Branding and brand management
What is brand?
Your brand is the promise to the customer. It is the sum of their experiences and knowledge of your brand. Your customer defines it, but you can influence it. A brand is a shortcut in a customer's mind to understanding what you do and how you do it. It is the sum of experience and knowledge of your company positioning, your reputation.
Your logo is not your brand.
Your branding, or visual identity, is absolutely a component of your brand - it should be a visual translation, a reminder, of your brand promise and the experience, but it is not the sum of your brand.
You can influence your brand (the promise and the perception) through the triggers and levers of branding, of which visual identity is one lever. You can influence your brand through the language you use and the tone and personality you use when you write your ads and content. You can influence your brand through the channels you use to communicate and advertise.
What is brand management?
Brand management is the development and execution of strategy to strengthen brand perception in the market. Your brand is only as strong as it’s perception, and resultant sales, so it is imperative to have a brand management strategy. This strategy allows you to inform and influence your target market, building strong relationships with potential clients, customers and partners.
Brand management enables your organisation to position each interaction and communication piece, in the right way for your audience - to build a meaningful understanding of what you do and how you make a difference to them.
Brand management traditionally encompasses:
- Brand architecture or hierarchy
- Visual identity
- Messaging and communication
- Product, positioning and price
- Brand experience
- Customer relationship to the brand and other users of the brand
What is branding?
Branding, on the other hand, is the marketing and communication techniques and tactics you use to influence brand perception. The measures you use to influence will be dependent on your audience and channels and objectives. Branding consists of all the marketing and communication techniques and tactics you use to influence the perception of your brand. Marketing is essentially moving people - it is moving them from unknown to known, from lead to customer, from customer to advocate. It includes your visual identity, channel selection, target audience identification, ambassadors, customer experience, advocacy program and so much more.
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Brand and brand management basics
What is brand?
There are as many definitions of 'brand' as there are brand managers and marketing 'consultants'. Your logo is not your brand. Let's say that again: your logo is not your brand.
The history of brand
Brand' in the modern sense, is commonly associated with the name of a product or service, similar to a trademark. A brand is more than the name or logo, of course, it is the promise to the customer, and their perception of how well you deliver upon that promise.
The basics of brand management
If you are serious about your organisation's brand and creating a lasting and meaningful experience for your customers, good brand management is the linchpin around which you need to build this experience.
Strategies for a house of brands or a branded house
The question of a house of brands or a branded house leads into brand architecture and is another way to approach the development of your architecture and structure. Whether you are an established brand looking to expand, or a new business mapping your brand and product structure, you will benefit from a considered approach to brand hierarchy, allowing you to scale your brand when you grow.
The importance of brand architecture and hierarchy
When a brand manager begins to map and develop a brand hierarchy, it is important to consider your audiences and your product or service offering. Understanding how to build your brand architecture, or make a change to brand architecture is a skill brand managers, and indeed the entire executive team, should have a confident handle on.
Brand management in a decentralised environment
If brand management is a little bit like herding cats, then brand management in a decentralised environment takes an incredible amount of finesse and a strong plan. A strong brand is vital, and more difficult, to corral in a decentralised organisation. These are our top tips for brand management in a decentralised environment.
Superior brand automation for the following companies
Re-branding and de-branding
Is it time for a re-brand?
Congratulations on taking the first step to identify if your organisation will benefit from a rebrand. Rebranding an organisation, particularly one at enterprise level, is a complicated prospect and needs to be approached with the right framework to support a successful transition.
Rebrands we liked in 2018
When it comes to re-branding, history is littered with both shining success stories and epic failures. While there’s undeniable entertainment value in picking apart those “what were they thinking?” moments, the most valuable insights come from studying brands who won fans and favour with inspired names, fresh logos and bold new directions.
What does it mean to debrand?
What does it mean to debrand? Somewhat confusingly, the term debrand has two definitions. Debranding: the removal of brand elements to appear less corporate and more personal. Debranding: the shift away from any recognisable brand to appear generic, thus aiming to reduce ad spend and price and increase profits accordingly.
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What does on-brand mean?
An on-brand strategy defines how a business approaches every aspect of their marketing strategy. Marketing strategies don’t just incorporate advertising - when marketing is focused, it also incorporates reputation management, social media, search engine optimisation, visual branding, and customer service.
How to ensure brand compliance
Managing a brand is a complex undertaking, especially if multiple stakeholders are using the brand. The more stakeholders, the more difficult it is to ensure brand compliance. As a brand manager, 'managing the brand' can be reduced to logo control, but true brand management - and ensuring brand compliance - involves working across the entire organisation to increase the power of brand integrity.
The power of brand integrity
The power of brand integrity (saying what you do and doing what you say) is at the centre of many friction points between brands and their customers. In transparency lies the strength, and power, of integrity.
How good brand management translates to results
Good brand management is the art of moving people to full engagement with your brand. Good brand management means you are fulfilling the brand promise and driving potential customers to act on your calls to action.
Brand automation and management
Asset, content and brand management software
Brand management, digital asset management, content management and branding automation management are key platforms used in traditional marketing technology stacks for enterprise-level organisations, and there is much cross-over between their features and functionality.
What is brand automation?
Brand automation isn't yet a common term used by marketers and brand managers, but increasingly marketers are seeking solutions to branding inconsistencies, production bottlenecks and the sheer volume of creative now needed for proliferating marketing and communication channels.
How does brand automation support a whole organisation?
Brand automation uses technology to automate on-brand marketing production. This automation allows users without design software or skills to produce on-brand collateral.
Top tips for procuring brand management solutions
Say 'procurement' to most brand and marketing managers and we tend to run for the hills - not because we don't like shiny and useful things, but because the process can be tricky and time-consuming to navigate. Having helped many organisations procure and implement Outfit, we have compiled our list of tips to make your lives easier.
Calculate the ROI of Outfit
Select your industry type
Enterprise
Large businesses outside a franchise or real estate model
Franchise
Franchisors and multi-site franchisees
Real Estate
Real estate brands and real estate franchises
University
Universities and higher education institutions
This ROI calculator provides broad calculations on a number of factors in marketing production, using assumptions based on our experience in the industry. As such, it should not be taken as a guarantee of an outcome but an illustration of the potential savings that can be realised through use of the service. We do not promise that your experience will necessarily match the prediction in this calculator, and you should make your own enquiries before making any purchasing decisions. To the maximum extent permitted by law, we limit our liability in connection with the calculator to the resupply of the calculator or paying the cost of resupplying it to you.
Brand management for franchise
The balance between brand and ease for franchisors
The definition of a franchise, franchisee and franchisor make the whole premise seem simple. Any brand or marketing manager working within a franchise will tell you it is the very opposite of simple and takes incredible finesse and management to ensure the balance between brand and ease for franchisees.
Brand management for franchise
Brand management for a franchise is best suited to someone who has outstanding marketing knowledge, an ability to influence stakeholders and draw upon empathy to achieve the best result for the network. Brand management and marketing for a franchise traditionally involves building and balancing three types of brand positioning.
Franchise brand building
For a franchise business, successful branding is a lot like sailing with the wind behind your sails. Successful branding helps your business gain momentum through little effort on your part; once the public trusts and recognises your brand you remove a huge hurdle from the sales process.