Brand, if done well, will have the power to make you feel good. When connected to a specific product or service it can even make you think and behave differently and, in many cases, drive you to willingly part with your hard-earned income. But, what does brand mean and why does it matter?

What is brand?

Purists will argue that brand isn’t something a person or business can truly own. Instead, brand is how your audience, be that clients, customers or employees, perceives you or your business. And yes, brand does matter as much to us as individuals as it does to small businesses and international corporates. When it comes to making a decision, your brand will determine how confident and willing your client, or customer, is in choosing you, or your business, over a competitor. 

When you think about a brand in your mind, the first examples that you’re likely come up with are those to which you have an emotional connection. Perhaps you fondly remember playing with Lego as a child, maybe you’re an avid consumer of all things Apple, you might have a strong preference for either Nike or Adidas, or maybe you associate your supermarket choice with having more meaning than it simply being the best place to get your fruit and vegetables.

At the most basic level, you can probably say, with relative ease, whether you like or dislike a particular brand. And, at the extreme, you might even feel that you love or hate it. Strong feelings indeed. But let me be clear, brand indifference is also a thing. A brand can’t make you care about something you have no interest in. However, even in the most mundane purchases, brand will still leave you with a perception. Heinz baked beans, are they really better? 

So what can you do to build a brand that’s at least liked, or better still, loved? Managing a brand requires investment, energy and focus. With commitment and consistency over time you can build, enhance and control the perception of your business. Ultimately, your brand will be strengthened or weakened as a result of your communication, your perceived reputation and the quality of your product. 

What you can do

If brand is not something you can fully control, what can you do? Take control of your business strategy and make sure you understand the environment you are operating in. Map your competitors, assess your market and stay attuned to the developments that might disrupt or challenge you. Once you have a view of where you are, you can then focus your energy on enhancing your brand perception while ensuring you mitigate, or better still eliminate, any negative experience that a client or customer might have had. The important lesson is that perception is reality, so despite everything else, your business will flourish or fail on the strength of its brand. 

So what governs all of this? Basically, its marketing. It might sound old school, contrived or even fluffy to some, but pretty much every facet of your business is touched by the application of Marketing. From consumer insights to product development, sales performance and complaint handling. Furthermore, if you apply the principles of marketing internally, you’ll also see how it shapes what your employees think and feel about the business, and indeed the people, they work both with and for. It’s important to remember that it is both. 

How we can help

In the coming months we will take a look at some of the most frequently used terms that fall within Marketing, considering what they mean and how they’ve evolved over time. We will consider everything from business purpose, leadership and strategy through to the role of specific marketing tactics and channels.

Follow our LinkedIn page and look out for our tips on building your personal or business brand. Need more help? Contact us at info@cygnusb.com 

CygnusB has over two decades of experience providing specialist consulting and strategic counsel in brand, communication and executive talent management and coaching.