Jun 6, 2012
What is a brand and why should it matter to you?
Branding Insights
One of a series by John Paulo Cardoso, Spyder Works Chief Creative Officer
As Michael Eisner says, “A brand is a living entity — and it is enriched or undermined cumulatively over time, the product of a thousand small gestures.”
I love that quote because it takes branding out of MBA seminars and puts it directly in your loading dock or on the desk of your sales rep or in your next e-mail to a supplier.
Brand is the culmination of everything an organization believes in, stands for and aspires to be. It must have real value and meaning for customers… and for everyone else. In essence, a brand is what you believe in (values), what you do (offer) and what you say (message).
A brand is not a logo. It exists in the minds of the marketplace. The visual aids like a logo, colour, typeface and design are the visible cues of your brand that ignite your customers’ emotions and how they feel about your business. A great brand is the consistently positive feeling that your customers, suppliers and employees enjoy when they deal with your company.
A more concrete way to think of it is to replace the word ‘brand’ with ‘reputation’. Through the process of creating a brand, we’re personifying a company. Why do we need to attach human characteristics and behavior to a company? Simply because we want our customers to have a real relationship with our business so that they will have positive feelings when they think about our products, services or stores. In other words, ‘branding’ is the management of our reputation in the marketplace. It’s how we manage those thousand small gestures.
Category: Branding, Icicle, Spyder Works
