thirtymlmusings

Sometime in 1860, a bunch of settlers established a new community in North Carolina. A town meeting was held to pick a name for their town, and this debate went on for hours, with everyone pitching in with “Why not this?” and “Why not that?”. Finally, an exasperated farmer yelled, lets name our town Whynot and go home, the bored citizens quickly agreed. The town of Whynot exists to this date and is known for its pottery shops. 

Unlike this quirky accident, decisions on brand identity are seldom casual and spontaneous. Brand identity decisions do not emerge from compromise and frustration, but from deliberate choices, rooted in strategy, customer insights and long-term vision.  While brands may use different models, like Unilever’s Brand Key or Keller’s Customer Based Brand Equity, fundamentally brand identity is a synthesis of business goals, customer insights, values, benefits and differentiators into a brand’s distinctive voice, personality and visual system. 

Developing your brand’s identity will involve extensive customer research, discussions with stakeholders and a deep introspection of your company’s values. But bringing it to life is about embedding it in the organization. Here are a few things I’ve learnt about bringing brand identity to life. 

Not Just Skin Deep. Brand identity is not just about visual identity, colors and logo; it needs to be deeply integrated with business. For example, IndiGo’s brand identity is built around on-time performance, affordable fares and hassle-free service. While the brand’s distinctive blue visual identity reflects professionalism and stability, the brand’s identity drives its processes, systems and pretty much how the company operates.

Embrace Cathedral Thinking. Some of the world’s greatest brands have been built over hundreds of years; Stella Artois (since 1366), Colgate (since 1806) and Coca-Cola (since 1886). These brands have outlasted generations of managers and are examples of cathedral thinking – long-term goals and projects. How do we make long-term decisions in an environment with no sense of permanence? When every new CMO wants to rebrand just to show progress? One way to apply cathedral thinking to brand identity is to elevate the decision-making; involve founders, the promoters and the Board. When brand identity goes beyond shallow conversations about brand colors and logo to strategic discussions around the business, you will secure commitment from the Board and build for the future. 

Distinctiveness > Differentiation. Everything begins with consumers noticing your brand, only then will they start recognizing it, thereby increasing likelihood that they will purchase. Distinctive brand assets include non-name cues like logo, colors, sounds that trigger consumer recognition. Building unique, distinctive and noticeable brand assets is rooted in behavioral science. Distinctive brands assets act like mental shortcuts, making the brand instantly identifiable in crowded markets, they aid memory building ensuring the brand is recalled when purchase decisions are made. 

Beware The Purpose Trap. If experts in marketing’s echo chambers are to be believed, consumers reward purposeful brands and hence businesses need to have a ‘brand purpose’. People buy products to meet a certain need, and brands deliver value in exchange for the price people pay. A business has no bigger purpose than operating responsibly and making a fair profit. And a brand’s purpose it to sell stuff. Anything else is plain horseshit. 

Bridge The Gap. Marketers often use jargons and buzz words; sloppy language encourages shallow thinking and excludes most of the organization. Brand identity is far too important to stay only inside the Boardroom and PowerPoint decks. Everyone in the organization – right down to your frontline staff – needs to be aware of your brand identity. Hence, it’s important to be able to articulate it simply and make it relatable to all levels of your organization. Using simple universal human values like truth, respect, care, friendship, family or love can help transcend potential multi-national or cross-cultural barriers.  

Identity As A Touchstone. A good brand identity can also serve as a touchstone for decision making. For example, if transparency is one of your brand identity’s tenets, your discounts and promotions will not stay hidden behind barely legible T&Cs. 

Communicate. Communicate. Communicate. In large organizations, it takes time for messages to reach everybody across levels, and it takes even longer for employees to embrace the message. When it comes to brand identity, there is no such thing as ‘over communication’. So go ahead, start every meeting with a reminder, print it on pay slips, stick posters in the lunchroom, make screen savers and more. Do not stop the first time you hear complaints about over communication, stay the course until “people get mad” – that’s when you know the message has reached every employee.   

In the end, brand identity is a not just a pretty document, it is a deliberate set of choices. The strongest brands live their identities over time, in every decision, by showing up consistently in every touchpoint and through every crest and trough of the business cycle. Its benefits compound over time, making the brand an indomitable force, earning trust and profits. 

First published in BW Businessworld here.