaging, from website design to auto wraps and from brochure design to traditional advertising. Consumers are bombarded with thousands of advertising messages and images each day. Don’t dilute your brand image by being inconsistent.
In some cases, businesses are quite well established before they decide that it’s time to look “grown-up”. It’s time for the “brand image to catch up with the business.”
In other cases, the brand image is well thought out and designed right from the start, making it much easier for the “business to catch up with the brand image.”
Either way, it’s really important to incorporate all the elements of a strong brand image summarized below:
- A brand name that preferably means something
- A logo design that fits well with your brand name, your target market and your brand promise
- A tagline that’s meaningful, motivating and memorable
- A consistent communication strategy that repeats the brand name, brand logo and brand promise across as many media as possible, including website, social media, vehicle wraps, packaging, advertising, signage, brochures and other printed collateral materials.
If you do all this well, you will undoubtedly “broaden your impact.”
Reading Jenn’s last blog posting gave me some good ideas. I’m always looking for ways to become more productive. I’m amazed at how many years I’ve been in the workforce and not to mention all those years in high school and college and I’m still struggling with maximizing my productivity. It seems that the tools in our lives are constantly changing and causing us to frequently adapt. 10 years ago I would have never guessed that email would have been such a burden and a distraction.
