A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers.
Branding actually begins in the 1500s, but major shifts took place in the 19th and 20th centuries. Through decades of experimentation and technological advancements, brands have learned how to break through the clutter and capture the attention of their customers, turning indifferent consumers into brand enthusiasts. In Ancient Norse, a Scandinavian language, the word “brandr” means “to burn.” Originally, a brand was a burning piece of wood and later described as a torch. By the 1500s, it became common to brand cattle in order to show ownership. (1) The century began with the birth of several iconic companies that would eventually become leading brands around the world. Coca-Cola (introduced in 1886), Colgate (1873), Ford Motor Company (1903), Chanel (1909) and LEGO (1932) were all first-of-their-kind pioneers, trend-setters, and brand-builders. (3) 1950s – 1960s: The birth of modern branding. What truly characterized this shift in branding techniques was a move into more emotional advertising. Since the dawn of the digital age in the late 1990s and early 2000s, branding, marketing, and advertising practices differ from historic techniques in many ways. (1)
“Branding is endowing products and services with the power of a brand”
~ (Kotler & Keller, 2015)
A rebrand should always start at the foundational aspects of the brand. Building a Brand Pyramid (both internal and external) is one of the most beneficial steps toward a unified and simplified appraoch to clarifying the process. “Consistency — in both your products and services and your branding — is the most effective way to build brand loyalty. Consistency is typically something misaligned internally at all levels of a company.
Today branding is the process of giving a meaning to specific organization, company, products or services by creating and shaping a brand in consumers’ minds. It is a strategy designed by organizations to help people to quickly identify and experience their brand, and give them a reason to choose their products over the competition’s, by clarifying what this particular brand is and is not. The objective is to attract and retain loyal customers and other stakeholders by delivering a product that is always aligned with what the brand promises. (2) Branding today is a holistic process that is no longer a word or picture mark, but a fully integrated campaign. Branding is the entire brand and includes all consumer touch-points.
Sadly there are times when corporate CEO's, Presidents, CMO's, V.P. of Marketing and other untrained creative types decide without strategic relevance to rebrand their brand due to “brand fatigue.” Typically this means their personal uncorroborated opinion is they don't like the branding anymore. Or worse they design their own logo, reference Nextiva's poorly executed logo.
The Gap decided it needed a brand refresh and launched a new logo that then North American President Marka Hansen said honored the “heritage through the blue box while still taking it forward.” Consumer reaction was immediate and overwhelmingly negative, inspiring a Facebook onslaught of mass proportions and international media coverage panning the whole idea, forcing the company to reverse course within a week. (5) Within just 24 hours, one online blog had generated 2,000 negative comments, a protesting Twitter account (@GapLogo) gathered 5,000 followers, and a “Make your own Gap logo” site went viral, collating almost 14,000 parody logo redesigns. What can be learned from the rebrand debacle? Strategy, strategy, strategy. Making drastic changes to well known and loved iconography must be done in line with a wider branding and business strategy. GAP's knee jerk refresh was not only inauthentic, but unneccessary.
“A brand is the promise a company makes to its customers and potential customers.”Let's step back and simplify things. A brand is the promise a company makes to its customers and potential customers. That statement is it's point-of-difference from it's competition and it's pact with it's customer base. Customer experience is how you keep that promise. A new or existing customers brand perception is the culmative experience of touch-points or interactions with the company. Consistency is the secret.
If you're a company looking to target a new audience or create a marketing campaign, contact Kevin Amter. His nationally awarded rebrand for T-Mobile and dozens of other Fortune 500 brands will strategically move your company in a winning direction.
SOURCE LINKS:
(1) A Brief History of Branding(2) What Is Branding?
(3) Bad branding: 16 critical branding mistakes and how to avoid them
(4) The 25 most spectacular branding fails of the last 25 years
(5) Learning from the Gap Logo Redesign Fail