II.3. BRAND BUILDING, BRANDING PROCESS
Brand building is a way of defining your business to yourself, your team and your
external audiences. It could be called the business’ “identity”, but only on the understanding that it embodies the core of what the business is and its values, not just
what it looks and sounds like.
The benefit and purpose of it: When customers connect emotively — because they
share the same values and beliefs of a brand — it leads to higher sales and better
brand differentiation. It also leads to loyalty, advocacy and can even protect your
price in times when competitors rely on promotional discounts to drive sales.
Brand is more than a logo, a name or slogan — it’s the entire experience your prospects and customers have with your company, product or service.
STEP 1
PREPARE
STEP 2
ANALYSE
STEP 3
DEFINE
Business
Objectives
Business
Analysis
Objectives
Differentiation
Research
Brand
Analysis
Credibility
Personality
Information
Gathering
Target
Analysis
Stakeholders
Interviews
Competitive
Analysis
Brand
Positioning
Statement
STEP 4
IMPLEMENT
Communication
Strategy
Internal
Internal
Communication Communication
Tactics
Tactics
Rick Duncan, brandfixer.ca – …often my work involves strategic planning, so I developed the “brand development process” to explain how it works. Not every company goes through the entire process, but it is a methodology to ensure there is
discipline to the thinking.
GROW
WHO YOU
ARE
4. Build our business
by expanding into
adjacent markets
or categories that
aling with our
brand strategy.
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Creative
Development
Measurement
KNOW
WHO YOU
ARE
Your brand strategy defines what you stand for, a promise you make, and the personality you convey. And while it includes your logo, color palette and slogan, those are only creative elements that convey your brand. Instead, your brand lives in
every day-to-day interaction you have with your market:
• The images you convey
• The messages you deliver on your website, proposals and campaigns
• The way your employees interact with customers
• A customer’s opinion of you versus your competition
STEP 5
CREATE
Brand development is an on-going
evolution, not a static exercise
SHOW
WHO YOU
ARE
1. Fully understand what our brand
stands for and what makes
our business different from
and better than the competition.
BE
WHO YOU
ARE
2. Consistently
articulate our
brand (verbally &
visually) at every
point of customer
contact.
3. Find out where our customers get information about our categories and
actively engage with them in as many of those places as possible.
Tom McCall mc2branding.com – “Like so many elements of marketing, the process
of developing and articulating a differentiated brand is an ongoing one. Done right,
it’s a continual cycle of discovery, definition, communication, and evolution.”
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