Why Does Brand Matter?

Brand is a wide-ranging topic with a lot of moving parts. Today we’ll keep it simple and take you on a short sprint through some of the fundamentals of building awareness, and why they matter. In a future article, we’ll look at the tactics and tools we can implement.

Let’s begin. Relevant brand awareness and recognition are facilitated by a communication strategy and visual identity that is easy to remember (clear, succinct), is immediately recognizable (unique, thoughtful), and helps to answer the following questions:

• Who are you?
• Who needs to know?
• How will they find out?
• Why should they care?

Taking steps toward successfully answering these questions through your communication strategy and visual identity requires a deep understanding of your industry, your capabilities and fit, your audience, along with some finesse. What are some key areas we’re looking to focus on when building a brand effectively?

1. Credibility
A logo or other branded asset often plays a big role in the first impression made about your organization. Well-designed brand identities build trust with their audiences from the start. Brand is more than just a logo—the visual identity is a foundational piece of the brand structure that should facilitate accurate portrayal and ease of application of the brand in the mediums it lives in.

2. Communication
Every interaction with an audience provides an opportunity for building relationships and conveying your value proposition. Consistency here is key, and if you can do it with genuine tone, humor, tasteful flare, or some unique approach, even better. This can be done through more tangible items like signage, mail campaigns, and digital media, as well as the less tangible items, like how clients are greeted or how they are guided through the customer journey.

3. Recognition
A brand creates an impression, image, and trigger in the minds of an audience (good or bad). Effectively defining, developing and communicating a brand to an engaged audience, new audiences and employees increases loyalty and long-term relationships. With dedication and doing this well over time pays dividends, taking your product or service from the lesser-known to the well-known.

Some might argue that sales are always fine (through word of mouth or otherwise) and investing in awareness and recognition isn’t important. This can be true for some specialists that experience very little disruption or the prospect of competition in the long run. For most though, competition and changing markets eventually come around and the ensuing, reactionary brand-building needed is often too late and leaves one playing catch-up.

Maintaining a devout focus on the details surrounding credibility, communication, and recognition on each project will create brand equity growth.