Summary

A branded logo doesn't make up your brand, it helps you deliver on the promise you make to your customers. The purpose of branding and the message it conveys to your audience. Branding is all…... read more A branded logo doesn't make up your brand, it helps you deliver on the promise you make to your customers. The purpose of branding and the message it conveys to your audience. Branding is all about communication and connecting with your audience. close

Introduction

We live in a very noisy world that’s full of distractions and has ever-shrinking attention spans. The # 1 challenge for all companies—big, small, or anything in between—is how to create a brand around what you do that cuts through the noise. And the truth is that very few companies have been able to achieve that.

In this blog, we are going to attempt to figure out the secret to winning the marketing game and how YOU, regardless of your industry, market, or company size, can become better at being noticed.

Figure out your brand’s identity

The greatest brands on the planet such as Coke, Disney, Apple, Nike, and Tesla, do not talk about being better than the competition in a very narrow sense of the word. Nike did not build itself by talking about how much more comfortable their shoes are compared to Puma. Apple didn’t do it by “one-upping” on bits and megabits when compared to IBM.

It seems that a great brand mostly does not talk about the product it is trying to sell. Interestingly, they figure out what they are all about. It’s a laser-focused promise that is a common thread that runs through everything they do. Nike is about honoring great athletes and athletics, Tesla is about creating a greener planet, and Apple, with its “Think Different” ethos, is about breaking the shackles of an Orwellian world (at least, that’s the message that resonated the most during the Macintosh launch).

Figure out who you are and what you stand for. Many companies might think they have this figured out, but one of the best litmus tests for that is to ask yourself these questions and then notice if you have a clear, concise, laser-focused answer that cuts to the heart of everything you are about. If you do not have that for your company, you need to go back to the drawing board and figure this out before you think of logo design ideas and advertising budgets.

Figure out your brand’s values

Many would argue that the markets have changed, the customer has changed, or newer technologies have changed the industry landscape. However, the idea behind really figuring out your core promise and values is that they’re not affected by market changes or changes in the industry. Nike always did and still does stand for “great athletes and athletics.” Though their products have changed tremendously, however, that core value still holds.

The marketing piece of the puzzle is born from first figuring out the core value and promise. It’s the physical representation (so to speak) of those values.

This quote by Seth Godin hits the nail on its head. You can read the full post here:

A brand used to be something else. It used to be a logo or a design or a wrapper. Today, that’s a shadow of the brand, something that might mark the brand’s existence. But just as it takes more than a hat to be a cowboy, it takes more than a designer prattling on about texture to make a brand. If you’ve never heard of it, if you wouldn’t choose it, if you don’t recommend it, then there is no brand, at least not for you.

Examples:

To drive our point home, here are some more inspirational ads that encapsulate their brand’s DNA and core values. We are not writing any explanations for these ads as they speak for what they stand for without help (which is the whole idea in the first place!).