Your Brand: A Platform to Build On
By Jim Terry

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Brand building is not easy, particularly in today’s environment where resources are spread thin and competitive pressures abound. The more competition there is, the more important it is to be disciplined in your branding process and in crafting your communications messages and programs.

There are as many ways to build a brand as there are to build a house. Philosophies and approaches vary depending on the architect. However, regardless of the approach, every company needs to consider some critical common elements.

Internal analysis
The organization developing the brand should objectively review and analyze the company being branded. According to the company’s executives and/or employees, what are its own strengths and weaknesses? Where does it hold advantages over the competition? What are its aspirations? How does it view its customers and their decision criteria? The answers to these questions from multiple internal sources will provide valuable insight into the current state of the company’s brand and frame the discussion for the customer input. 

Customer input
No ifs, ands or buts. The most effective brand development requires the voice of the customer. That input can come from secondary research, published primary research, focus groups or custom primary research among others. Understanding what motivates customers to buy and why they choose one provider over another is the starting point for relevant messaging. 

Competitive review
A careful look at the competitive landscape provides direction for positioning your strengths against the vulnerabilities of others in your market. The review should consist of your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses, their current positioning, the public’s current perceptions of the competition and competitive performance and satisfaction.

Internal, customer and competitive analysis provides the direction and intelligence to build the brand platform. Keeping the entirety of this research in mind, your branding team should develop your category position, your brand promise, your value propositions and your brand personality.

Category position
This is the basis of the brand platform and captures the essence of the brand as it fits within the category relative to the competition. This serves as the company’s market position. For example, Nike has staked out a stylish, high-performance, innovative position in contrast to its competitors.

Brand promise
The brand promise is the company’s commitment to the market. It is based more on the company’s capabilities than on the product or service benefits. It is a broad promise that is intended to be relevant both short-term as well as years into the future. Continuing our example, it’s clear from the former tagline "Just do it."� that Nike has promised its audience that the company is committed to the competitive spirit.

Value propositions
Stated in terms of customer benefits, value propositions are sales and communications messages based on the product/service benefits. These will change over time but always should be tied back to the brand promise and category position. Back to our example, Nike proposes that it will help people feel empowered, successful and best equipped to tackle the challenges of athletics.

Brand personality
Approached as much from an artistic perspective as it is from a marketing perspective, brand personality is about imagery, tone and symbolism. Your brand personality defines how an audience literally views your brand. Should your communications dictate that your brand be viewed as serious or fun, professional or friendly, casual or rigid? Does your brand "feel"� like glass and steel or earth tones?  Should the imagery and graphics include hard edges or curves? Again, looking at Nike, the company uses shades of gray and blue, which gives the brand a casual, unpretentious feeling. Nike’s famous swoosh creates feelings of movement and speed. Nike, the brand name itself, was once better known in Greek mythology as the goddess of victory. All these things and more give Nike its brand personality.

Once you’ve defined the brand through the previous exercises, your efforts should focus like a laser beam on executing it, which is an ongoing, unrelenting process. Of course, this includes obvious communications pieces like your website, advertising and direct mail but also in more subtle communications like holiday cards and interpersonal communications.

Done correctly, a brand platform works like a house foundation. It serves as a base of support for your communications program. So what kind of house do you want?

Hopefully, one that’s resting on something concrete.

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