Brand is company DNA

Any business owner or executive will tell you that marketing is important, but many overlook the power of a strong brand. Because it is difficult to quantify and place an ROI on branding efforts, executives often focus solely on marketing activities, with the hopes of driving short-term measurable returns. And when organizations do invest in branding, it is often around design-driven, creative endeavors that an external ad agency they hire devises.

While important, these creative efforts are merely symbols of your brand and only touch the surface of what branding really is.

Instead, remember that your brand is your company DNA and “raison d’etre.” It is built from the belly of your organization and encompasses your values, your culture, your mission and your core principles. It is expressed every day in ways as simple as your company colors and as complex as the treatment of your employees, customers and partners. A good brand is built daily over many years and requires both strategic thought, genuine passion and consistent, exceptional implementation.

The organizations I’ve spoken with over the years that do focus on brand building usually go about it the wrong way, by relying on outside ad agencies to create their external-facing brand. While a beautiful website and a sleek brochure are important, they are only symbols of your brand and they will only get you so far. And oftentimes so much time and money is spent on these creative endeavors that very little money remains to actually market the organization to drive new business.

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Even more important is that business owners are going about the branding process all wrong. Too often companies start and end with public expressions of the brand, such as the look, the logo, the website or the tagline. In doing so, these organizations neglect the fact that a truly powerful brand is built by the daily actions of all of your employees and the interactions they have with your prospects, customers and partners.

Marketing, on the other hand, is how you communicate your brand to the world in a concerted effort to grow. It is the campaigns, tools, tactics and channels used to make sure that prospects and customers can see, understand and value your brand. Ranging from paid media to email campaigns to SEO, it is what consumers see in the market and how they learn about you.

Marketing becomes much easier if what is actually being marketed is unique, genuine and differentiated in the marketplace. On the other hand, marketing is next to impossible if your brand is average. As marketing guru Seth Godin espouses, average does not get spoken about nor shared. Nothing viral ever happened to an average brand. So in today’s world of paid/owned/earned media, the power of your brand becomes more and more important the more earned media rises in influence.

Together, powerful marketing and branding can make a company the envy of an industry.

Since the crux of your brand building happens inside your walls, you need to make sure that everyone in your organization is educated to the difference between marketing and branding.

Once everyone understands their unique role as brand ambassadors, your marketing will become much more profitable. Your marketing team will be thankful that they will have something truly special to reach out to the marketplace about. Your sales team will also be thrilled to be able to sell an offering that is truly different in the marketplace. •

Chris Ciunci is founder and managing partner of TribalVision, which has offices in Warwick, Boston and New York.

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