For sometime now I have been asking myself a question what is a brand and what makes it tick. I am no scholar hailing from any top grade B-School or holding any multiple degrees of merit. I have been a workhorse. I have worked the mill like the others and through some period of time I feel I have gained some merit of confidence to talk or express myself about this topic. Why?
Well, that’s because I have always been drawn to brands. I have always been intrigued by what ticks right for them as compared to their competition. I have always tried to wonder how maybe two brands in the same scope of work can co-exist and still give room for progress, history, legacy and still give scope for new brands to dare to dream.
Hence I put it into thought how I could see this happen. So I decided to break my thought process into 4 pillars.
1) Foundation
2) Strategy
3) Identity
4) Design
Again like I said this is my interpretation of the whole process so let’s explore how I see this subject…
Let’s take the first pillar: Foundation!
Foundation, is perhaps the most critical aspect of any brand story. A brand here need not always be a product it can also be a service. As long as a transaction is made, a satisfying experience is achieved and thus resulting in the call for a repeat transaction and spreading the message…this is how we see how a brand is made.
Foundation is the baseline the grassroots from where the whole system is built on. A strong and confident development team that ensures to work always to help deliver is what it’s all about.
Foundation is the stage at where your work is what’s speaks for you. Yes all the dress up that can be done through marketing & branding is only as good as once the product / service is in direct consumption. It is crucial to have all the stakeholders involved at this stage.
The next pillar I would say would go to...Strategy!
Once the grassroots stage of running the foundation and allowing the immediate market to consume your product / service is for sure been achieved then it is time to move up the ranks and start allowing room for Strategy. Of course there will always be an element of all the 4 pillars infused into the foundation stage itself but, that will be early grounds. The whole experience will be at it's infancy then. Strategy would happen when the brand wishes to start to spread it's branches...
Strategy would normally entail market research & analysis or just trying to better understand your customer, consumer and audience in large. A sound strategy is crucial to allow room for Macro thinking and not just Micro thinking. Knowing how your audience responds is always important but, what is also important from an agencies point of view is to start to better understanding your client and their brand. If you will always approach the whole process as a transaction then the whole experience will never last.
The next pillar would be...Identity!
Perhaps the most important tool that normally gets spread across all stages. Creating an identity is important especially in today's digital and technologically savvy time. The power of brand communications today has been widely attributed to how well you can identify with your brand. Most brands today especially the ones in the B2B sector have started to make room for this chain of thought. It is crucial today when 'brand retention' has a very limited value presence. The message has to catch on...it has got to stick, it has got to create a sense of impulse, create a sense of ownership.
The final pillar would be...Design!
Design is colorful! Design is substance! Design is wow! Design is Unique! Brands today are all about the Design to help dress themselves with today's times. Just as the previous pillars are important Design is equally important. In fact at some instances Design today determines the trajectory a brand takes. Design today has become a statement! it is what drives the barometer of success or failure for any brand today. Design today has also started to create a mark in the B2B sector. This has been a sector of work where almost all the time the concept of branding is knowledge but, never implemented. The reason being that brands in this space have never had to have a customer tangible experience. For them their legacy was built on delivery of work and the trust earned from very transaction. From when brands started to see this beyond just a transaction and started to build an honest relationship with the other brand in concern is when the whole entity of branding would be able to move forward from just a knowledge machine towards a tool that can actually determine the route you want to take next and eventually create a long lasting legacy.
To conclude in order to stay relevant and stay visible it is crucial to understand these 4 pillars and in someway whatever best possible for us to work on these lines. Brands are also like us...in fact brands are us...brands live and manifest into who we are and how we perceive them to become. So maybe it is time to start evaluating how strong your founding pillars are and can be for a better tomorrow!
From the Purple Desk!
Team Purple
(this is an article that’s only from our perspective. It isn’t meant to impose change or opinion. It’s only our point of view)