I was lucky enough to be able to sit in on the seminar 'brand is as brand does' held by Marty Neumeier when he visited AUT last year. He spoke of many things, in particular his perspective of brand. 

In his book 'The Brand Gap' Neumeier summarises the modern definition of a brand accurately and concisely. He uses bold typography and a graphic layout to emphasise what he is talking about. 

In the first few pages he differentiates between what a brand is and what a brand isn't. 

A brand is not a logo.

A brand is not a corporate identity. 

A brand is not a product. 

How come? How come all of these aspects that we associate with a brand are not the brand it'self? 

The fact is that through the evolution of branding and advertising, a brand is something that has become far less tangible than a logo or product. A brand has evolved into what the emotive response from the consumer is when faced with a logo, identity or product. A brand is the feeling one has towards a company, and when that feeling becomes consistent between humans, then that company is considered to have a successful brand. 

Neumeier says;

"A brand is not what YOU say it is, it is what THEY say it is."

In this course with insructor Ken DeGilio, Business Storytelling & Brand Development I have learned so much about branding yourself and your business. There was a large amount of information of branding concepts and how to go about developing your brand the correct way given during the short period of this class. Everything I thought I knew about branding was not very short from accurate. As you come into the this class with a consumer mindset you don’t thing about how much it takes to separate yourself for you competition and how to stand out amongst the crowd of competitors looking to gain an increase of the market share. A lot of companies have been around along time and you don’t think about how many times that had to be first to set a trend to get ahead of competitors. Then infuse innovation to recreate their brand time after time in order to keep consumers loyalty and to reach new potential customers.

 Those key elements to creating a firm long lasting brand stressed through the reading (Creativity, Brand Story, Innovation, and Marketing Strategy) seemed to have been hammered into brain over the duration of this course. Creating a brand is not easy as slapping a logo on something and call it a brand. Yet as I have learned if your not thinking of those key elements creating a brand becomes a lot harder and chances are your brand will just be, another trapped in the clutter of start ups.

 The most important thing that I also learned in this course is that your story is an asset to your company. You need to find the best way to sell it as possible because it is the bridge between your connections with your customers, clients, consumers, partners; which ever you choose to refer to them as or for some all of thee above. You have to make that connection with them because it is what draw the personal connection, creates loyalty, and meaningful relationships. Your story is like the gas that fuels the fire to your career and long-term success.  It’s also one characteristic that separates you from your competition.

 Another thing that I noticed from my knowledge gained in this class is that brand use is programmed in us ass consumers. Most consumers have it programmed in them to favor certain brands over others. Majority of the human race continue to purchase brands just because of what they where raised using or use to seeing being purchase in the house hold all of their life. Never knowing anything about the company or what the brands mission include. Most people prefer to purchase big brands because of the quality of the product but some generic brands produce almost the same level of quality if not better in some cases. Some studies have been shown to prove without the brand label placed on the product container. Some consumers would not no the difference between the taste in coca-cola and the generic brand sold in Wal-Mart labeled cola.  If the world’s economic situation was better it make you think about would the newly growing industry of dollar general franchise be capable of surviving, would online pirating be a big issue in the entertainment industry, and would unemployment rates be at an all time high. It makes you think about a lot of issues that are involved with what may come with owning your own business.

 You don’t want your brand to end up with a bad reputation so you must always look at how your buyers and employees perceive your organization. This entails the persona that your brand carries with its name. You don’t want to be in the known for bad publicity it can cause you to lose consumers. Although some want care unless it affects them, it is important that your reputation is looked at in a good way to further the growth of your brand. Your corporate culture must be looked at, as supreme and a place people are proud to be associated with at the end of the day.  

 After doing extensive research in this class of the companies I admire the most and see on top of their branding such as Apple, Nike, and some of my favorite major label and independent artist. I have found a similar trend in their branding and marketing techniques. They continue to stay ahead of everyone else by setting trends for the consumers to indulge in and competitions tries to follow. All great brands create their own lane they don’t follow the traffic. Different and weird is considered the best route while most are too afraid and tend to conform.

Last but now least you have to remember to focus on what you do best as a business for your brand to stay strong. Do not dabble in to many other services or products if you cannot offer them better than your competitors or at the same rate of quality. Keep your focus narrow and you cannot go wrong. In the 22 laws of branding authors Al and Laura iterates this with the statement “A brand becomes stronger when you narrow the focus.” You don’t want your brand taking on more than it can handle and loosing profits or failing as a company.

Ideas based upon reading from The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding and The Brand Gap  

Citations:

Al and Laura Ries, The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding