The Layers of Your Brand and How Your Brand Helps Your Business
By Erin
Ferree,
Founder and Lead Designer of Elf Design,
Belmont, CA, U.S.A.
elf[at]elf-design.com
www.elf-design.com
Advertisements:
Branding is a hot topic in marketing these days, but it's
defined in different ways and looked at from different angles. There are
many components that make up a brand, and we call each component a Brand
Layer.
Here are our definitions of some of the most important
Brand Layers:
Brand Foundation
The base from which all brand elements will be created
and measured against for accuracy. This layer consists of the following
elements:
1. Brand Vision is your company's plan
for itself - how your company wants to appear to the world, and how your
company wants to grow and change in coming years.
2. Brand Mission is what your company
wants to create in the world, through its products or services.
3. Brand Values are those ideas that
your company brand stands for and that you believe in - and also what you
don't want to and won't do. These values help your potential clients to
decide whether you can help them, and they also help you decide who you
will help and what you can't offer or deliver. Brand Values are largely
an internal measure against which you can process incoming jobs, but they
will also be communicated through all of your marketing materials.
Brand Basics
These components of your brand form your business's "face"
to the public. Brand Basics shape and direct your customers' views of
your business. Telling your customers how you want to be perceived is
an essential piece of a Brand Strategy for any small business, and the
easiest way for you to do this as a small business owner is through your:
1. Brand Identity, the suite of visual
elements that are used consistently in your marketing, including:
* Brand Names of your company and product or service
lines
* Logo
* Visual Vocabulary
* Collateral system/stationery set (business card, letterhead,
envelope, and so on)
* Marketing materials (brochure, postcard, flyer, and
so on)
* Website
2. Brand Content, the way you write and
talk about your brand, including your:
* Marketing Copy
* Tagline
* 30-second Pitch or Elevator Speech
3. Brand Marketing that integrates both
visuals and text about your brand, and that gets your message out to your
audience. This is made up of your:
* Advertising
* Trade shows
* Public Relations
* All other outreach/marketing programs
4. Brand Offerings, the products or services
that you present, along with the quality, warranties, and value that you
include with your products and services.
5. Brand Experience, the process of working
with you as seen from the clients' perspective. But in order to create
a positive experience, you have to have a strong foundation of systems,
procedures, and processes built in to your business - this is a basic level
of professionalism that's expected of every business. Things that factor
in here include:
* Returning calls
* Availability
* Turnaround time
* Professional interaction and communication
* Process
These Brand Basics can also help to shape your Brand Personality,
which is the persona that your business projects to the world. This is
defined through the way that your brand expresses itself - the characteristics
that give your business a life of its own, outside of your own personality.
Competitor Comparison
These components of your brand speak about your business's
relation to the competition:
1. Brand Positioning is basically how
your brand compares with that of the competition. There are probably many
businesses that provide the services or products that you provide: Brand
Positioning determines where your business falls in the continuum of businesses
in your field.
2. Brand Differentiation is another,
more specific piece of your Brand Positioning. Your Differentiators are
those things that make your business stand out from your competition - the
things that you do or offer that are unlike anything your competition
offers.
You can control these Competitor Comparison factors through
careful market research, market monitoring, and your definition of both
your Brand Positioning and Brand Differentiation.
Internal Measures
These components of your brand are defined largely through
your business's actions:
1. Brand Environment is the atmosphere
at and within your company.
2. Brand Promise is the underlying guarantee
or benefits that you offer as part of all of your services. These promises
can be of quality, service, greatness, affordability, or speed of delivery;
regardless, every business presents a Brand Promise to the public, promising
what the experience of doing business with them will be like or what benefits
the consumer/client will get from doing business with that company. While
your Brand Promise is often initially shaped by promises made in your
external communications, it must be fully realized through the internal
execution of your services.
3. Brand Values, which are an important
part of your Brand Foundation, are also helpful in deciding
External Measures
These components of your brand are defined by the public's
perception:
1. Brand Awareness is the level of public
awareness of your brand - who knows who you are and what you do. This is
influenced by the strength and effective distribution of your Brand Basics,
as well as by word-of-mouth.
2. Brand Gap is the difference between
your Brand Positioning and Differentiation and how your consumers and
clients actually view these things.
So, What Is A Brand?
Your brand is really the combination of all of the above
Brand Layers. A brand is both your presentation and public's perception
of your business. It's the way that people think about your business,
and it is shaped through all of the layers described above.
Once you've established your brand and started putting
your Brand Basics before the public eye, there are some other branding
issues you should consider:
1. Brand Alignment is the biggest challenge
in building a brand. It comes from creating alignment across all of the
Brand Layers described above, and in creating that same alignment between
your audience and your message: making sure that the message that you're
presenting is the same message that your customers and contacts are walking
away with.
2. Brand Management is the process of
managing all of the Brand Layers and achieving or maintaining Brand Alignment.
It is a constant process; you should check up on your Brand Layers and
Brand Alignment from time to time.
When all of the Brand Layers are working together, you'll
have a strong Brand that will help your business to grow and prosper.
About The Author:
Erin Ferree, Founder and
Lead Designer of elf design, is a brand identity and marketing design
strategist who creates big visibility for small businesses. Erin helps
her clients discover their brand differentiators, then designs logos,
business cards, and other collateral materials and websites to reflect
that differentiation, as well as to increase credibility and memorability.
To learn more about defining your difference, check out our eBook, Stand
Out, at http://www.stand-out-branding.com. For more information about
elf design, please visit: Logo design at http://www.elf-design.com
Published - October 2006
|