“Brand.” Perhaps the most often-used term in marketing communications — certainly the most widely defined. The funny thing is that most of the definitions are usually accurate … They probably mention product names and trademarks, maybe even taglines and phrases, and perhaps even colors and type font. It can be quite confusing, especially when marketers start throwing in additional terms like “brand experience,” “brand image,” “brand recognition,” “brand extension,” “brand franchise” (a relatively new one for me), and on, and on, and on.
Let me see if I can help clear this up: In the end, your “brand” is probably a variety of things (and this is where I’m going to be a tad esoteric) as long as it exemplifies everything from organizational heritage, to product and market expertise, to dependability and quality promises, and/or anything else targeted consumers connect with and desire.
Nope, still confusing.
Defining “brand” and a brand structure when you’re trying to build it is important. For now, though, I want to focus on defining brand when you sense or know from some experience that you have a problem. We’ve had clients come to us in the past simply saying, “We have a brand issue … We’re not sure what it is, but something is wrong.” Fair enough. But the reason we often have trouble identifying the problem is because there is no concrete definition for what brand even is.
That said, we came up with brand “levels” to help guide the discussion with clients who feel like things just aren’t right in brand land, but they can’t put their fingers on why or (better yet) where.
Level one: Brand appearance
- Names, logos, taglines, colors, etc.
Questions: Do you have too many? Are they misunderstood? Can your audience relate?
Level two: Brand association
Questions: What’s your audience’s perception of you — what do they associate you with? Are your key messages working? Are they on target with what motivates your audience?
Level three: Brand delivery
Questions: Are you and/or your distribution channels delivering on your brand promise? Note: This could involve a significant analysis ranging from product development to how your products and services are sold.
Should we lobby for these to be part of a new, textbook definition of brand? Not necessarily, but these guidelines have helped us address some client challenges. And, we’re careful to point out that these should be viewed as “levels” and not necessarily “steps.” We developed these differentiators to gain the best understanding of where a client’s challenges really lie. What someone initially thinks is a “brand problem” may be really a “logo problem.” Or, it could be larger, requiring a great deal more research and time and personnel for a solution. But we never know until we dissect the discussion first and truly hone in on how and where things are wrong.
And, when we’re helping develop or build brands, we can use similar guidelines for discussion and treat them as pieces to a puzzle. Then, identifying where problems lie becomes even easier, because the framework of the brand architecture is readily in place … But, again, that’s for another time.
