Building a brand or corporate identity
Building a brand has a different meaning than it did a decade ago. Thanks to information overload, people have less time and are becoming more selective about what they read, watch and listen to. They choose to engage with content that enriches their lives personally or professionally.
In the HBR article referenced below by David C. Edelman, 60% of a sales cycle is occurring before a client interacts with a representative from the selling organization.
Translation: People are doing more research and studying their options long before they speak to a sales representative.
Before you have an opportunity to dive into solution selling or product differentiation, the prospect has already formed an opinion of your organization and your brand.
Interesting Article: "Branding in the Digital Age: You're Spending Your Money in All the Wrong Places"
By Harvard Business Review, 2010
BEGINNING WITH A SELF-ASSESSMENT, YOUR BRAND SHOULD ADEQUATELY REPRESENT WHO YOU ARE TODAY AS A BUSINESS AND WHO YOU ASPIRE TO BE TOMORROW.
The brand journey truly begins with dissecting who you are as a business and understanding why an individual should find you interesting to work with or for. We often find in the B2B space that our clients forget that a business isn't making the decision to buy your product or service - a person is ultimately responsible and their reputation is on the line.
Appealing to that person, your brand needs to effectively communicate:
01. Who you are
Reflected in your tone of voice, color selections, graphical expression, imagery, logo, and the engagement experience are core elements of your brand.
02. Why the audience should care
What is the single most important problem you can help them solve?
03. Why they should continue to read, watch or listen to you
What do they stand to gain by furthering their engagement with your business?
04. How you are different
Others are competing for their attention on the same topic so why should they believe you?
05. How they can learn more
If you've mastered the above, people will want more... information, experiences, understanding...
Learn more about brand development by 25|25:
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Case Study
SOAP Engineering needed an entire corporate identity system including logo, website, collateral templates, stationary and a presentation style.
how we can help
When we work on a new corporate identity project, we not only assess your sense of aesthetics with visual elements, but we ask you questions about your organization’s ability to deliver on the brand promise you are creating. The customer experience with your company – at every single touchpoint – is what creates a brand. These interactions reach far beyond your logo, stationary and brochures, and they are the foundation of the impression you will leave on your audience.
Workshops
Creating a corporate brand starts with interviewing and working together with your leadership team. We have experience guiding teams through various exercises to develop a consistent set of core messages, values and a vision that will help define the essence of the organization.
Brand Audit and Analysis
When developing a corporate identity, it's important to begin with your clients. What is their perception of your organization, what value do you deliver to them, and how do they measure you against your competition? It's equally important to interview internal stakeholders to understand the company's strengths and weaknesses. Lastly, we analyze your current set of marketing tools (website, brochures, etc.) to validate alignment with the market perception. Upon completion of the audit, we provide a full summary of the findings and offer recommendations for further brand development.
Corporate Identity Development
Whether you are a new company or an existing organization, developing a brand or venturing down the path of rebranding is an exciting journey. In fact it's wonderful when you witness your brand come to life in the form of a logo, corporate colors, templates, and other visual elements that communicate your originality. We can help your organization with this self expression by creating an elegant system of templates, logo, brand guidelines, colors and other graphics that work together to deliver a unified look and feel to the market.
Additional Resources
- Inc.com Article: "5 Insights on Branding in the Digital Age" by Bill Carmondy
- Blog Post: "The Importance of B2B Brand Strategies" by Michael Million
- Video & Tool: American Marketing Association Brand Assessment Tool