How powerful is your brand? In this Vlog Grant explains how to understand your brand’s strengths and weaknesses
People often think of brands as quite complex, but there’s a way to distill it down to really understand how powerful your brand really is and whether it needs some work.
The first area of a brand are its physical attributes. Most brands have distinctive icons, which you recognise. Think of the McDonald’s golden arches or the Nike swoosh or even the iconic Coca-Cola bottle. Many people just accept a logo that they think is good enough or does the job. You really need to think, does it stand out? Is it distinctive? Because if it isn’t, maybe it needs altering.
The second part is the tangible benefits or brand promise that accompany gives. For example, Premier Inn say ‘a good night’s sleep or your money back’. It doesn’t make them unique and of course every hotel will claim to give their patrons a good night’s sleep, but it’s a brand promise that they own.
Snickers is not the only chocolate bar which will fill you up when you’re feeling a bit hungry, but that is their distinct promise that they make to their customers – that it will fill a gap. This isn’t about being unique, but do you have a distinctive promise which you can make in a few seconds to a customer?
The third part is the beliefs and expectations that a brand purveys. For example, with Dove, their campaign for real women is all about self esteem and allowing people to take pride in their body image.
Similarly, Innocent drinks talk about doing yourself some good and, therefore, allowing you to have fruit smoothies that won’t harm you. Therefore, with a brand, it’s not just about physical attributes and value proposition that you give, but also the feelings and beliefs that you want to convey.
Having all of those three aspects in a powerful and distinctive way, will make sure that you have a brand that really works for your business.
