How to make the brand an asset for the company? Branding in 3 steps
Branding is the work of the brand. The marketing strategy makes it possible to define a positioning, which must then be brought to life through the brand. A brand is not just a name and a logo, it is everything that constitutes a company’s image and history. And it is above all what makes it possible to create a link between a company and its customers.
How to make the brand a real asset for the company?
Defining identity
The first step in branding is to know what the company’s personality is. Depending on the positioning, it is necessary to determine how the company wishes to be perceived and what it wants to express through the brand. For example, is the company user-friendly? Anti-consensual? Elitist? Human? Innovative? Plugged in? Are the consultants at this consulting firm more suit and tie or jean sneakers?
In this restaurant, is the customer welcomed with a wide smile and a warm handshake or with a person in white gloves who offers to take his coat? The messages that the company sends to its customers are decisive in the way in which the service rendered is assessed. They can be more or less explicit but they must always be mastered and correspond to the identity of the company.
For example, the Michel & Augustin brand does not want to be Danone’s direct competitor, but rather a quality, friendly, consumer-friendly, gourmand and authentic brand.
Create the story
Telling a story, having a good storytelling, allows to question the interlocutor, to reassure him, to enlighten him or to provoke him. In short, a company’s story, told through the brand, captures the target’s attention. To build the brand history, it is possible to start by making a heuristic diagram, i.e. starting from the values that are at the heart of the brand and extrapolating to give it life through concrete elements.
For example, one of Michel & Augustin’s founding values is conviviality. The conviviality passes by the good mood, the greediness, the humour, the sharing. Michel & Augustin, they are therefore the “troublemakers of taste” who sell small “good and round” shortbread, in chewy packaging, with friendly and humorous mascots.
Bringing history to life
Once the story has been defined, it must be told consistently, at all points of contact between the brand and the customer: website, packaging, video, sales proposal, stand at a trade fair, business card, etc.
The Michel & Augustin company has grown, the founders no longer make the cakes themselves in their kitchen, and yet the spirit of the brand has remained the same. The proximity of the beginnings is always intact on the social networks (they make their fans participate a lot on Facebook), during events organized within their premises” the Banana plantation”, on the packagings, and on all the other supports.
Branding is not reserved for B2C: in B2B too, it is a major asset for the company.
For example, Ideo, an American innovation and design agency, has perfectly exploited its brand image to develop. They make their prospects want to work with them, not only by showing the results of their previous projects but also by showing the working method, workshops, brainstorms, prototyping sessions. The prospect must feel the creativity, talent and sympathy of the teams. This includes the “Life at Ideo” section of the site, videos presenting projects or presentations at TED-type conferences. They produce a lot of content to spread their brand image and make it attractive.
The objective of branding is therefore to create a strong image and a lasting link with the target in order to acquire and retain customers. It is a real asset for the company in terms of image, communication and commercial efficiency. To know more about branding activities contact us at +91-124-4207905 or click here.