The question in this headline can be interpreted in many ways and I think I've heard almost every variation. Simply put, a brand is an emotional connection between your company, your clients, your stakeholders and your staff. How you create that connection is up to you.
If it sounds like I have left out your product or service - it's because I have! Of course they have their place within your brand – but before getting into that, let's explore the idea of the emotional connection and what it means to you.
One of your company's goals is to create advertising that makes people want or even lust after your product. Honda offers us a great example. Imagine that you, as a car driver, love the Civic but couldn't care less about Honda. If they stopped producing the Civic, you would be on to the next company.
The relationship between your business and your clients is no different. The goal of an individual product - like the Civic - is usually to draw attention and use its characteristics to create a sense of attachment with the target audience. The Civic is fun, hip, action-packed. But the image of Honda as a whole is dependable, innovative, professional. These two sides of the story are co-dependent - it is imperative that people witness and feel both.
Look at the entire Honda brand: the stores, ads, website, cars, bikes, airplanes, boat engines – everything oozes the overall brand image. Take their showroom salespeople - clean cut and professional. Now imagine a young hipster with bright pink hair and scruffy clothes working at the sales desk. Even if this person would look natural behind the wheel of a Civic, they aren't an appropriate face for sales and could potentially compromise the company's dependable brand image.
All this points to the fact that brand is much more than a website and logo. It also includes your office, products, services, packaging, employees ... everything down to your wardrobe and the type of car you drive to meetings.
So where do you begin when developing your own brand?
Start with your core values – the characteristics you would never take away from your company. These values are what your company's overall brand should represent. Then look at what your product and/or service offers to the world – identify the solutions they provide and how they make people feel. This is where the emotional connection happens and the individual "brand branches" start to take shape.
The final part of the puzzle is deciding what goes where. It wouldn't be a stretch to say that every brand should aim to be trustworthy, reliable, professional (if you've had success with a "my brand is unprofessional" message, I'd love to hear about it!) Now identify some of your other more unique characteristics and start building.
A few things to consider when deciding whether your company is set up correctly:
1) Is your brand clear and well articulated?
2) Do you have separated messages for advertising and branding?
3) Do you use a campaign strategy in your advertising?
David Childs will be speaking at social networking meetup the Internet Masterminds event in Vancouver on October 15 – register at http://www.meetup.com/Internet-Masterminds/events/78936562/
