1. What's your brand story?

2. What's your brand story?
It's been called a strategic tool with irresistible power by Harvard
Business Review. And the major business lesson of 2014 by Entrepreneur
magazine. What exciting new 21st-century technology is this?
The age-old art of storytelling — something humans have done since
they could first communicate.
So why has it become such a buzzword? And what is its new value? In
these days of social chatter, competition for crowdfunding and start-ups
looking to be the next Google or Facebook, it's not enough just to offer up
the facts about you or your company to prospective employers or investors.
Or even to your own workers.
You need to be compelling, unforgettable, funny and smart. Magnetic,
even. You need to be able to answer the question that might be
lingering in the minds of the people you're trying to persuade: What
makes you so special?
You need to have a good brand story.

4. Brands are about people,
not products.
Brands are about customers,
not companies.
A great brand is one that people trust and remain loyal to
while everything around them is changing. One that
articulates the type of person they are or want to be. One that
enables them to do what they couldn't otherwise achieve.
Brands were originally developed as labels of ownership, a
way to identify products or institutions. However, today the
power of a brand is what it does for people—how it reflects
and engages them—how it defines their aspirations and
enables them to do more. Powerful brands can drive success
in competitive and financial markets and become one of the
corporation's most valuable assets.
Unfortunately, most brands are labels, relying strongly on
brand names and logos, and focused too heavily on the
companies and products that they help identify. Powerful
brands have the ability to cut-through the noise and
competitiveness of markets and to engage and retain the best
customers in a way that delivers superior financial results in
both the short and long term.

6. So, what makes a powerful
brand?
The most compelling, attractive brand is powerful
because it:
1. Defines a big idea that stands out from the
crowd, goes beyond the product or industry and
really matters to people.
2. Reflects the customer and builds an image and
reputation of personal relevance in the mind of
the customer.
3. Engages customers in achieving the big idea,
delivered in a style through which people say
"this is my kind of company.”
4. Enables customers to do more than they
thought they could.
5. Evolves as markets and customers evolve, with
the portability to move easily into new markets
and to connect diverse activities.

7. A great brand reflects and
engages people.
If a great brand is about people rather than
products, then the big idea around which it is
developed has more to do with what the brand
does for people rather than focusing on the
company.
There are a million models of a "brand"—each
with three simple components in common—
rational, comparative and emotional. By
collectively defining what a brand does for
people—how it is different, how it makes
people feel—the essence of the brand is
articulated. To be compelling and enduring
typically involves a far more profound idea than
product, company or even sector-related
benefits. It reflects aspirations rather than just
needs. It provokes rather than just informs.

9. Sharing your brand.
The brand idea is then delivered through every
possible medium that the company utilizes—name,
logo, products, signage, advertising, packaging, web
—and more. Every aspect of the corporate or
product experience can deliver the brand in tangible
and intangible ways. While business strategy will
typically include logical mission statements and
objectives, corporate brands capture the essence of
why the business exists and what it does for people.
There should of course be strong alignment
between the strategies and brands because both
define the rational and emotional aspects of the
business.

11. Why, indeed.
A brand gives a company a core, engaging purpose
which connects all audiences emotionally in "why we
do business.” Internally, brands stir emotions and
energize people to reach for the higher-order
benefits they are working towards.

13. Your brand is more than
what you do.
In fact it is not even what you do. In reality a brand
is defined by how it is received and perceived—the
image and reputation that forms in people's minds.
A corporate brand is the reputation of the company
while a product brand is the reputation of the
product. A brand that does more for people, that
reflects their personal needs and ambitions, that
stirs emotions inside and tingles the hairs on the
back of their necks has the making of a powerful
brand.

15. You’re in business to help
people do more.
So say that.
Powerful brands enable people to do what they couldn't otherwise do.
They must do more than simply endorse functional products. A brand has
to help people do something physically or build confidence and belief in
their minds.
Brands can typically help people to do more in four different ways:
Dobetter through improved functionality or support.
Be how they want to be perceived through a strong identity that
gives recognition and is admired by others.
Belongto a community that they seek to be part of through
improved real or perceived connections.
Become somebody more than they are, adding personal esteem
or the capabilities and confidence to do what they couldn't otherwise
achieve.
Once a brand creates a strong attachment with people—one that they find
emotionally or practically essential to their lives—then the brand becomes
an anchor which can be more trusted, more permanent, more desired than
any other brand or product. Anchor brands give people something
positive to hang on to, while their markets and business needs evolve.
Graphic designers hang on to Apple, serious runners hang on to Nike,
business leaders continue to rely on McKinsey. Brands that reflect people
more personally, and do more for them, are likely to be the best anchors.

18. Drive short and long-term value
for stakeholders.
Brands attract and retain the best customers, and as a result are
able to sell more, more often. This drives improved margins
and creates greater certainty of future income too. Brands are
increasingly one of the most significant drivers of shareholder
value with incredibly valuable intangible assets which increase
the quantity and likelihood of future profits.
These potential profits, driven by the loyalty of customers to the
brand, are called brand equity. The true reflection of the Return
on Investment in a brand is achieved by considering the brand
equity that drives current and future profits not only the
comparison of costs against short-term gains.
However brands can do even more than this. A strong
corporate brand doesn't just drive improved profits from
customers, it also drives employee and shareholder behavior
too. Corporate brands have a strong and direct impact on
employee morale, recruitment and retention, which can extend
into better service for customers, ideas, productivity and human
capital.
For shareholders, a strong brand represents not only the
potential for more profitable sales, but improved confidence
through a better awareness and understanding of the company
and a stronger view of future performance. This perception and
reality of reduced risk can lead to improved credit ratings and
lower the cost of capital, both of which can have a significant
impact on the economics of the business, as well as encourage
more investment and subsequent improvement in the share
price.

19. Walk the walk. Talk the talk.
Bring a brand to life.
Strong brands connect companies with people, both emotionally
and practically, and most importantly by ensuring that promises
become realities over time. Brands define the purpose of
business. They are the glue, the face, the relationship, and the
reputation of the business.
While brands used to be the domain of individual products,
corporate brands are today the more significant form of
branding—more valuable and important entities for customers
and businesses. This is partly due to the rise of service-based
business, the increasing awareness and transparency of
companies behind the products and services we buy, and the
need for higher-order differentiation across the portfolio as well
as for individual products.
Even the majority of consumer products now contain the strong
endorsement of parent brands whereas in the past, many
consumers may never have heard of P&G and Unilever despite
using their products daily. Today the corporate brand marks
appear prominently on the packaging of everything from
laundry detergent to ice cream.
Corporate brands align the inside and outside, employee and
customer, culture and reputation, behaviors and differentiation,
promises and reality.
Branded businesses are therefore about people. Their brand
gives them a purpose that also becomes the organizing idea, the
reason for coming to work each day, and a common mission that
brings people together. Logos and identities, taglines and colors
become mere shorthand for a much bigger and more powerful
force.

22. Build the perfect brand
architecture for you.
All companies have their own specific requirements, their
own set of business values, and a unique way of doing things.
So, even the best and most comprehensive branding models
have to be tailored to meet these needs and requirements.
Often, important adjustments are required to align them with
other similar business models and strategies in the company
to create a simplified toolbox. Remember that branding is the
face of a business strategy so these two areas must go hand
in hand.

23. www.7secondscreative.com