BRANDING
There’s a lot of confusion about what branding is.
Big thank you to Jon Harper Photography, who, following my workshop on branding last month, lent me his trusty copy of Professional PHOTO with Kate Hopewell-Smith’s article on branding. I’m relieved to report that it totally reinforced my view that it pays to invest in branding your business properly.
So, inspired by Kate’s article, let me demystify what branding is about, so that you can decide if you’re more Waitrose or more Aldi when you buy professional services like design.
To do this, I will cover three things:
- branding is more than just the logo
- invest at the outset
- specific versus generic approaches
WHY BRANDING IS MORE THAN A LOGO
A brand is the emotional connection you feel when you experience its product or service. People buy through their emotions first, then rationalise their buying decision afterwards with facts. A logo can’t do this on its own. A logo at best, is a simple insignia (symbol) that acts as a trigger to a memory, or to a feeling relating to the experience—good or bad—of that brand.
Another way to look at this is to imagine seeing an unknown-to-you logo—professional looking as it might be—next to logos representing brands you have actually experienced before. Which would you have an opinion about? Which would stand out and be remarked upon by you—good Or bad? You’d probably overlook the logos that meant nothing to you yet.
Branding is about forming memories of experiences of interactions you’ve had. It isn’t just about the quality of the output, but about who you’re engaging with, and why.
INVEST AT THE OUTSET
Interestingly, Kate Hopewell-Smith talks about standing out from the crowd, and how she achieved this by investing early in her own branding as a photographer with particular values—being reassuring, transparent and clear. And all this at a time when all her peers starting up their businesses, were investing in the latest high tech equipment.
Going against the grain, being different and spending time to dig deep into what she was about, helped Kate to develop a lasting brand identity that she still uses to this day. She explains that this also makes it easy to stay ‘on brand’ with every interaction with her customers, and resist temptations to confuse prospective customers by constantly tweaking her brand identity.
The litmus test is that when you’ve only engaged with a brand online and subsequently book an appointment, they turn out to be ‘just as expected’. A well-conceived brand will win more clients and sales, than the latest equipment.
SPECIFIC OR GENERIC?
By specific approach, I am talking about personalised businesses with heart. Ones with brand values that mean you know whom you’re dealing with. Often these are ‘name’ brands, like: Kate Hopewell-Smith or Jon Harper Photography, where you’re consistently dealing with the main person the business. The brand is easy to manage, and easy to connect with, through the one contact point.
Generic businesses are the Aldis of this world, these are larger outfits with particular associations with their brand names, say Sunshine Design, making them more difficult to brand well emotionally, so may appear clinical and cold to the consumer.
WHAT’S BEST THOUGH?
Both have their advantages and limitations. For specific you may have to pay a premium, or wait in line before you get an appointment, but you know exactly whom you are dealing with. That’s Waitrose: reliably Waitrosey.
For generic you may anyone from a number of people within the team. Your primary senior designer may have been moved over to the latest project, while the office junior takes over completing your project—and you may not even know that that’s happened until you touch base about something completely different. That’s the Aldi experience, efficient, streamlined, quick, though you may find your regular favourites replaced by new stock.
I hope this has helped to demystify branding, so that you can decide if you’re more Waitrose or more Aldi when you choose your supplier.
How do you connect with brands? Have your experiences shaped they way you buy into new brands?
