Branding

Let me help you to sharpen your brand communications to reflect the essence of your company’s value proposition.

When we speak of brands a few immediately jump to mind:  Coca-Cola, the world’s most valuable brand, Google, and Microsoft, for example.  Individuals have personal brands too.  Oprah, Elvis and Sting are three entertainers with such recognizable brands all you need to hear is their first names to know who they are and the values they represent.

The word “brand” has come to have many definitions.  When you are building your brand it is important to use a common vocabulary so that you and your colleagues are working from the same script.

Here are three simple definitions:

What is a brand?
•    A brand is what an organization wishes to be known for.  It is a pro-active strategic process to establish the direction, leadership, clarity of purpose and inspiration for the organization’s mission.  It is an inside-out process.

What is positioning?
•    Positioning is how an organization and the services it provides are perceived in the minds of its target audiences.  It is looking from the outside-in.  The challenge is to have your brand and positioning in alignment.

What is corporate identity?
•    Corporate identity is the visual expression of the organization’s name, logo, tagline.

Size doesn’t matter.  Whether you are an entrepreneur, work for a small company or a giant in the industry, your brand needs to be crystal clear in communicating the benefits it delivers to your target audiences.