10 Key Values in Branding
For the best chance of success, a brand needs certain things built into it from the start. There are a number of governing principles that affect the nature of a brand, and no matter what kind of venture you are on they offer a backbone of good practice that will breath life into and give integrity to your brand, with the view to ensuring long term sustainability. All good brands have certain ingredients part of their DNA.
1. Vision
A good brand must have a visionary leader or group who are articulate, effective and passionate. Somebody who can picture what the future will be and communicate it in a way that can inspire others. The brand needs to be a translation of that vision into a tangible expression and visual language that resonates with all the key stakeholders. A great example of this kind of vision is Steve Jobs of Apple Computers.
2. Meaning
The best brands stand for something, a definitive truth, a strategic and a clear set of values. It comes down to what you are promising your prospects. Meaning is drafted from the essence of a brands identity, what does it stand for both now and in the future. It usually requires that you take an enormous amount of information and distil it into its purest form. Communication of meaning is essential as an identity builds power when there is cohesion of meaning and visual language.
3. Differentiation
This is the process of giving yourself a unique identity in the marketplace so that when somebody thinks of a category they see you as being different and unique in relation to the competition. This needs to be seen in values and meaning, but also visually and verbally and comes directly from the positioning so that there is no confusion. It is an essential process. Nobody responds well to ‘me too’. A unique identity will get you differentiation and ultimately profits.
4. Authenticity
In psychology, authenticity tends to refer to self-knowledge and the expression of that knowledge. This is essential to a brands success, and is linked intrinsically to the meaning of the brand. Authenticity cannot therefore be possible without a clear understanding of what the brand stands for. At the foundations of a brand is a promise to the consumer, and if that is not kept, the brand is undermined. Innocent Smoothies is a great example of this. The simple, friendly approach translates across key brand touch-points. The product packaging is also a clever representation of the brand. Unlike its fellow beverages, Innocent is simple. The bottle is clear with a simple product information band in one color. The product stands out precisely because it is so different from the other beverages on the shelf. This is reinforced by their simple and down to earth personality and brand values. Innocent prides itself on providing natural, pure juice drinks and nothing else. Literally, nothing else – “No sugar. No water. No concentrates”. So you see the brand is simple and authentic and delivers what it promises wherever you make contact with the brand.
5. Sustainability
Sustainability is the ability that the brand has to maintain its distinctive qualities over time without loosing defi nition under the unpredictable pressures of a changing environment. It needs to have longevity and the ability to retain its distinctiveness regardless of fl uctuating variables such as consumer trends, economics, business change, expansion and the like. We need to make sure we’re thinking ahead.
6. Coherence
This is the ability that a brand has to ensure that the consumer always has a consistent experience of the brand wherever they connect with any of its touch points. This is the key to retaining a brands power and value, as soon as inconsistency and incoherence comes in, the brand dilutes.
7. Flexibility
A brand has to be able to adapt over time to a wide range of variables without loosing its potency. How for example does Disney maintain its brand distinctive under the pressure of constant promotion and production of Disney branded items, events and services. What about their movies and TV shows, merchandise, branded experiences of all different kinds? Yet they still manage to maintain their grip on who they are.
8. Value
This is the recognition and strength that a brand has. It is the position that your brand has in the mind of the consumer when they think of a specific product. For example “Fairy washing up liquid means the best to me, so that’s what I buy.” It is the power of the brand. The value of a brand comes in the synergy of the meaning and the aesthetic.
9. Commitment
The commitment that a company or service makes to maintain the value of the brand. In many ways once a brand has been created or enhanced, you are only at the beginning of the process. A brands value will increase as the standards are consistently and perpetually applied without faltering, time and time again. It requires a top down imperative whereby the director of the company champions the need and importance of maintaining the standards. It’s not a magic wand but a discipline of commitment, day in, day out. This needs enforcing.
10. Positioning
You can’t escape this term wherever you go in branding circles, people used to talk about marketing, but now it’s positioning. This is simply the process by which a brand is effectively placed in the mind of the consumer. Where do you sit in the mind? It is the activity of communicating the strategically chosen attributes of a brand in such a way as to encourage a consumer to think about those attributes when they consider the brand. It is also the art of reminding the prospect as effectively and as often as possible about those attributes.
