Branding fundamentals: part 1 of 4
A definition of branding
What is a brand and why is it important?
It’s a common misconception that a brand is just a logo or a tag line — but they are merely its signature. So what is a brand?
To put it at its simplest, a brand is a promise. It encapsulates what people think about your business, product or service when they encounter it:
- What do they think your brand offers?
- Is their understanding of your brand what you wish it to be?
- How is your ‘offer’ differentiated from your competitors?
- Do people trust your brand to deliver that offer?
- What personality do they attribute to it?
- How does their perception alter once they have bought from you?
It’s self evident that these are questions of central importance to any business and the way that it communicate with its suspects, prospects and customers.
And it follows that if you have a business, you have a brand, whether you regard it as having one or not! The pertinent question to ask yourself is the extent to which you control your brand’s direction and influence its perception.
