It’s easy to think of a brand as your business color palette and logo—but it’s much more. Your brand is what sets you apart from your competitors, attracts customers to your business, and allows you to create profit. So, what is branding and why does it matter?
Brand Identity is Only The Beginning
No doubt, your brand identity is important. Your brand identity is made up of your logo, color palette, iconography, typography, etc. First impressions are massively important for your business and putting your best foot forward will give your business more mileage than you can imagine. Customers need a face for your business. They need to understand a mental model of what they are about to discover and interact with.
Minimal design, serif typography, and a subdued color palette can instantly communicate an air of sophistication and luxury for your brand. Bright colors, rounded san-serif typography, and cartoonish illustrations can communicate energy and approachability for your brand. When defining a brand identity the most important question to ask is “What message or environment am I trying to convey?” If your business and brand identity are communicating different messages, people will recognize that and will be repelled by the inconsistency.
Your Brand is More Than Your Identity
With that said, your brand is more than your identity. The identity is the first impression and a building block of your brand, but the brand as a whole is about the entire experience you provide. Starbucks has a dialed-in brand identity that permeates each and every location throughout the world. You’ll picture the Starbucks shade of green, the mermaid, and modern–yet cozy–cafes.
That’s the easy part. If the identity is all that matters, why is that I will drive a bit further to my favorite Starbucks? And, why do I avoid at all costs the Starbucks cafe near my home? The experience.
In the first cafe, they are friendly, yet efficient. My order is always correct and the staff effortlessly provide a positive experience. At the other cafe, the staff appears weighed down by some invisible in-store drama. I feel like ordering is placing a massive burden on them and I am interrupting their day. And, somehow the coffee just tastes better at my preferred cafe.
Your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room.
Jeff Bezos
Brand is the Full Experience
At Limetree Labs, we are sweating the details. We are assessing each and every customer interaction to understand how we can create a great experience. Our brand touch points span from your conversation with a Service Desk agent to how smoothly your new staff member’s first day goes.
IT and, technology in general, can be the source of great frustration if you’re not working with the right partner. I’ve never worked in an industry that incites such passionate emotions from customers about their previous IT company. Everything from pure hatred to a fear of being taken advantage of once again.
I can bet these emotions aren’t due to these companies’ brand identity––it’s all about a poor experience. Mismanagement of purchased hardware, going for days with no response to an issue, the list goes on. Technology can be stressful to deal with and the last thing you want is to have a strained relationship with your IT provider.
Evaluate Your Own Brand Touchpoints
In your own company, what experience are you providing to your customers? Brand touchpoints include anything from an interaction with your receptionist to a conversation with your billing department. How are you solving your customer’s problems/wants/needs? Are you making it easy for customers to interact with your brand? In what way are you creating delight for your customer in as many interactions as possible?
Your brand will allow you to survive the long haul and win against your competitors. It’s the mental model your current and future customers have of you. In short—your brand is your business.
