A brand is not a logo, design, or message.
Most founders and B2B marketers get this wrong.
It's not their fault. For decades, designers have co-opted the term "brand" to represent logos, fonts, colors, patterns, and a business's overall look.
That's why many businesses unveil a new design and call it their 'brand.'
But design and messaging are just components of a brand β very small components at that.
A brand is so much more than design. So much more than a message. And so much more than an experience.
When you don't understand a brand, you'll never experience the revenue spike and attraction of having a compelling brand.
Let's get nerdy and break this down.
A Brand, Defined
The best definition of a brand comes from Marty Neumeier, the godfather of modern branding.
A brand is the gut feeling people have of you, your business or your product.
It's a perception, reputation, or, as Jeff Bezos says, it's what people say about you when you aren't in the room.
All of those definitions point to one thing: a brand is a feeling.
Not a logo, not a message, not even an experience.
It's a gut feeling that lives in other people's minds and is based on every interaction they have with you.
That's why I adjusted Mr. Neumeier's definition:
A brand is the gut feeling people have of your business based on every interaction with your business.
I explain more in this video:
Building a Brand
A brand is feeling β you can't control it or build it.
The best you can do is influence that feeling in everything you do.
Every call, email, office visit, website visit, deliverable, ad, piece of content, DM, profile, invoice, form, onboarding and offboarding process, price, offer, package, box, promotional item, catalog, brochure, pitch deck, proposal...
It all creates a feeling in people's minds.
Now, that feeling can either be the feeling you want to create β they trust you, like you, believe you alone have the solution they need.
Or a feeling you don't want to create β they don't trust you, don't understand you, don't like you, and think you're just an overpriced commodity.
That difference is made in how intentional you are.
Influencing the Right Feeling
So, how do you influence the right feeling in the right people so they buy from your business?
Simple, but not easy.
Here's the breakdown:
- Uncover your unique value: determine what customers can only get from your business. And, no, it's not how much you care or your quality. Dig deeper.
β
- Understand your ideal customers: get to know their motivations, fears, desires, and what causes them to trust a business. Interview them, stalk them on social, and listen to what they say.
β
- Choose your feeling: determine what feeling you want them to have about your business. Be nuanced with this β it's never just one emotion.
β
- Map out your experience: determine how you will influence that feeling in everything you do. Ask what needs to change in your processes, operations, design, marketing, and sales.
Document everything you decide and then implement those changes.
Every interaction with your business will create the right feeling.
Your Brand Plan
Walking through those steps creates what we call a brand strategy.
Simply put, it's a plan to evoke the right feelings in the right people at the right time so they trust you and want to give you money.
No plan = your team is just winging it.
And winging it is no way to build a profitable, sustainable business.
βStart your brand plan today.β
In 7 weeks, you'll have a full brand strategy, marketing strategy, and 1 year action plan to turn your business into the ONLY choice.
Until next week,
#SassyJason out.
β