Over the last century, much ink has been spilled defining what a brand is. From a mark that denotes ownership of livestock to graphic elements that distinguish one line of products from another to intangible emotional association with a company, the definition of a brand has evolved to encompass all attributes that make up a commercial (or non-commercial) entity’s essence of being.
In understanding the brand concept, perhaps it is best to employ the old adage, “the whole is more than the sum of its parts.” The system that emerges out of a collection of unified brand elements has properties beyond the aggregate characteristics of individual components, just like how the words in this body of text, when arranged as such, convey concepts beyond the meaning each word holds individually.
The components that build a brand can be defined clearly, which is what we intend to do in this article, but the brand itself has an intangible quality that needs to be perceived and felt.
Brand Identity and the Senses
Our conception of the external world and our experience in it is mediated through our innate bodily senses, and appealing to these senses constitutes a big part of the branding process. Companies leverage branding in visual, auditory, and even tactile, olfactory, and gustatory forms to communicate values, achieve differentiation, and connect emotionally with customers, cultivating a certain perception in their minds.
Brand identity, therefore, is defined as anything and everything associated with an organization that can be sensed. Since we are visual creatures, visual identity plays a central role in influencing the audience’s perceptions. However, brand identity is not limited to visual identifiers such as brandmarks, color palettes, typography, graphics, and illustrations. It includes other sensory elements such as sounds, smells, and textures.
Brand identity assets are vessels developed to hold and disseminate meaning. Without a unifying idea as their backbone, they are conducive to nothing but genericism and confusion.
Brand Values and Attributes
Each brand has a business function without which it cannot survive. But the differentiating factor is the broader contribution of a brand to its audience and the wider world; that is what gives meaning to the work of the business.
Brand values are the core principles that a company believes in and stands for. Their primary purpose is to serve as an internal compass that guides the brand in its decision-making. Brand attributes, on the other hand, are raw emotional and psychological associations that a customer aligns with a brand. These attributes provide ease of understanding and help customers identify with a certain brand in an ocean of alternatives.
Although these brand elements are considered internal variables, they are manifested externally in every aspect of a brand’s actions and behaviors, especially if they are consistently adhered to. Some companies even take a step further and personify their values and attributes into characters and mascots. With distinctive appearances and personalities, these characters are the stars of advertising campaigns, searing certain images into consumers’ minds. Character trademarks such as Geico’s Gecko and the Burger King mascot are perfect examples of such brand personifications.
Brand Messaging and Communication
In practical terms, brand messaging is comprised of every piece of communication that a brand sends out into the marketplace across all touchpoints. It is built upon a collection of key messages that all come together to shape the idea that a brand aims to instill in the mind of the audience. Brand messaging has its roots in the brand core message, which is a distillation of what a brand seeks to communicate to its audience, which, in turn, is shaped and formed by the brand’s values and principles. However, brand messaging allows companies to avoid repetition by providing a framework through which verbal expressions can be crafted.
Tone of Voice
If brand messaging dictates what should be said, tone of voice determines how it should be said. It is about communicating and delivering the message in a consistent way through the right words, cadence, rhythm, volume, enunciation, etc.
The tone of voice, for example, determines whether a brand is loud and enthusiastic in its communications or quiet and reserved, whether it uses industry jargon with long, ornate sentences or easy-to-understand plain English. The tone of voice in branding is akin to a stylebook in journalism. It provides a set of guidelines on the use of language to encourage coherence in communications so that they are always in line with the brand’s attributes and objectives.
Brand Positioning
Positioning is defined as how a brand distinguishes itself to its audience from its competitors. It underscores why a brand differs from its competitors and why the audience should care. To achieve that, a company uses all of the brand elements discussed above to position itself relative to the other brands that already occupy space in the consumers’ minds. Rarely is it the case that a business has to create a new market. Rather, companies usually have to make their products or services more visible to their would-be consumers in an overcrowded marketplace. Positioning is a tool that allows brands to achieve the necessary distinction for market penetration.
