Archive for April, 2010
What is a brand?
Neil Shewan | 22.04.2010
A brand is the positioning of a service, product, individual or place in person’s mind.
A brand can provide a range of benefits – including emotional, functional, physical, experiential and self-expressive.
There are three parts to a brand: The brand promise (what we promise to customers through visuals, words and action), the brand experience (the sum total of all the interactions a customer has with us), and the resultant brand perception (how the customer differentiates and positions the brand in their mind).
The meaning of “brand” has evolved over time to become broader and more holistic in approach. A brand is an organisation-wide responsibility – including communications, marketing, sales, operations, production, finance, human resources and administration.
We can control the brand promise and many parts of the brand experience. The measure of success, however, is always in the hands of the customer and the brand perceptions they develop over time.
High performing brands rely on differentiation from their competitors. They must be remarkable in order to be noticed and sustain the continued loyalty of their customers. Consumers have also become savvy in the way they measure, rate and compare brands.
To be remarkable brands must be authentic, confident, aligned, involving, memorable, creative, human, relevant, evolving and responsible.
A brand is not communicated – it is experienced. A remarkable brand is not bought, it is earned.
Categories | Tank
Faith in branding
Richard Foster | 11.04.2010
During my Easter holidays, it seemed timely that I came across a church that stopped me in my tracks and got me thinking about the importance and impact branding can have.
Whether you have a faith or not, there’s no denying that the branding for One Community Church, a Church of Christ located in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, is extremely thought-provoking. Not because of its religious doctrine, but for its non-religious approach to engage with the community.
Having first noticed the church because of its highly visual brand and architecture, I was motivated to dig deeper to see what motivated the branding and how it was translated across other platforms.
Reading about its background and underlying motivation, the key brand idea was to reconnect the church to current generational change. Words such as “inviting”, “friendly”, “intriguing”, “familiar” are frequently used to describe the church.
It’s one thing to articulate these values, it’s another to have the courage to follow through with your convictions.
Through the name; strong brandmark and supporting visual language; brand extensions to a cafe and function space; and engaging tone of voice and design treatment via website, signage and posters; One Community Church have created a powerful and inclusive brand that strives to redefine the traditional view of the church.
On first impression, they appear to have gone a long way to achieving this aim.
Tags | http://www.one.org.au/
Categories | Tank