I’ve met many people who want to be ultra conservative with their brands and essentially fade into the background. This doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. Think of a butcher’s shop. You’re probably thinking of The Mad Butcher (or perhaps its almost equally vocal counterpart, The Aussie Butcher). Standing out – in a positive way – is something that you should always be aiming for. You don’t need to be crazy or off the wall, but you do need to get your value proposition across and remain consistent in your branding. I’ll explain more about that in a moment.

What is a ‘brand’?

In the beginning, a brand’s legal purpose was to let people know the origin of goods. It was like a hallmark, or a mark of trade. It may have started with a name, and then evolved to encompass a logo but, over time, it has come to mean so much more than that.

Many think that their brand is about the way they present themselves to the world – however your brand really comes down to how the rest of the world sees you. Don’t worry though, you have more say in the matter than you might think. You can influence the way that people view your brand in a number of ways – by the values you work and live by, the way that you share information, and the way your organisation relates to others.

You’ve seen this happen many times. That’s how a certain sandwich shop can market their products as healthy, while selling something that is heavily processed, high in sugar, fat, and salt, and will then probably sell you a cookie and coke to boot. After all, it’s healthy, right? It’s also how certain computer brands can convince you that their new laptop XF125–whatever is amazing, only to conk out 8 months later and sell you the new XF130–something. It’s a respected brand that’s meant to work well, right?

Hopefully you use your powers of branding for good and not evil though.

Anyway, in staying true to what you believe in and communicating this effectively and consistently, you can build your brand into something that others identify with. Building a recognisable and identifiable brand is important not only because it allows people to know who they are dealing with – but it also lets you work towards a sweet little thing called brand loyalty.

A look at your brand

A brand starts with a solid foundation. Just as you wouldn’t build your house atop something until you had the foundation right, the same consideration should be given to your brand. A brand guideline document becomes like your plan or blueprint. It considers who you want your brand to reach, what you want them to feel and experience when they interact with your brand, and gives something that staff and the people involved with your brand can feel passionate about.

This also includes the visual aspect of a company, like your logo, brand materials, your fonts and their minimum size. We’ve seen companies who didn’t even know which fonts or colours represented them. Did they like the blue in their logo or did they prefer purple and gold? Without consistency, people won’t learn to recognise you, or may not recognise you even after they know you.

It may sound like we’re being pedantic, but good branding is present in all successful companies. Think of The Warehouse (whose branding is so strong that it’s often affectionately dubbed ‘the big red shed’). Or name a liquor outlet. I’m going to bet you were thinking of Liquorland.

And do you want to know what they have that makes them so successful? A strong brand. Whether you like their logo or not, you will find – no matter where you are in the country – a copy/paste store layout, copy/paste signage, price stickers and point of sale collateral and copy/paste logos and colours. You are never in any doubt that you are in a Liquorland. Other chains just don’t match the consistency that Liquorland maintains.

An identifiable brand lends credibility

One of the important reasons that businesses build a presence around their brand is for the credibility that this can create. Of course the opposite is also true if you have a shocker, but brands that do well, deliver on promises and are seen everywhere are generally thought to be more trustworthy and credible than other, less well-known brands.

All this talk about brands comes back to one thing – raising awareness. You want your brand to be out there, seen on as many things as possible, so that people can build up positive brand associations. Don’t fade into the background.

There are oh-so-many ways you can build awareness for your brand, including on your website and social media outlets; in advertising; in your internal and external documents; with competitions or other promotions; and with press releases.

Now that you know a few basics of branding, think about how these apply to your organisation and whether there’s anything you’d like to change so that you can become more recognisable.