A brand used to be an identifier, over the past seventy years it’s become so much more.
Seth’s 2009 definition says it best.

“A brand is the set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another.”

We can agree then that a brand is the meaning the customer attaches to a product or service from what she perceives. If PRODUCT + MEANING = BRAND, what creates the meaning?

5 Building blocks of a brand

1. What you (the founders and business owners) believe.
Your values, mission and vision.

2. Your voice—what you say and how you say it.
The words and tone you use to communicate your message.

3. What you do.
How you act.

4. How you make people feel.
Sometimes called user experience.

5. What you look like.
Logo, design choices, colours, seating, paper stock and on and on.

Branding is about how you facilitate the creation of meaning for your customers. The people you want to matter to need to be able to do more than recognise your brand, they need to know what it feels like to belong to it.

Image by Nina Jean.