What is a Brand and How to Define Yours (Before Someone Does It for You).
On the HBO show Years and Years, a character loses $1 million quid overnight. A “quid” is an English pound (full transparency here, I had to Google that).
The man had been a successful banker.
But that didn’t matter.
He became known as “The man who lost a million quid.”
What Is a Brand?
To understand what a brand is, a good place to start is by defining what a brand is not.
A brand is not:
Your logo. This is your visual signature.
Your mission statement. This is your guide.
Your advertising. This delivers your message
There are plenty of definitions for what a brand is, but I like the way Denise Lee Yohn puts it, “A brand is what you do and how you do it.”
In other words, it doesn’t matter what you say.
It matters what you do.
A brand is a verb.
The Importance of Living Your Brand
For decades, United Airlines’ tag line was, “Fly the friendly skies.”
This positioning became a joke, an expensive joke, after the airline forcibly removed Dr. David Dao from a flight.
Following the incident, the company’s market value dropped by $1 billion.
If United truly lived its brand, removing the passenger would never have been a consideration.
It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.
How to Live Your Brand
Living your brand requires just three steps.
1. Define your brand.
A good branding agency (or Copy Rocket) can help you do that.
2. Make sure your brand defines your why.
Why does your brand exist?
If your brand doesn’t stand for something bigger than itself, no one will care – internally or externally.
For example, Patagonia’s purpose is to “Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.”
A brand purpose like this is livable.
Internally, employees know they need to build the best products. Externally, this purpose can drive advertising and marketing. The company famously ran an ad that read, “Don’t Buy This Jacket.”
This message aligned perfectly with its purpose to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.
Side note: Being true to your brand is good for business. Patagonia’s sales increased after running an ad telling consumers not to buy their product.
3. Keep it simple.
Every great brand has, at its core, an essence.
Disney is magic.
Volvo is safety.
Coca-Cola is happiness.
This simple definition drives every action a brand takes
It’s the foundation and north star of your business.
By keeping your brand essence simple, everyone in the company can memorize it, understand it – and, ultimately, live it.
This is good for your culture. And your bottom line.
Just ask United. If everyone lived the “friendly” brand definition, the company would have a billion more dollars.
Ready to define your brand? Contact Copy Rocket today.
Photo by Thiago Cardoso on Unsplash