Making simple things unnecessarily difficult: marketers are masters of it. And they often do little to prevent confusion. How often does it happen that you as an entrepreneur want to have a logo, corporate identity or website designed and before you know it, the marketing terms will fly around your ears.
Logo & corporate identity?
These form the visual identity of your brand. A style that you choose to present your brand to your target group in the most attractive way possible.
Branding?
These are all the actions you take to create a certain image of your brand with your customers.
Fire?
How your target audience really thinks about your product, that's your brand. In the best case, branding and fire are alike, but that is not always the case.
THIS WILL BE CLEAR WITH AN EXAMPLE.
Fast food chains have been under pressure for years because they commercialize an unhealthy lifestyle. As a consumer, we think of a fast-food restaurant as a quick but unhealthy bite. Yet you notice that a number of chains are trying to change that image. By putting healthy food on the menu, providing better information about calories and even by supporting charities that promote a healthy lifestyle.
Fire. Unhealthy, quick bite.
Branding. Fast service. Healthy choices. Attention for the customer.
You notice that how customers think about your brand and the image you want to create are sometimes miles apart. It seems, certainly in the example of those fast-food chains, that it is even lost effort to try to reverse that perception. Yet there is a reason for all those efforts.
THE HUMAN PERCEPTION
Everyone has certain ideas, views, values and norms. All these factors influence the way someone looks at you. And make decisions. The individual experiences that you carry as a person ensure that you look at something in a certain way. Behavior, character, upbringing, education, environment: it all plays a role. Having an influence on that seems impossible. Yet that is what you are trying to do with good branding. No easy job. Fortunately, it is slightly easier for starters than for existing companies.
STARTERS
As a starter you have the advantage that people have not yet formed an opinion about your brand; it does not yet exist. Their image of your brand has yet to emerge. And that offers opportunities for your branding. If you start working with it, then 3 things are really important.
Get to know your target group.
Know where she's awake, how she thinks and what she finds important. If you understand your target group, you can better align your branding to this. You know how to address them, which language fits best and what they are sensitive to.
Make choices.
Unless you intend to sell a generic product such as 'salt', you have to make choices. You cannot appeal to a target group with an age of 18 to 25 and seniors. And you cannot develop a product that appeals to people who are technically gifted or people with little knowledge. Of course you want everyone to buy your product. But can you also put it on the market that way?
What do you ultimately want to achieve?
Ever heard of the phrase "Don't dress for the job you have, but for the job you want"? As a starter, ask yourself what you want to achieve within 3, 5 or even 10 years. And bear in mind that the decisions you make today are a first step in that direction.
EXISTING ENTERPRISES
If you have been active on the market for a long time and you are faced with a 're-branding', then the starting point is important.
Business is good.
Do not think that you are in a luxury position, because with a re-branding you can lose a lot. If you don't like the re-branding, you can suffer serious damage to your image. Just think of Coca-Cola that would launch 'New Coke' in 1985. The re-branding of Coca-Cola was a failure and less than 3 months later the old brand was back on the shelves. Despite successful taste tests, the new brand was put off too much and the nostalgia for the familiar was too great. Always first check which values of your brand appeal to your target group at the moment and make sure that you retain them during a re-branding.
Business is not going so well anymore.
Bending a negative perception is possible. It is only very expensive and often takes a lot of time. In such a situation, public relations are often actively involved in a re-branding. Because you want to show that it is 'different' now. You will not immediately convince everyone, but if you persist and continue to send a positive message, more and more people will trust your brand.