Strategic brands have special powers
I had a past client call me requesting copies of the documentation we had put together some 7+ years ago when we were helping develop their brand. I went into our archives to find two documents. The first detailed all the research, insights, and strategy that helped with the process of creating a name for the brand. The second detailed the same work and thinking for creating the logo.
I took some time to read through the documents and found myself feeling proud of the work and how it laid the foundation for a successful brand. But more than that, it reminded me of the value of doing the thinking and the strategy work.
I’ve often complained that too many organizations skip the strategy work. I had one client brag that he only paid a few hundred bucks for his new company’s logo by going through one of the online logo contest sites.
Who needs all that strategy nonsense when you can just skip to the part where some ‘designer’ cranks out a logo for you, right?
Fast forward 6 months to when that same client is asking for my guidance on how to fix problems that that $300 logo was causing. As well as that logo’s inability to represent everything the company did.
Once you commit to a new brand, it becomes exponentially more difficult (and expensive) to backfill the strategy that ensures the brand can serve the needs of the organization. Not to mention amplify what the organization stands for.
When you get to this point, that bargain logo doesn’t look like such a bargain.
Enough of the cautionary tale.
As I was going through those old brand documents, I realized that smart brand strategy can help you in other ways (beyond avoiding expensive problems). Here are a few examples.
Assessing your efforts. It’s a good idea to revisit your documented brand strategy every once in a while. This is especially true if you ever feel like the performance of the organization has become lackluster. Revisiting these documents can help you determine if the brand has drifted from its original strategic intentions. This can happen over time. Returning to the strategy can help you reset, adjusting how the brand is portrayed and communicated. This can be especially useful when there is a brand leadership change. Returning to the strategy can help the new leadership remind team members what the brand stands for. And rally everyone around efforts going forward.
Guiding decisions. Inevitably there will be tough decisions that leadership needs to make along the way. For example, there was disagreement within one organization that I worked with concerning the causes that the brand should support. By returning to the strategy work, the organization was able to make a decision – clarifying the type of cause that fit the mission of the brand. Your brand’s strategy documentation can be that touchstone for decision-making.
Creating a brand extension. As an organization grows, it may identify opportunities to develop brand extensions or new sub-brands underneath the original brand. The brand’s strategy documentation can help the organization determine if the extension makes sense. It may seem kind of ridiculous but I’ve seen leaders have ‘idea ownership blindness’ where they push through their new brand extensions without asking the hard questions about the fit of the new sub-brand with the original brand. A bad fit can result in disappointing performance or even damage to the reputation of the original brand. Beyond determining appropriateness, the brand strategy documents can also help guide the formation of the brand extension. And it can keep everyone on the same page, helping speed the success of the introduction.
If you have ownership of a brand, demand the strategic work from the people you engage to help establish or refresh your brand. If you're creative, don’t be pushed into doing the brand work before building a solid strategic foundation. It will help create a brand that has special powers. A brand that means something to those you hope to serve. And can serve the organization well.