Branding

branding

Branding should produce a memorable verbal and visual representation of a company.  Visible elements of a brand include brand name, logo, tag line, colours and design trademarks. An effective corporate identity builds an emotional bond with the customer. It is associated with a positive user experience aiming to build long term trustful relationships that will generate repeating business for the company. Branding  can develop an identity that will differentiate a company from competitors. Not all aspects of a brand are visible, the Unique Selling Points (USP), the company culture, philosophy and positioning are among the non-visible elements of a brand strategy.

The specific Value set a company stands for and represent is always the starting point in all our branding projects. Value associations are critical because they are the main reasons consumers buy brands.

For example a typical reasoning of a prospect car buyer could sound  like “I will buy a Toyota because it is strongly build and reliable, I would love to, but I do not have the budget to buy a Mercedes that is also comfortable and luxurious.” A tablet buyer could think that “I need the best image quality and app opening speed I can have because I will use that device to present my pitch on clients, this is why I will buy an I-pad instead of an android tablet as it has great screen resolution and starts up instantly”.

Brands as communicational tools are consistently nourishing that type of rationale on consumers.  

Although it seems logical for a brand name to be relevant and up to the point, some corporate branding strategies can also be based on the surprise element. The core of branding is the value set associated with the brand. When developing a new band identity, every professional branding expert starts with values.  For branding to be effective, corporate values should be reflected in the brand. The association of the brand with the values can take time to reach the consumer mind, but once it is in there, the brand value will skyrocket.