What is Your "Brand?"

And other questions you’ll need to answer to succeed in marketing.

“Brand” is an abstract idea that serves as a guiding light for marketers and business decision-makers in their daily activities. If you work in marketing, you likely wrestle with this idea constantly, and it is important to have a thorough understanding of what your company’s brand is and what factors play a role in defining it.

To grossly over-simplify it, I like to think of “brand” as your reputation. In other words, what do consumers expect when they interact with your business or your product? Think about your friends. You likely know them well and can pick out who the lazy one is, who the talkative one is, and which one based their entire personality off of hit television series, The Sopranos (might just be me). Just like each friend’s unique reputation, each company has its own unique brand.

“Brand” encompasses the qualities that individuals associate with you or your company and therefore, “brand” is not yours to define. This is an important distinction to make because developing a brand is much more complicated than creating a mission statement or a catchy tagline. This might be a good place to start, but establishing a brand requires cultivating a meaningful relationship with your customers and managing their expectations over time. Remember the timeless saying, “brand is in the eye of the beholder.”

What factors play a role in defining “brand?”

The short answer: everything. Customers are forming perceptions of your brand every time they interact with it. Put yourself in their shoes and consider the experience they are anticipating. Will the service be quick? Are the employees helpful? Is the product high-quality? Will it cost a lot? Your job as a marketer is to uncover these expectations and ensure everything the customer hears about your company is consistent with what they will experience when they make a purchase. Doing this repeatedly will ultimately solidify your brand.

How can you influence customer perceptions of your brand?

To answer this, I will point to one company that has excelled at managing customer expectations and establishing a world-renown brand: Apple. What qualities do you associate with Apple products? It depends on who you ask, but many would say Apple products are elegant, easy to use, and à la mode. Some would argue, however, that they lack basic features (like laptops with no USB ports) and are over-priced. Regardless, it is inarguable that Apple has developed an incredibly loyal customer base, and the secret to doing so is in their brand. Apple’s branding excellence is best demonstrated in their “Think Different” campaign from 1997:

This ad simply highlights “the crazy ones” who challenged the status quo and changed the world in some way during their lifetime. It says nothing about Apple or their products but it creates a feeling that viewers associate with Apple to this day. If you want to be someone, buy Apple. (And if you want to buy Apple, be prepared to buy adapters too).

Why does brand matter?

Mastery of your brand will enable you to make strategic business decisions that will strengthen the connection between your business and your customers. A stronger customer relationship generally equates to a longer customer lifetime value and decreases the likelihood of losing a customer to a competitor. You don’t need a business degree to understand why that is good for your business.

What is your brand? What are you doing each day to develop it?