Brand, Branding and All That.

Lately, I have been persevering to unravel and record more and more of branding and the prominence of Logo as the first step towards effective brand building. At this juncture of time, I am pretty sure of certain ideas about brand and brand building.

1.       The foundation of a brand is the logo.

2.       Website, packaging and promotional materials--all of which should integrate your logo--communicate your brand.

3.       Brand strategy is how, what, where, when and to whom you plan to communicate and deliver your brand messages.

4.       What you communicate visually and verbally are part of your brand strategy. A successful brand interfaces in total the verbal and design elements.

5.       Brand acquires a cutting-edge only when it addresses equally a perceived quality or emotional attachment. In May this year, in India, ThumsUp marketed itself by cashing successfully on GO ANY FAR TO QUENCH YOUR THIRST, with Akshay Kumar jumping building and swinging roofs to catch the cool drinks dispensing van, and finally slouching back in a sofa with a bottle of ThumsUp.

6.       If Logo creates business identity, tag line infuses an emotional entity, which makes the product/service human, and readily acceptable.

7.       Using the same color schemes, adhering to fixed logo placement, look and feel throughout is basic and fundamental in building a brand. But, brand building does not stop here it is much, much more that mere design and color consistency.

8.       One Voice & Promise: A brand should essentially convey one voice incorporated into Content and visual imagery. Every brand should promise something which the customer considers vital and needful. Maruti since its inception, offers cars that are affordable and safe, and it has lived up to its promise which none can disprove.

Website and business Branding

The corporate website is one prominent tool to establish a business’ brand. The website predominantly aims to put in place consistency in visual imagery – color schemes, logo, and look. After riffling through a number of corporate websites, I found nothing about branding that addresses the feeling/emotional entity. Color schemes can be justified as the first level of brand building, but debatable is the need to spelling out what is in store about branding in the times to come. Once color schemes and logo adapt consistency, then what? Where is the focus on the points that I discussed above.

Branding through websites by businesses many-a-time is a piecemeal approach better call it a make-shift arrangement. Branding is a science based on practical observation and putting into practice what has been learnt through experience in the market. It is also equally an art which appeals to human emotions. Surprisingly, the science and art dimensions of branding have totally been missed.