What it Means to Brand
This article was contributed by Levina Kusumadjaja
You know that feeling of going on a date where from the moment you meet, you feel incredibly valued by your date. It seems like all the things you shared to them during the week, they listened and took notes; what you liked, what you disliked, what you have been wanting to do for the weekend. You can tell that every part was intentional. And at the end of the night, you don't want it to ever be over and you can't wait to go for another date.
The most epic date ever.
If you want to plan the most epic date ever, you don't focus on what you want to do. You focus on what your partner wants to do. You ask the question: “What would my partner want to experience?” You try to get to know the person as best as you can to understand where your partner is coming from.
The same principle applies to branding. Branding isn’t focused on what we want to communicate, but it is focused on the customers. A powerful branding understands what their customers need and want to feel from the brand. It places the customer at the center of the brand's universe and aims to make their lives better. It doesn’t force its own views, but listens first.
Branding by nature is empathetic.
The illustration of an epic date is a great way to describe a customer falling in love with a brand as the result of a good branding. Because a brand is a customer's gut feeling about the brand (as described by Marty Neumeier), helping customers have a good experience with the brand is a crucial and fundamental part of branding. If you help someone have a good experience, that will be in their emotional memory. This will give customers a reason to come back for another “date” with the brand.
But branding doesn't stop there. Branding isn’t just about creating one epic experience but it's the intentional effort to consistently communicate about the brand to the customers. Branding or building a brand isn't a one-time-thing, rather it’s a journey marked with many touch points and experiences over a certain period of time. The goal is to have customers commit to a long-term relationship with the brand. Some brands have such good branding that customers actually "marry" the brand—choosing to be “forever” loyal to the brand.
Branding goes beyond just one “epic date,” because it needs to be one epic relationship.
Remember: branding is the process of matchmaking a brand with a customer (Yo Santosa described branding this way). Branding is the process of building this relationship from simply getting the customer's attention, to eventually committing to the brand. And to do this well, it has to start by listening to the customer to create experiences and connect with the customer, over and over again.
Maya Angelou once said: “At the end of the day people won't remember what you said or did, they will remember how you made them feel.” It's the same for branding. Customers might not remember all the products and all the store locations in their city; but they will remember how they felt the moment they opened a product from that brand. They will remember the impression they got from their first visit to the brand's physical store. Those emotions will stick. The way a date can leave an impression that lasts a lifetime, is the same way that a brand can leave such a positive feeling for the customer that they would want to remain loyal to the brand for a very long time. And this my friend, is what it means to brand.
Cheers!
Levina
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About the author:
Levina is a writer based in Indonesia. Because of Melinda Livsey, she recognized the power of brand strategy for every creative. She is sharing about her learnings as she goes to help creatives have fun in their growth and journey of building brands. Connect with her on LinkedIn and say hi!