What is Branding

Many companies need to start the corporate brand development process with a review of the existing corporate perceptions. Organizations need to have a clear view and understanding of where it is today and decide how they want to be perceived in the future.

What is your branding strategy?

• How is your corporate image being portrayed and projected?
• How is your organization perceived by its key internal and external audiences?
• How does the image of your organization compare to your competitors?
• Will your current corporate image enable your organization to reach the goals and objectives set by its managers?

Grow your logo into a Brand

If your company already has the vitamins and nutrients, such as a mission statement, value proposition, and core values, then you have many of the things you need to grow your logo into a brand and connect your employees, partners, and customers to a singular business vision in the marketplace. The goal of a logo is to mature from a symbol of a company, service, or product, into an expectation of performance in the mind of consumers.

When first created, logos represent conceptual ideas and exist as business cards, letterhead, cardboard stencils, and symbols on proposal covers. As they begin to evolve, they can grow into the sum of the corporate vision and symbolize the value proposition, core company values, characteristics, and attributes that are associated with a positive emotion -- that uniquely identifies a logo as a service offering in the mind of the consumer.

Through the evolving life of a logo, it is expected to become more accountable as it gains responsibility, visibility and stature. To reach this golden era of achievement, the logo matures to become a brand. It's simple existence, placed on marketing communications and correspondence signifies a presence and voice of the company that speaks to the consumer's expectations. This symbolic quality can retain consumers as well as attract new ones, through recognition and association of new product launches and business initiatives.

Thus, in the corporate setting, logos can become brands and contribute to the growth of the corporation - and to society with a healthy diet of strategy and nutrients. A brand can also be reproduced as a product line of sub brands within a brand family. Evolving from representation to expectation involves growing from a conceptual idea to an awareness of recognized stature that compels a positive relationship of image and recall. Consistent use of targeted marketing communications materials can help achieve brand expectation of performance for products and services.

Creative Concepts can create a branding strategy that will help your business gain market share - in a changing and competitive business landscape. Ultimately, your corporate brand should stand for the relationship your company has with its employees, partners, and customers. For a logo to come to life, to exist in the minds of your consumers, the company must be internally aligned to deliver the brand promise through the company's, culture, values, products and services. Employees must "live" the expectation of brand performance in their day-to-day interactions. Management must demonstrate their commitment to these values through leadership as well as corporate, marketing, and internal communications. Contact us today for more information.

Fix your broken Brand

If you're not sure why your brand is broken, the place to begin is with an almost anthropological approach to understanding the brand - something that references to a "big dig." Revisit where your brand started out. What did the brand stand for originally? Why did it resonate with customers in the first place? What were its core values? Are they still present? Just as important, are they still relevant? The world changes. You need to be sure. Probe consumers about the product category that you're in. How do they feel about your competitors? What does your product or service provide them with? What are the tangible benefits, and, perhaps more important, what are the emotional benefits? Think of this as a brand audit, and don't bring your personal prejudices to the table. Listen and learn.

Maybe you just need a little therapy. Because of the clutter of offerings in the marketplace, brands need more than customer awareness or surface-level connection. Brands need to connect on a deeper psychological level. They need to respect and acknowledge the customer's emotions - feelings such as the yearning to belong, the need to feel connected, the hope to transcend, and the desire to experience joy and fulfillment.

Creative Concepts will help companies recognize that great products and services can deliver more than profits; they deliver experiences that make life better in some small way. Don't hesitate to contact us so that we may help you get your brand back on track.

Creating a Successful Branding Strategy

1. The CEO needs to lead the brand strategy work
   The CEO must be personally involved in the brand strategy work. He or she must be passionate and fully buy into the idea of branding. Someone needs to lead this initiative.

2. Involve your customers and employees
   Who knows more about your company than your customers and employees?

3. Advance the corporate vision
   Management must involve, educate and align everyone around the corporate objectives, values and future pathway.

4. Exploit new technologies
   Modern technology should play a part in a successful corporate branding strategy. New and unique promotional products can contribute to improving the competitive edge of the corporation.

5. Empower people to become brand ambassadors
   The most important asset in any organization are its people. They interact every day with colleagues, customers, suppliers, competitors and industry experts.

6. Create the right delivery system
   The delivery of the right products and services should be carefully scrutinized and evaluated on performance before any corporation starts a corporate branding project.

7. Communicate
   To bring the corporate brand to life one needs to implement a range of well-planned, well-executed marketing activities, ensuring the overall messages are relevant to the target audiences.

8. Measure the brand performance
   A brand is accountable and so should a corporate brand be. How much value does it provide to the corporation and how instrumental is the brand in securing competitiveness?