The word “brand” gets tossed around as though everyone knows what it is. And in one sense, people do. Chevrolet, Panasonic and Netflix are brands. What brand of toothpaste do you like?
That’s fine if you are a consumer. If you are selling things, it deserves a deeper dive.
A brand is usually defined as a name, symbol or other identifier of a product or service. Well, that’s part of it.
A BRAND IS WHAT BUYERS OR POTENTIAL BUYERS THINK OF A COMPANY, PRODUCT OR SERVICE. SECONDARILY, IT IS ANY OF THE SYMBOLS BY WHICH THAT BRAND CAN BE RECOGNIZED.
What does McDonald’s represent to people? Tasty, inexpensive hamburgers and fries you can trust to be the same anywhere in the world.
Well almost. They put more ketchup on the burgers in Sweden. But to get serious, when I was 9 years old and walked up the block from home to one of the first McDonald’s in Chicago, they already had the golden arches. I didn’t know what they meant. I just saw the sign that said “Over 1 million hamburgers sold” and since I happened to have 15 cents, I bought one.
The point I’m making is to distinguish between the BRAND which is a concept, and what represents that concept. When the name Google was first coined in 1997, it didn’t mean anything to anybody. Over the years it has come to mean a lot of things. Most importantly it has come to mean services you can rely on for honest and usually accurate information.
Every business person naming their company or product or service has grandiose ideas of what it means or should mean. When they are starting out, that concept exists only in their head and maybe that of a few friends and associates.
IT IS UP TO THE MARKETER TO PLACE IN PEOPLE’S MINDS THE MEANING THEY WANT VARIOUS SYMBOLS TO HAVE.
Those symbols can be all sorts of things. A name, a marque, a logo, a design. UPS’s brand includes a brown color and people world over recognize that shade of brown on a truck as a symbol of a very large, dependable delivery service. Harley-Davidson tried to Trademark the Harley sound but were turned down by the US Trademark and Patent Office on a technicality. Personally I think that’s an injustice. Is there anything more iconic than the sound of a big Harley idling at a stoplight?
But what does all this have to do with the average small business owner. The truth is, probably not much. The biggest thing in my opinion is that business owners should concentrate the bulk of their branding efforts on the concept. Think of it as reputation. If you have a reputation for great service, or the lowest prices, or products that last twice as long as the competition, then you’ve got a brand. Until you achieve that, your logo, no matter how pretty or significant, doesn’t mean anything.
When Men’s Warehouse was first started, their name only meant they were a place where you could buy men’s clothing. After their iconic “You’re going to like the way you look” campaign ran for a while, people came to know you could go there and get an inexpensive suit you looked good in.
So sure, get a catchy, meaningful name and a fine looking logo. But don’t depend on them to sell your products or services. Establish your brand, give the name and logo meaning in people’s minds, and you’ll have accomplished something valuable and important…
I guarantee it.
