Branding can seem like a black box to organisations that are embarking on it for the first time, or refreshing their assets after some years or for those looking to do outreach to new audiences.
Many organisations are looking to refresh their branding as they navigate their way through and (hopefully) out of the pandemic. As their customer has adapted to a new lifestyle in terms of demand, consumption and habits, brands find that they have to refresh their offerings and map to new customer journeys.
To many organisations, the branding process can be terribly opaque and brings more concern about embarking on the exercise when compared to the comfort and safety of continuing business the way it has been.
Unfortunately, for any number of external reasons, brands that stagnate during this period might not be able to catch up to competitors and their customers. Customers have different expectations that have accelerated because of, and despite the pandemic.
If you are a brand looking to start, update or refresh your branding and the various assets, we have a short summary about why you should consider doing so, and what it involves.
What is branding and why is it important?
Branding is a process, where meaning is given and attributed to an organisation, product, or service, that results in a perception and experience carried by customers and users. This perception becomes the reason why customers interact, engage and choose an offering by the brand over situations and competitors.
By aligning an organisation’s branding with the values and preferences of a customer, the organisation is able to continually attract and retain loyal customers.
Branding is important because it is a proven method of securing the preferences of customers over competitors and contributes to revenue goals.
We can help you fix and problem solve for growth and revenue scenarios such as market entry, market expansion, product and service launches through a strategic communications approach.
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We are Brand Utility is a strategic communication and business consultancy. Our principal consultant is a registered management consultant, certified and recognised by the Institute of Management Consultants Singapore.
We work with brands in the corporate, professional services, retail, travel and technology spaces.
What does branding involve for an organisation?
As a foundation, branding is a strategic communications project. It requires a narrative, positioning and messaging.
With these assets, a brand story can be created that connects the origins of the organisation, its mission, values and purpose as well as its reasons for existing. The brand story describes what your brand does, who your brand sells to, and a key emotion you want this audience to feel when they interact with your brand.
It is important to people beyond the founder and pioneer team. The narrative can resonate with both employees and customers, supporting the building of community.
In a previous article, we shared about what a brand story, positioning and message is.
Additional to the foundation shared earlier, branding can also include the imagery an organisation wants the customer to associate with them. For example, this typically includes a logo, organisation colours, tagline(s) and pictures.
At the basic level, an organisation can use the brand story, positioning, messaging and a visual identity to start with.
The next set of steps would involve aligning and adapting the assets to their different customer types, ideally through a customer profile and journey process. With that information, the organisation should consider adapting the messaging to various customer touch-points, and the channels (for example, website, email, social media, etc) that the customers will journey through to a purchase.
Messages are nifty assets that can adapt to the customer and the audience as they shift due to various external reasons.
This is usually when organisations discover whether which of their assets are more attractive in converting or retaining customers. A resource allocation can help organisations focus more on the assets that are working to support revenue generation.
Beyond these two stages, the next step would be to determine whether different offerings by the same organisation requires their own branding, and whether these should map to the master brand or exist on their own. There will be strategic trade-offs for organisations to consider especially when a brand exercise is linked to options that generate revenue, and those that strengthen the master brand.
We are Brand Utility is a strategic communication and business consultancy business consultancy. We work with brands in the corporate, professional services, retail, travel and technology spaces.
We offer strategy and tactics to support growth outcomes - revenue, scale, regional expansion and market entry – for our clients.
Areas of support include:
Strategic communications: Approach to market, brand concept and map, positioning, messaging, story and narrative, thought leadership
Marketing: Campaign/programme planning, story-based marketing execution, digital marketing, community amplification, content planning and production, go-to-market execution
Lead generation and growth marketing: Digital advertising, social media advertising, social commerce, e-commerce
Integration of marketing with business operations: We plan and execute as a marketing and/or PR lead for your brand
Discover more about our services at our website.
Photo by Pawel Czerwinski on Unsplash
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