A logo is a brand image; not the position or definition of the brand.
Ask five people in an organization what the company’s brand position is and you’re likely to get five different answers. Ask five of their customers and you’re likely to get the same answer all five times.
Why is that?
What your brand position is not:
- It’s not your mission statement
- It’s not your logo or your “look and feel”
- It’s not your service or product offerings
- It’s not what you think it is
My friend Ken Mueller of Inkling Media summed it up nicely when he wrote Word of Mouth is THEIR Mouth not Yours. Similarly, your brand position is what your customers believe it to be.
Your Brand is the Promise you Make and Keep When Interacting with Your Community
First, let’s define your community. It is those you serve, those interested in what you do, your employees and by extension, often, the families and friends (and sometimes neighbors) of those employees. What’s the promise? It is what you do and how you do it. If the community values what you do, that’s part of your brand. If they think you’re awful at it, well, that’s part of your brand, too.
I love this because it really puts the focus on customer service/customer experience, and not just on the product, though a commitment to customer service demands a quality product. I really believe that if we are honest with ourselves, the entire process, including branding, comes down to customer service. It’s what people remember. I have a post going out tomorrow about customer service, and I think that given two products: a great product with so-so customer service, and a decent product with great customer service, the second one might win out!
I like this definition of brand. So, if your brand is all about what you do and how you do it in service to your community, good or bad, then what’s your reputation? How does reputation differ from brand? Who — how– do smart organizations provide stewardship of both? Just curious what you think about this question I’ve often chewed on…
This is how I think of it: a brand depends on consistency to create a shared perception among the constituency. A reputation can be swayed by a single experience or incident. Managing a reputation often depends on managing expectations. Dinner at McDonald’s? Low expectations — reputation confirmed through experience — brand perception reached when dinner at ANY McDonald’s provides the same experience. It’s tricky; they’re closely related but there is a difference. I’ve read that when engaging employees around a “brand” it’s better to use the word reputation, because that’s easier for people to grasp and adopt. Makes sense to me!
@lauramca This is how I think of it: a brand depends on consistency to create a shared perception among the constituency. A reputation can be swayed by a single experience or incident. Managing a reputation often depends on managing expectations. Dinner at McDonald’s? Low expectations — reputation confirmed through experience — brand perception reached when dinner at ANY McDonald’s provides the same experience. It’s tricky; they’re closely related but there is a difference. I’ve read that when engaging employees around a “brand” it’s better to use the word reputation, because that’s easier for people to grasp and adopt. Makes sense to me!
Terry O’Reilly, ad man and author or Age of Persuasion, has a simple way of looking at what a brand is. It’s an emotional link rooted in an ownable idea. Here’s an excerpt from his book:
“Branding is at the core of all marketing. Different marketers have their own take on what branding really is, but to me, it means defining what a product or service promises and how it differs from the competition. For example, a Volvo is just a car, but when the idea of “safety” was added, its brand was defined. Nike is just a running shoe, but the powerful idea of “personal achievement” was attached to every single advertising message they sent out, and that gave the famous footwear its own personality. Calvin Klein’s clothing line is just apparel, but when the designer linked the idea of “sex” to it, sexy clothing became his category. And then there’s Coke. In a taste test once, the iconic drink was compared to an undisclosed cola. People chose Coke over the mystery item almost a hundred to one. Then the undisclosed soda was revealed: it was, in fact, Coke. The difference between the two was branding: the Coke enhances your life “idea” beat the other cola, which had no idea attached to it. When people sampled Coke, they not only tasted the sugar and water combination; they also tasted the logo and the imagery, commercials, and promotions that have accompanied the drink for decades.”
http://www.randomhouse.ca/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780307397317&view=excerpt