s.h.a.r.c. » What’s Your Brand Personality?

What’s Your Brand Personality?

27 March 2007 on 12:44 pm by Andrew Wylie | In strategy, branding |

Introducing Branding Part One

One of the hardest realities of being a parent is the realisation that our children may hold different opinions than us. Why are you wearing that? How can you go there? I don’t like who you’re seeing! How can you waste your money on that!? Once you can accept that what’s right for them is not necessarily what’s right for you, your relationship will step to a new level of maturity, your advice and guidance will become more meaningful, less destructive and better followed.

So too with our corporate children – our brands. What should they wear, how should they speak, where should they hang out? Determining brand personality is one of the hardest decisions to make, especially if until now, the brand has really been you. It’s time to let our brands stand alone and make their way in the world without us, but like any good parent we want them to be as well prepared as possible and confident enough to stand out from the crowd.

Let’s first consider some fundamentals: why do we need brands? Are brands just for the Cokes and Levis of the world? The sizzle is great when we can get around to it, but first I want to concentrate on the steak!

Most successful companies have a Business Plan. We know to the dollar what it costs to satisfy client need and what product or service we need to supply. What a brand does is give personality to that offer, and personality is all-important. From all of humanity we choose our circle of friends, from them we know who will be best man at our wedding and who we’d want at our back when the going gets tough. For our great friends we forgive them their sins, overlook their faults and support them through their tough times. This is the essence of Brand Loyalty. To achieve this we need a Brand Plan to sit along side our Business Plan.

Your brand is one of the most valuable assets to your business. It is only the Brand that raises products from me-too status. Branding transcends logic, overlooks features and speaks to consumers at an emotional level. Marketers speak of tribal branding, brand identification and virtual brand communities. In essence all good brands do the same thing, they clearly communicate to their customers how to experience the product and the emotional relationship that is expected.

When constructing the Brand Plan you will have to make difficult choices. How do I appeal to my core audience without alienating everyone else? What does my product stand for and what sets it apart from the rest. A carefully conducted Brand Audit will establish what is best for the product and the company. It will plan the steps to achieving a brand position that will encapsulate your corporate beliefs and heritage, speak to your target market and most especially raise your product from the herd.

In my next article we discuss how to use the Brand Plan to focus all customer communication, and get your clients calling their children after your products.

Andrew Wylie
Pandemonium Creative
www.pandemoniumcreative.com.au
andrew@pandemoniumcreative.com.au