What is a brand?

What is a brand? (hint, it’s not just a logo)

Brand is a misunderstood term and a misunderstood concept, particularly for small business.

A key mistake – and one that is repeated time and time again – is believing that having a logo equals having a brand. Sure, having a logo is an important part of the visual identity of a business, but it is the culmination of careful brand strategy planning, not the start.

The concept of ‘brand’ originated in the 1800s when cattle ranchers used branding irons to mark their cattle so that their origin could still be identified when they reached the slaughterhouses of Chicago after a long journey across the midwest plains of America.

Coca-Cola pioneered a lot of early branding work in the 1880s when it sought to distinguish itself and get consumers to pick its fizzy brown cola drink over all of the other fizzy brown cola drinks available at the time. Today, Coca-Cola is still the third most valuable brand in the world according to Forbes, only falling short to Apple and Microsoft and enjoying a brand valuation upwards of $50 billion!

So what is a brand?

If you google (and the generification of brands is a whole other topic!) ‘brand’ there are literally hundreds of definitions. Countless books and papers have been written on the subject and the top global brands are constantly studied by industry experts.

A key role for many marketers is that of brand ambassadorship and increasingly top companies are championing ‘chief brand evangelists’ – companies such as Apple, Twitter and Canva (which now has former Apple-evangelist Guy Kawasaki as its Chief Brand Evangelist).

Fundamentally, a brand is the heart and the soul of a business. It is the external representation of the internal vision and values. The most successful brands look at the business from the outside in and ensure that the expectations of the company from the viewpoint of the customer are aligned with the end results.

In an era of social engagement and relationships it is no longer enough to say ‘here’s a product, please buy it’ – you need to give a promise to the customer. 

A brand is much more than a logo because it encompasses the entire customer experience. It embodies the story of the business and how that story should be communicated. It is every touchpoint in the business and enables clients and customers to see clearly what the business is and what it stands for (or doesn’t stand for).

So why is having a brand important?

Increasing globalisation means that there has never been a more exciting time to be in small business. With greater access to technology, to low-cost marketing channels and systems enabling efficiency, we can literally operate across the world.

However, this increased access to markets also increases the level of competition. Changing working patterns and the push to find the elusive work-life balance is leading more and more people to start their own small business.

So the role and the importance of having a strong brand has never been so vital. It is the key differentiator among competitors – the reason that someone would want to buy from you and not from someone else. In an era of social engagement and relationships it is no longer enough to say ‘here’s a product, please buy it’ – you need to give a promise to the customer.

The good news – you don’t need to be Apple or Microsoft or Samsung to have a great brand. Through careful framework planning, beginning with your brand story and ensuring that you have consistency through everything that you do, you can carve a unique position and stand out from the competition in an increasingly crowded marketplace.

Kerry Chick, Pepperpot Marketing