Month: June 2021

The words logo and brand are often used interchangeably, so it’s no surprise there is a lot of confusion around the subject. But your logo is just one piece in the whole picture of your brand. Your brand exists in every aspect of your business from customer service to packaging to marketing to websites and it all needs to be in alignment to create an effective brand presence.

Don’t get me wrong your logo is still an important branding element, but think of it more as a visual shortcut to your whole brand rather than the brand itself. When you see the Apple logo for instance, sure it’s a memorable icon but what it’s really doing is acting as a visual trigger in your mind for all the qualities and emotions that you associate with the Apple brand; the sleekly designed iPhones and iMacs, the rebellious ‘Think Differently’ attitude, the beautiful advertising imagery. It’s not possible to put all this into one logo and indeed it’s not desirable as the best logos are usually the simplest ones.

So when you are next looking to create an new brand or rebrand an existing one first take a step back and consider the whole picture that you are looking to create before creating the individual pieces of that picture.

Establishing a clear position in the mind of your audience is key to a successful brand. Your position clarifies what you do differently, better than others and more importantly why they should choose you instead of your competition.

There are many different approaches you can take to establish your brand position, such as price based, disruption based, convenience based, quality based to name a few. But whatever position you identify as the key to your brand it will form the basis for all your communication going forward.

Two real life examples of positioning would be Tesla who position themselves as luxury brand not focusing on price and Airbnb who position themselves as an authentic experience, offering total immersion in the local way of life.

When it comes to you own positioning don’t think you need to necessarily come up with some revolutionary new idea like Airbnb, you just need to identify the one thing that you do better than your competition: are you faster; more efficient; better designed; more convenient? And make that the thread that runs through all your branding communication.

So when you next think about your brand make sure you have the right position in mind.

Marketing used to be all about pushing offers to your audience, 50% off this, 30 Day free trial of that, but people are more savvy these days, they quickly scroll past these sort of ads, what audiences want now is value through engaging content.

Content that will genuinely help them solve problems and issues in their lives. If you consistently put out content that gives this value you will build a relationship with your audience and they will come to trust you as an authority, someone to turn to when they need help. Customers are much more likely to buy from people and businesses they trust.

Pull strategies generally take a longer investment time but they result in longer-term customers and sustained growth. So the next time you consider your marketing strategy remember its not just opposites that attract.