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Identity, as a logo, is a foundational component of a 'brand' but it is often misunderstood as being 'the brand'.
A strong visual identity is a good-start on the road to building a brand, but unless the visual identity is reinforced with a fully-realised brand that permeates the entire company, when the market comes to engage with your business, there is the risk that their expectation of your brand and their actual experience of the brand will differ dramatically.
Brand is the composite totality of all interactions between the market and your company; each and every time your company interacts with the market, a brand-experience is created. It is a continuous process and to be successful it must not only be a positive experience, it must be a consistent experience.
From a visual design perspective type-faces, colour palettes, image styling and contextual language are all components of brand design, they effectively form the collateral component. Effective brand design has to involve and extend throughout the entirety of a company, from the manner in which Customer Service answers a telephone, to the definition of a product set and the expression of company policies or values to market.
Brand is particularly important to businesses experiencing rapid growth or those opening new branches in new territories. Once a company begins to grow, the personality of the CEO or Senior Sales Staff that drove the business cease to become as readily accessible to market as it once was. Therefore, the role of engagement and experience has to be transferred to the brand, and the brand values have to be encapsulated in process.
All companies have a vision statement, these are often platitudes produced to create a 'feel good impression' with a prospective client or customer. 'Vision & Value Statements' need to be translated into process in order to have purpose; by translating them into process they then perform an active role in the company. A 'proposition' is then able to deliver tangible value for the company and the customer.
A strong brand also creates a strong-identity within the company itself, reinforcing the corporate culture which creates greater employee retention, and a strong well-designed corporate culture is more capable of innovation. In situations, where employees need to be replaced if they have moved on, a clear and defined brand makes it easier for new employees to adopt the personality of the company and perform their role in the market.
Brand can therefore be distilled into: identity, collateral and process. Without each of these components being fully realised and operating as functional tools in the day-to-day operation of the company, the brand will not be performing at its optimal level, and if the brand is not performing then neither is the bottom line.
Scott Richards is a media consultant and has worked with some of the world's largest brands developing their digital identities, media strategies and marketing collateral.
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