Making News
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Heat up your Branding Iron
July 26, 2018 | Branding Emails
Heat up your Branding Iron
While branding is perhaps the “buzziest” of buzzwords among today’s savvy marketing pros, most consumers are a bit sketchy on what it all means.
Many conjure up images of the Old West. You know, cowboy’s heating up their branding irons over a roaring fire, then holding down reluctant cows and horses to burnish a logo onto their thick hinds—all in the name of identifying a rancher’s assets, so to speak.
The Emergence of Brands
The fact is, branding is nothing new: it goes back some 8000 years. Mesopotamian villagers began making personalized stone seals and pressed them into clay stoppers used to seal food and drink. Later, as traders started to distribute their goods far and wide, they created visual symbols to provide buyers with reassurance of origin and quality. Then in the 12th century, rich Heraldic symbols were used to form coats of arms that distinguished families, corporations, even states and nations.
The Emergence of Packaging
The turn of the 20th Century saw the advent of packaged goods. And this changed everything. Suddenly, rice was no longer just rice, and coffee wasn’t just coffee. Proctor & Gamble, the world’s best-known maker of packaged goods, began selling Ivory Soap in 1879. Soon Uneeda Biscuit, Campbell’s Soup, Quaker Oats, Royal Baking Powder, and Lipton Tea were filling America’s shelves.
The rest is history, as manufacturing companies, service providers, schools, and civic organizations the world over attempt to differentiate themselves from the competition by creating trademarks that reflect the unique qualities and distinctive personalities of their brands.
So What's a Brand?
A brand is many things to many people. It can start with a letter, a numeral, a character, a symbol, a color, or any combination of the above. But that’s just the beginning-because a brand is much more than that. It’s a conversation with your employees, your suppliers, and your customers. It’s a tone of voice. It’s a pattern of behavior. It’s your standard of quality. It’s bigger than your visual identity, although that is important. It’s your past, present and future. It’s your legacy and reputation. And it stands the test of time.
The Value of Branding
Enduring brands can give your business or organization more leverage than any other single asset.
Your brand’s personality and reputation for performance can separate you from the pack, create lasting customer loyalty, and help drive growth. A commanding brand identity doesn’t happen by chance. It must be planned, cultivated, supported, and vigilantly guarded. Your brand is the focal point of your vision—the strategy against which all marketing and communication activities are measured to maximize perceived value in the minds and hearts of those you need to influence.
To maintain market dominance, you need to continuously strengthen brand awareness. Without instant recognition, you spend the lion’s share of every ad, presentation, or sales call explaining who you are, what you stand for, why you’re better than the alternatives. Meanwhile, an organization or company with an established brand awareness can jump right into the fray-and immediately begin the process of turning a prospect into a paying customer.
Today, smart branding draws on all the concepts and strategies that have gone before-from heraldic traditions to the hot branding iron. Indeed, vestiges of these early branding foundations permeate every modern identity system. Why? Because the purpose of branding remains the same: to create awareness, maintain loyalty, generate sales, and building lasting and rewarding relationships with the people who matter most-your customers.
So What About Your Brand?
How can you get your brand to work harder for you? That’s where we come in. We apply our deep experience in corporate and institutional branding to help you set your organization apart in a world of me too and just like us.
If you like, I’ll tell you about four simple ways we can help you build brand awareness—online and off. Give me a call at 617-661-6125, or email to set up a meeting. We won’t steer you wrong.
Brand ’em yours,
Stewart Monderer
Reference: The Brandmindset by Duane E. Knapp, BrandStrategy, Inc.; Branding For Dummies by Bill Chiaravalle, Barbara Findlay Schenck; and the Devil’s Rope Museum