Is your Brand Bland?

By admin • February 14th, 2009

I was talking with a colleague the other day about business and one of my favorite subjects came up during our conversation. Branding.

Branding Blahs

We chit-chatted about some of the brand basics like the logo design and company colors and he told me that he thought his brand was well created and memorable. I looked at his logo and sure enough, it was legible and somewhat easy to remember. The company name was ok (his company name is his last name) and the colors were bright and bold. But it had a few serious defects. The brand had no “life” in it. No expectation. No character. No promise. No differentiation.{++}

Promise / Expectation / Differentiation

Every successful brand does several things very well. More importantly than being memorable it has to trigger within the prospect or customer a sense of something-ness. (you won’t find that word in your dictionary so don’t bother!) If the brand can trigger some emotional response, half of the battle is licked. Regardless the brand must convey a message to the target what is called a Brand Promise. A Brand Promise tells the story of the company, or at least triggers ones imagination to the possibilities of the expectations of the company. It preaches what the prospect should expect from it. In my friend’s case, his company name (which was also his last name) was not enough to give a solid expectation. In fact, it gave absolutely no expectation.

The Challenge

When creating or tuning up your brand ask yourself the following questions. Does my brand:

Stand apart from my competitors?
Tell the prospect what to expect?
Clearly state what my company does as a profession?
Provide a unique and specific promise that is important to the prospect within the name, slogan, or Unique Selling Proposition?

If you can answer “Yes” to the above – congrats! You’re far and away ahead of the pack. If you want to truly create what my friend and author Frank Lane calls a “Killer Brand”, it must also accomplish the following:

Keep the promise of the expectation every time the prospect uses your products or services
Make the brand memorable

Recommended Reading

One of the best books on branding I’ve ever read is called “Killer Brands” by Frank Lane. It provides plenty of case history of the development of many brands and more importantly, how to make your brand Killer also!

Scott
Big Banana
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