The Branding Story

Everyone talks of branding these days, well, that and social marketing, experience marketing and the like.

But why is branding so important to your sales? Because it is, that's why. I don't mean to be short, but you don't have all day to read a blog, now do you? So let's assume that it is important to the success of your product for now.

Developing a brand is much like developing a character for a movie script or novel (except you need a logo for your character), first you need a good name then you need to define the character - how does it look, act, respond and what is it's back story. To develop this you need to understand who will be reading your script - who will your customer be and will they want to be interested in your character?

All of this back story and character development should be reflected in the design of the logo and treatment of the promotional/advertising materials but is not limited to these items - your brand messaging should be in everything you do from your stationery to your invoices to your cheques to your e-mail signature. Further to graphic design, your brand must carry a voice and be heard on your phones when people answer a call, on your voicemail, what your sales force says & promises even your on-hold messaging - all of this helps solidify your characters role (by character, I mean brand).

A lot of companies think that a brand is just a logo, it is way more encompassing than just an icon, and the brands that are successful understand this. Don't get me wrong, a good logo can be an icon, but it needs some collateral, it doesn't become iconic without a back story.

Everything a company does is reflected upon their brand and impacts their customers perception of the brand. Because when it all comes down to it, a brand is about perception and what customers believe you are. This perception is built over time, as your story develops, it is not written all at once - I don't think that's even possible. Perception is reality.

By saying this, I don't want to give the impression that a brand is an illusion, far from it. A brand is a carefully crafted story with your product as the main character. So, invest some time into developing your character. Create a character that people can identify with, learn to love, trust and aspire to. Your character will eventually influence a customers decisions and become a part of their life (or at least intertwine with their ongoings) and result in some sales for you.

The bottomline - branding is way more important than most people believe, companies should invest more time into developing their brand story and character.