The word ‘brand’ has escaped from the confines of the marketing department and is now increasingly bandied about by everyone from politicians to broadcasters.

“For a truly powerful brand you must understand the DNA that underpins the brand.  What is the real substance, the values which your clients buy into?  The follow through is to ensure that the company, on all levels, are delivering these values” says Anne Corstorphine, top midlands coach, Coaching Spirit.

For most organisations, the creation of a brand is an evolutionary process, the gradual emergence of the brand identity usually starting with a logo for use on stationery, which then finds its way onto products and marketing material without any real thought to what the ‘brand’ means or truly represents.

To paraphrase Lord Lever’s famous dictum, we know that half of the people who use the word ‘brand’ don’t really understand it. The essence of the problem is that there is confusion between corporate identity/logo and brand identity. To clarify,

A logo is a pictorial device that acts as a visual prompt. The way in which it is designed, together with the fonts and colours used, deliver a visual image that is intended to be memorable.

It is the substance of what is beneath that determines whether it is merely a pretty but superficial device – or whether it is the spearhead of a strong brand.

A brand: a brand is the projection of the personality and values of an organisation, the sum of all the added values and the ‘DNA’ that sets it apart from its competitors. To be successful, it needs to be understood by customers; even better, to be admired.

People consciously choose to by brands – even in periods of economic difficulty such as we’re all currently going through, a professional and disciplined approach is increasingly being adopted by a wide variety of forward thinking organisations. In the current economic climate it is crucial to stand apart from your competitors, gaining a competitive edge through strength of brand deliverability.

For most organisations, the creation of a brand is an evolutionary process, perhaps a natural progression from the owners’ names. Sometimes the logo will be designed in-house; occasionally a professional designer will be commissioned. For some, this is where the process stops, but for the more enlightened, it leads on to their thinking about what that logo represents, what personality it is seeking to project and how it delivers more value than competitors.

In time, the logo becomes a recognisable icon and, ultimately, it helps to represent what the company stands for and what its values are; so the first step is to understand the DNA that underpins the brand before designing the visual marketing tools to represent the brand.

As an acid test, to ascertain how well your organisation has progressed along the brand spectrum, consider what you believe to be the core values of your organisation. What’s distinctive, natural, aligned (DNA) that provides the consistency of brand? Would customers and other stakeholders agree with this list? Then try to be objective about the credibility of your positioning. Will your aspirations ring true with your customers?

And what of refreshing already strong brands, “Well, “ says Anne, “ a strong brand icon will change with time, think Kelloggs; If you look back over 100 years, the brand is the same, delivering quality produce and the logo has been ‘tweaked’ over the generations to ensure it visually represents the here and now. So it is important to take a look every 12 months or so and ask, does it still portray what I want it to say?

Anne has recent refreshed her own brand, changing colours and tweaking style and would welcome feedback on the new style – to find our more please visit www.coachingspirit.co.uk for comment.

“This helps to grow and develop the service to the best it can be for my clients, thank you”.