Understanding Branding
While positioning branding as some new phenomenon has sold many books and filled many seminars, it has certainly made the topic less credible. Branding is not a revolution – only the evolution (and perhaps renaming) of an existing practice. Brands have existed in some form for hundreds of years, so the process of developing one is hardly new.
1. Origin
The word ‘brand’ originates from the old Norse brandr, meaning ‘to burn.’ While branding’s past brings to mind many negative impressions, the most common is the marking of cattle. Less known is the fact that many other occupations utilized brandmarks throughout history – potters, to authenticate their style of bowls, and stonemasons, to distinguish the quality of their work. The need to establish ownership/origin has existed ever since humans have traded goods and services. Brands evolved out of necessity and so did branding.
Commercially, brands came from the product world and have encompassed the organization. Branding is no longer for cattle owners or just big corporations. Today, sole proprietors, non-profits and even nations are viewing themselves as brands.
2. Definition
While many marketing ‘gurus’ have tried to turn branding into a complex science, it is a very basic concept – based primarily on common sense. Branding is all about simplicity – getting to the essence of an organization, product or service. If the most successful brands are straightforward, shouldn’t the practice of developing them be the same?
Perhaps the easiest way to define branding is to make it synonymous with brand development with this simple equation: Branding = Brand Development. Just as advertising is defined as “the business of producing advertisements,” the definition of branding could be as simple as “the development of brands.” Imagine if the answer to the most frequently asked question (what is branding anyway?) could be this short.
3. Sharing
Branding is a holistic, cultural activity. It is less about protecting the brand and more about sharing it with the whole organization and the community. Less about “targeting consumers” to create “shareholder value” and more about creating value for all stakeholders of the organization.
A brand must be realized from the highest levels of management down, because it affects more than just sales, it shapes the internal culture of an organization. A properly defined brand will have a positive impact on every department within an organization.
This is why a brand can no longer belong to the domain of the marketing department or the advertising agency or design studio. Branding is not a marketing event, but an ongoing management process.
4. Consistency
The internet has forced even the largest of organizations to rethink their business models. Print/television isn’t dead (yet), but digital is more alive. Media bias should be a thing of the past. In wired environments, where information can be disseminated in seconds, brand identification and content is more important than ever.
Unfortunately, too many clients and practitioners are still using an old formula where branding becomes a marketing/advertising campaign or graphic design project. They are quite content to fall back on the old “ad agency + graphic design firm + Web firm = brand” equation.
The ultimate goal of any organization is to deliver a unified verbal and visual message that is understood and identified by all of its stakeholders, using their brand as a leadership tool. Yet the above equation undermines that goal. As each creative agency strives to reinvent the wheel – expressing the brand in its own way and in its own medium – cohesiveness is lost, ultimately diluting the message.
5. Generalists
An internet search for ‘branding services’ yields almost every type of business you can imagine: advertising agencies, design firms, marketing consultants, interactive shops, management consultants, communications consultants and even public-relations firms. Ironically, successful brands focus on what they are good at. For too long, branding has been lost in the communications mix a sub-brand of other areas such as advertising and design.
Advertising and branding are two very different ventures with very different expiry dates. To really take, brand identity must be consistent over many years, but advertising or marketing campaigns should change regularly, or else their audiences will tune out. Too often people confuse brand identity with brand campaign.
Graphic design is a discipline that contributes to the development of a brand, in the same way it contributes to advertising or architecture. However, “graphics” are only part of the equation. Many designers make the mistake of viewing branding as only a "look-and-feel" exercise when it involves many other tasks, such as naming, positioning and legal work, including searching and securing trademarks.
6. Specialized
Developing a brand requires skills that a “jack-of-all-communications” just cannot master. Branding may be on the cliché service list of every full-service shop around, but who can honestly claim that they specialize in marketing, advertising, investor relations, Web/interactive, packaging, environmental design... and branding?
Branding is a specialized area of expertise. It takes many years of experience working through various brand scenarios to be a true brand ‘guru.' Like any discipline, branding requires total dedication and focus to achieve professional status. Brand development is a balance of both strategic and creative ability. Currently, most practices are either strong on the strategic (business) side of branding or the creative (design) side. Too much strategy yields elaborate rationales with no tangible result and too much creative turns brand development into a beauty contest.
Today’s practitioner must combine both skill and talent. Not only must he or she be a strategic thinker, but must also possess the creativity needed to come up with the big idea. No longer can consultants declare themselves ‘brand strategists’ and farm out the creative thinking. On the other hand, ‘artists’ who are looking to express themselves using someone else’s brand should find another canvas. A brand and especially a brand consultant must demonstrate, not just promise.
