Tuesday, August 28, 2007

The Importance of Branding

Or how the cowboys got it right.



By Ben Delaney © 2007

In the old west, cowboys needed to tell which cattle belonged to whom on the open range. Way back in the 1880’s most of the American west was a vast, unfenced area – rangeland punctuated by dramatic mountains and perilous arroyos. Cattle roamed freely and often herds belonging to different ranchers intermixed.

Back then, establishing a brand meant marking all your cattle with a hot iron that permanently burned your mark into each animal’s hide. Today, every brand manager longs to create a mark as permanent as that.

We’re all familiar with many modern brands. The words coke, nike, scotch, windows, and many others have had their historical meanings blurred by the simple addition of a capital letter. Now, those are international brands, carrying deep and often complex emotional and intellectual meaning to millions, if not billions of people.

(This branding sword cuts both ways, though. Think of xerox, kleenex, post-it, margarine, and band-aid. These were, or are, trademarked brands. But through carelessness, these valuable properties have become common nouns – with a substantial loss of value for the companies that own them.)

Virtually every successful organization has created a brand. This applies just as strongly to nonprofits as it does to for-profit enterprises. Think about what these brands mean to you, and how you respond emotionally to them:

  • Red Cross
  • YouTube
  • Girl Scouts
  • IBM
  • Salvation Army
  • Apple
  • Greenpeace
  • Google

See what I mean? Whether you like or dislike them, brands rule the mind-space of consumers world-wide.

Building your brand


Whether you are a marketer in the private sector or in the nonprofit world, building and maintaining your brand is the most important function you have. A strong brand creates recognition of your organization and eliminates the need to explain its purpose. It creates trust (when properly maintained), and makes sales and support solicitations much easier. A good brand makes it easier to introduce new programs or products, and it helps to build a strong base of support. In fact, a strong brand makes every aspect of communications and marketing easier and more effective.

Building a strong brand takes imagination and hard work. But more than that, more important than a great logo or an unforgettable tag line is one thing: consistency. To build a great brand, you must watch it like a overprotective grandma – shepherd it through difficult times, stand up for it if bullies attack, guard its reputation, and be sure it shows up at the right place, at the right time, and looking good. Here are few tips for building and maintaining a great brand.

Ensure appropriateness: If you’re selling muscle cars, you don’t want a pink floral logo. If you’re a nonprofit pushing aid to the poor, a gold trimmed annual report is not appropriate. Bold ideas need bold representations, delicate subjects must be treated delicately. Your logo needs to convey the key aspects of your organization at a glance. This is not a place to skimp. Pay a professional, get a great logo. It is worth every cent.

Be sure it works in every size, and in black and white: Your designer shows you some concept ideas and they all look great. Each concept is shown to you ten inches wide. But be sure to look at it one inch wide, as well. And look at it in black and white. You have to use your logo on stationary, advertising, signs, bags, pens, and websites. Be certain it works in every size and every potential location.

Get a great tagline: The tagline is the short description that often accompanies your logo. Be sure it succinctly tells your story in as few words as possible. Try to make it catchy, even poetic. Great taglines take on a life of their own. Remember, “It’s the real thing”? How about, “Breakfast of champions”? Your tagline augments the logo in building your identity in the minds of your constituents.

Use it everywhere: Don’t be shy. Now that you have a great logo and tagline, be sure to use it everywhere you can. It’s OK if it’s small, or tucked in a corner. But be sure your constituents see it every chance they have. That’s what creates name and identity recognition. And it takes more exposure than you may expect.

Use it consistently: Don’t ever change the shape or color of your logo. It will simply muddle perceptions and reduce recognition. During the design process, have your designer do mockups of many likely usages to test how your logo works. Consistency may seem boring to you, but it helps your image stick in the minds of your audience.

Use it long after you’re tired of it: Think about the logos you recognize instantly, like Coke, or IBM, or the Red Cross. They haven’t changed in years. Neither should yours. People don’t like change, and when you change your identity people will wonder why. Stick with it. Consistent messaging pays marketing dividends.

Branding includes other constituents, including messaging, overall look and feel, theme songs, mascots, and so on. Branding is the sum total of impressions your customers and other have of your organization. As I said earlier, your brand is your organization’s single greatest asset. Guard it like gold – for it is worth far more.

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