In this final part of the 4 part blog, let’s take all the science we talked about in the previous parts and see how it all relates to your business in the way of tactics.

There are many different elements to the branding process.

In this article, we will concentrate on the main 6.

BRAND IDENTITY

Brand Identity is just what it stands for… It is the way your customers recognize your brand.

This is a strongly tactical element. This is where your logo fits in. To successfully develop your Brand Identity, you must understand your target markets and their psychographics. Taking all of that into consideration means choosing the right colours (remember we strongly connect colours to how we feel). The fonts we chose will play a big part as well.

Consider for example Harley Davidson… the font style and the strong use of black and orange colour represent masculine, strength, ruggedness and a feeling of freedom. This connects strongly with their main target market.

Gillette Venus shaving products for women on the other hand use soft colours and a script style font representing feminine, fresh, personal. Once again the choice of colours, fonts and graphics makes a subconscious emotional connection with the desired target market.

BRAND IMAGE

On the surface you may wonder what is the difference between Identity and Image.

Brand Image is the overall feeling people develop and store in their mind. Messaging is a big part of this element. Knowing your target markets and having developed a strong visual identity, how you convey this and support the identity goes to how you combine it with strategically place messaging and tag lines.

Once again let’s use Nike as an example. The famous swoosh as a Nike logo is their Identity. “Just Do it” supports the logo and creates a brand image.

BRAND PERSONALITY

These are the qualities your brand represents in the mind of your customers. Is your brand playful or serious. Is it motivational and innovative? In Nike’s case the personality is just that… motivating, innovating, strong. Brand’s personality must shine through in all areas of branding… logo, website, printed material, adds, tv commercial etc. The personality ( or voice) of your brand must be consistent all the way through. This doesn’t mean everything should look the same… it just means that the key elements (colours, style of imagery, graphics, style of messages) must create the same emotional connection in the same voice. That is what will make the voice memorable and will lead to creating a strong Brand Fantasy.

BRAND EXPERIENCE

Brand experience is about EVERYTHING you customer goes through and feels while interacting with your brand. It is not just about how they feel when they visit your website or see an add in a magazine. It is much more than that. It is about how they feel when they walk into your store, how your employees speak to them, and the customer service they offer. It is about how you dress when you interact with your client, how they feel when they call you and reach your voice mail. You must build a culture within your business that gives the customers a sense of emotional gratification.

BRAND DIFFERENTIATION

This part can be tricky. We all strive to stand out and show how we are different from our competition. We see time and again businesses using platitudes (we are the best, our product is best etc). Think of it this way… whatever you are inclined to say, ask yourself a question: Can everybody say that? It doesn’t matter if it is true or not, if everyone else can say it, it is not unique. If anything it can make customers wave it off as … yeah right… you and everyone else.

Instead, differentiate your business by offering the value your product/service has that will make your customers remember and make them feel that what you are offering is real.

It’s about a promise you make to your customers that nobody else can make.

And finally….

BRAND GAP

Brand gap takes all the other elements we spoke about and weighs them out. It is the difference between what your brand is offering / promising… and what it actually delivers.

It is therefore important to make sure that every element of branding is connected to the next and that your brand delivers on all levels.

The goal is to keep this gap as small as possible.

We hope that these four blogs shed some light for you on how important branding is and what is involved in creating a strong Brand Fantasy. You see how much science is involved in almost everything when it coms to branding and how, although very important, the tactics of it all are just the mechanical implementation of the creative in the whole branding process.

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