The Importance of Branding

Apr 13

To your product, business, service, or idea— branding can be the difference between success and failure.

A “brand” is a story. It’s a relationship, a label, a mark, and a meaning. It’s another word for a logo, but the logo is only a small part of a brand, and it has a lot of information behind it. A brand has a much wider narrative and descriptive nature that outlines every aspect of whatever it is. What it means, what it represents, why it is, how it is… the color, the font, and how things are said about it. A brand can turn a $2 piece of cloth into a $45 Nike t-shirt. THAT is the power of brand.

Think about a box of cereal, carton of milk, a t-shirt with a logo on it, or a pair of sneakers. Everything that exists by manufacture or in concept—by people—including many actual people, is a brand. Lebron James is a brand. Michael Jackson, the Pope, and even Donald Trump is a brand. The Boston Red Sox, Nike, Google, Dole, Subaru, Coca-Cola, etc… they are all brands. They all have a special story behind it, and they all have an effect on a certain number of people—personally, emotionally, and financially.

Imagine the effect historical figures have had even after thousands of years. Jesus, Lao Tzu, Martin Luther King, Ghandi, Muhammad, and so many others have a deeply emotional meaning to so many people and have such an impact on millions. Each of us has our own personal brand as well. Who we are, what we are, what we do, what we believe, and our talents and abilities all branch out and touch others. We have an effect on the world and others. How we wear our hair, our clothing, and all of our choices—are all part of our personal brand.

And then what do we do as people? We are drawn to, follow, brag about or despise other brands. We wear them, we eat them, we discuss them… Think of all the “labels” right now you are wearing. Think of the brands of coffee, food, water, and products around your home or all around you— online, in stores… Brands, brands, and more brands!

So from a marketing perspective, that’s important to understand. When you are actively marketing a brand—a product, service, or idea—you need to have a thorough understanding of two key parts: The brand story, and the audience. When you understand both of those, you can first tell the correct—and hopefully interesting, engaging, and exciting storyline of that brand, and then thoroughly understand the people who want to see it, why they might want to see it, and what it is they need to see.

That way, you can put the two together, and then the relationship is born. That relationship Is the person and the brand. They go hand-in-hand and again, can be personal and intimate brands (for personal use) or consumer-based, financially motivated, and business related brands. And many of these brand relationships can and often do last a lifetime.

In marketing, advertising, and design therefore all aspects of the product, service, or idea needy to be perfectly assembled. A product has to have the right description and meaning, colors, fonts, packaging, ingredients, website, social media accounts, advertising and marketing plan, financial plan, growth plan, and more. A service has to have importance, value, uniqueness, and messaging that really connects with the audience, as well as all the aspects of a product above. An idea, yes even that, needs to have a tremendous amount of excitement, intrigue, value, and interest to even have potential to become a great brand.

There are BILLIONS of brands, and BILLIONS of failed or wasted and un-useful brands. But there are also BILLIONS of amazing, life-changing, inspiring, and powerful brands. And the difference often starts in the beginning in the planning phase, but can also be destroyed anywhere along the way. Think of any famous person that does or says something hurtful or foolish and “POOF,” gone is the brand… But heck, even the cigarette industry with its known super-deadly capacity, still remains strong. Branding!

So when we develop a brand—by thought and idea, or in actuality—all o the above criteria needs to be a part of that process to be effective. A lot of thought ideas, creativity and imagination, passion, and experience all need to be plugged into the process. Great brands are born out of creative and inspired thinking. And the miraculous part of that is that the best creative and imaginative process is deeply spiritual, creator-based (God or whatever your belief is), talent-based, and something you just can’t explain. It’s a skill that if nurtured, practiced, and literally allowed to flow through you—develops into the best personal or product-based brand that ever existed.

Here are a few starting points to start a killer product or company brand

1. Ideas first

A good thought process or discussion about the idea develops into many notes, concepts, drawings, and directions. Add awesome people to your conversation, and really explore and think and speak freely to let the process unwind.

2. Trust your inner Self

Begin with your self. Trust your self first and be really thoughtful and mindful of your ideas. Trust your heart and your own creativity and imagination and stick to that. Make sure you follow that deep inner guide. Trust that. This is where the brand begins—and should stay.

3. Team up with masters

It’s wise to seek relationships with masters. People you can not only trust—but have been there, have super high quality value, and even greater skills to really help guide you and contribute to great ideas. Learn from others, team up with others. While the idea is yours, it always takes a team. So hang out with winners, achievers, and go-getters.

4. Make action be your first priority

Ideas are great. But action is what makes the difference. Nothing exists without someone taking action. And I mean BIG action. Do it. Get started. Continue to take action. You must, must, must get the ball rolling, keep the ball rolling, and never stop. You are ALIVE and meant to live— to push on, to excel, exceed, and move. You have to put your ideas into action. Start with a single step today, plan for tomorrow’s, and after that… continually move, learn, grow, and change direction—but ACT!

5. Make your next best ally a creative professional

Unless you are one, you need creative talent. And GOOD creative talent—the best. The right logo, colors, fonts, websites, marketing, social media, printed material, and branding guidelines and management LITERALLY is everything. Any one of these parts if not done well will be the difference between success and failure. And like my own personal creative business model—make sure it’s someone you can really trust that puts your best interests first, will work harder for you than anyone else, is fairly and honestly priced, will work quickly, and values the relationship as if life depending on it. Second to that, but equally important is that they are passionately, spiritually, and powerfully experienced and extremely talented. The right creative team will be a caring, committed life-long partner, and will help you create the literal branding pieces you will ever need, make sure you remain consistent, change with the times, and continue to grow—and THRIVE! They will help you make more money, spend less money, affect more people.

6. Do the research—Without “analysis paralysis”

It’s important to see what else is out there. What else is being done, how it’s being done. Getting ideas, making sure there’s a market for it, etc… But don’t get hung up on “over” researching it. You can literally get mentally paralyzed by over examining or overthinking things and then never taking any action. So always be on the research, examination, and look out for what else is going on, but make it efficient—not a hinderance. Learn from it and ACT.

7. Create the what, why, and how

Create what many call a mission statement, elevator pitch, or creative brief. Write down WHAT it is in a very compelling, interesting and descriptive manner, WHY it is what it is or WHY you are doing what you are doing, and then HOW you intend on changing the world or marketplace with it—or HOW you intend on getting it out there (marketing plan). It should only be a paragraph, should be very concise, and VERY interesting and engaging. Run it by people you trust and/or admire and ask them what they think about it. “Test market” it to see how other might respond to it. See of someone might buy it before it even exists. But your mission—your statement—is probably one of the most important parts of the brand! If your what is lame, your why is trash, and your how is boring you can rest assured wasted time, money, and energy.

8. Market it well—and market it often

It’s also important to work with the right creative team to help you market your product, company or service today more than ever. With so many “channels” you have so many advertising, website, social media, event, email and other facets of delivering your message, you need to not only stay on track, be aggressive, and consistent—but know which ones will work specifically for you as well as which ones to avoid. You are now in a future of EXTREME traffic, competing with millions so your messaging needs to be perfect, and your audience reach needs to be crafted perfectly. And if done well, will establish a very solid future and successful outcome. You need to market your self, product, service, or company every day— and often multiple times a day to succeed. And the messaging needs to be perfect—not pointless rambling. So make the right relationship with key creative and marketing teams. They will guide and teach you.

Simple, practical, and inspired creative solutions. Free consulting. Free advice. Free first project for qualifiers. Creative strategies and solutions—made easy.

mitchell creative groupbrandingidentitytodd mitchell

Todd Mitchell