It still makes me smile when I think back to a certain Head of Marketing I used to work with.
He had created all of our presentation templates and provided us with a .gif version of our company logo for when we wanted to include it in a word document or a spreadsheet. When he happened to see a file I had created where the company logo was stretched wide or tall, he wasn’t happy. When I altered the template colour combination, he wasn’t happy. “I am the Brand Police”, he would say. It was his job to protect our company brand and make sure it was used correctly.
I used to think he was a pain in the butt...not anymore. Because indirectly, I’ve become the Brand Police for any organization I’m involved with, even as a Board member for non-profit organizations I help out with.
Where did this newfound appreciation for branding come from? Over the past several years I’ve been involved with a CPG company (consumer packaged goods) that is essentially a branding play. We are offering quality food products formulated extensively with natural ingredients and we are targeting those products towards people with genuine health and wellness needs. We are connecting with our target audience with a story of how these products can address these specific needs a consumer may have, as it relates to their health and wellness. We are *building a brand* around the company, the products and how these products genuinely help people.
During the journey with this CPG company I’ve come to realize that it is difficult to establish a brand. It takes time and repeated effort to make a connection with your target audience. In our case we have to connect with end consumers who will ultimately enjoy our products. However, we are a wholesaler and don’t currently sell direct to the consumer. That means we need to also connect with retailers, who are our paying clients.
Marketing campaigns have to connect with our target consumers, help draw them into stores carrying our products, and have the consumer ask for our products by name. That happens through the story-telling mentioned above and through brand recognition. Seeing our name, logo and colours somewhere. So when they go into a store, they recognize what our products look like. In this effort the logo, colours and messages have to remain consistent in each connection to the consumer, to establish a recollection or memory of our brand and products.
Our marketing campaigns also target our paying clients, the retail stores. Again the virtues of the product and why it’ll be of interest to the retailer’s walk-in or online customers is part of the story we share with them. Similar to the end consumer story, but not exactly. What does stay the same is the logo, our colours and our slogans. Why? Because here too the store managers and buyers have to recognize us and remember our brand story...we need to establish a connection with them; we need to build up trust in our brand with them as well.
Brands are built in part by making a meaningful connection with the target audience - consumers, paying clients and users of the product or service. That connection has to be reinforced with repeated *and consistent* messages. Most importantly the product experience has to back up the claims being made in the product story and company story. If that product experience doesn’t support the story that got the consumer interested, then trust is not established. If there is no trust from the user or client, there is no brand.
Consumers and clients make visual connections with brands they are interested in and that they follow. This makes company colours, slogans, and the logo extremely important. The visual associations start right from childhood; foods you consumed as a kid, with clothing brands you wore in your youth. If you’re into sports then athletic equipment brands and sport team logos are all things you’ve come to recognize. You expect all these logo brands to remain consistent each time you see them. Sometimes it’ll only be in passing for a nano-second, but you’ll recognize that logo or colour combination when you see it. Or if you only catch a portion of the logo or colours, your memory will always associate it with a brand you know and possibly like.
Think of some of the most iconic brands in the world today: Apple, Nike, Samsung, Sony, Starbucks, Toyota, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Rolex, BMW The logos have remained the same for as long as you can remember. So have their corporate colours, for the most part.
You don’t hear of consumer brands changing logos or colours too often. Why is that?
Consumers and users are inundated with sensory input now. Especially in the last 15 years with the prominence of various social media platforms. We are bombarded with noise. Social media messages; messages from traditional media (radio, TV, newspapers and magazines); messages and recommendations from trusted friends and family. So, with all this noise once a brand has established a connection with its target audience and built up trust, it doesn’t want to lose that connection or cause any confusion. Brand images and messaging needs to be repeated to maintain connections, just as it needs to be repeated to establish that connection in the first place.
You’ll also note that established major brands, iconic brands, are simple. An image and a word or two at most. Any related slogans are also simple and easy to remember. Why? For the same reasons; it takes time to make the connection and it’s easy to get lost in the noise. The KISS principle works best here.
Logos that can pass the 300 foot test are also best. If you can recognize a logo and any words associated with the logo from 300 feet, that’s a sign of a good logo..pun intended. Logos often appear on street signs, billboards and on rooftops. They may only be seen by your target audience for a fleeting moment while driving by in a car or riding a bus. The logo gets the exposure during the short moment, but the recognition or connection still has to occur.
These are the reasons why marketing people are entrusted with protecting the company brand. They are the “Brand Police”. They’ve played an important role in building the brand. They don’t want those hard-to-establish connections lost.
Thank you for investing time in reading this post. Questions and comments are always welcome.
Shail Paliwal
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