The “not only” and “is also” of brand

There are plenty of things that brand is not (only). Pity is that the not (only) things are the ones that take up the lions share of time, energy, thinking and budgets spent around brand.

Brand is not (only) a name, a logo, a colour, a typeface, a collection of pixels on a screen, an arrangement of elements on a page, a series or words, a single product or service. Just to list a few.

So to balance the picture, here are some “brand is also” things that you might want to redistribute some time in your business to. Brand is also:

• Where people buy your product or service – online, in a store, via a distributor.
• What your customers experience when they buy from you, not the product or service but the rest of the things that wrap around them.
• Who your employees are and how you hire them.
• What your employees think about how things are being done.
• What your contracts, terms and conditions and policies say.
• What you do when things go wrong.
• What you do when things go right.
• How you bring in new products and phase out old ones, especially if they are products people are going to keep using for a long time.
• How you make customers feel with they have a question, complaint or problem.
• How far you are willing to go to make good a promise – even one made in error.

And that’s just to get you started.

Brands rarely fail due to things on the “not only” list. However, plenty have failed due to things on the “brand is also” list. Brands are built one decision and action at a time, so the “brand is also” list will be pretty long, but it is well worth making one for your business. Hop to it!

See you next week.

Michel Hogan is an independent Brand adviser and advocate. Through her work with Brandology here in Australia and in the United States, she helps organisations make promises they can keep and keep the promises they make, with a strong sustainable brand as the result. She also publishes the Brand thought leadership blog – Brand Alignment. You can follow Michel on Twitter @michelhogan