Blog

A Brand Is Not a Logo

A colleague once said that the derivation of the word brand came from the ownership mark on the rump of cattle. Maybe so, but today a brand is much more about what your customers and potential customers think of you. And if they like what they think, then maybe they’ll wear your tattoo.

The starting point for a brand strategy is to think about what the single most important value the company presents to the world. Does the marketplace see you in the same way? People rarely think about a brand. They think about what they need. Then they think about who can fulfill that need. It’s your responsibility to be at the top of mindshare. It’s not just about awareness, it’s about fulfillment. Build from your strengths. Articulate your unique selling proposition.

Branding begins with the consistency of presentation that becomes the identity of a company. It’s not just the logo, it represents a consistent value system that a company presents to the world and that is seen to be that company’s way of doing things. On this branding ladder, the challenge is to move beyond the graphic symbols and metaphors to get to the more difficult cultural uniformity that customers and potential customers recognize and value.

Branding provides benefits to both producers and customers.

For producers, the brand protects the producer’s exclusive rights to its reputation achieved over time. This protection serves as an incentive to produce high quality product, address customer problems, and to continually innovate and update the product. This helps the producer keep an eye on the longer term, and resist marching to short-term annual or even quarterly results.
For customers, the brand compresses search and choice time, assures that problems and complaints will be attended to, and provides a badge to communicate to others.

In addition to those benefits, the value of a brand to the brand owner:

Incremental profits vs. a commodity. Brand name goods command higher prices and yield higher profits than no-name substitutes.
Ability to be leveraged to new categories and markets. Launching a line extension costs a fraction of launching a comparable new brand. Brand equity, acquired through effort and investment, can be stretched to support new ventures.
Protected by trademarks. Trademark protection is more durable than even a patent; while product lifecycles may be short and getting shorter, the longevity of the brand is virtually limitless.