Why Your Definition of Brand is Wrong, and How It’s Hurting the Bottom Line
brand
/brand/
The communication of value
Define your terms.
Philosophers understand the importance of this. Any debate founded on differing definitions becomes simply a misunderstanding.
Brand, as it's used in common language, is one of the most unclearly defined words that I've ever encountered—and I have been a brand designer for over fifteen years.
In his popular book, The Brand Gap, Marty Neumeier writes a commonly quoted definition:
"A brand is a person's gut feeling about a product, service, or organization. It's a person's gut feeling, because brands are defined by individuals, not companies, markets, or publics. It's a gut feeling because people are emotional, intuitive beings. In other words...It's not what you say it is. It's what they say it is."
I do think I understand what Mr. Neumeier means by this, and he makes fantastic points on the subject of brand in the book—but I've never given any client of mine this definition, because in the context of the conference room, with all due respect, it sounds like nonsense.
There are other definitions and concepts available to the average Google searcher:
1.
Brand as the identity of a business or product
2.
Brand as the promise a business makes to its customers
3.
Brand as the emotional relationship between a company and its customers (that gut feeling I suppose)
4.
Brand as a set of associations and meaning
5.
Brand as the overall customer experience
Brand as the identity of a business or product is the interpretation of most people, but the other definitions are usually not understood by anyone other than directors of marketing.
For this reason, I prefer my own definition of brand.
Brand as the communication of value.
Why is this my preferred definition? Well, my skills become most relevant when a client or prospect is:
1.
Unsure of where or how they can provide value in the market
2.
Struggling to communicate the value of a product, service, or organization
3.
Struggling to differentiate their value in a way that is more compelling than others
4.
Internally misaligned on the value to be created or communicated
5.
Needs a better system for communicating value efficiently
6.
Struggling to communicate the value of the organization to recruits, and to deliver the value to employees
7.
Missing key strategies for creating and communicating value
8.
Needing to inject more value into the pipeline
I excel in these conversations. In discussing "gut reactions"? Probably not.
Now think of what you consider to be your favorite brands / communicators of value, and think of all the touchpoints in which they communicate value:
The External
The Product
The Service
The Digital & Physical Marketing
The Retail Experience
The Packaging & Delivery
The Internal
Employee Engagement
Partner / Supplier Engagement
Stakeholder / Shareholder Engagement
The organizations with the strongest brands excel at most, if not all of these touchpoints. The organizations with the weakest brands don’t understand the connections or how to make them.
Here’s what I know. Businesses live and die based on the value they create. Every client I’ve worked with has desired to increase revenue. Revenue is money. Money is a measure of value. Businesses that invest in creating more value, and effectively communicating that value (branding), obtain more money in exchange.
This is how you go-to-market.
When you invest in brand, you invest in your bottom line. What are you losing when you don’t?