Branding- How a brand can become memorable

The first time when I understood what branding means, was many years ago when I was in the general school and I step into a beauty store in one of the biggest mall in Cluj-Napoca. The huge showcase was decorated with beautiful vintage flower stickers, the logo of the company was placed in the middle, made using classic burgundy fonts, the awesome interior that gave me the feeling of a `20’s boutique with a modern touch, the packaging of the products  were nicely ordered  by category, the smell that completed the atmosphere of the shop, the music that played in the background that seemed to be choose by a psychologist specialized in the behavior of the consumer, a mix of chill and cafe de Paris, all was perfectly matched in a way that  the brand stayed in my mind for many years as the coolest beauty store I’ve ever seen. I ‘we imagined the store for years, and my mind reviewed every object in the store, and the way everything was from the same picture.

After a long time of fascination for that brand I understood that the responsible one for the image that my mind created for that store was the branding!

There are tens or thousands of articles about branding and brand building methods but I would highlight the fact that branding means not just a mix between a company’s identity, but also how authentic is the company between others that deliver the same value.  The fact that years I ‘we relive the moment when I step into that awesome store in Cluj-Napoca, demonstrates that, at least at the psychological level, the branding of that beauty store, has achieved its purpose: to be memorable.

If I could use just a few words to describe branding and the importance of branding, those words would be: Authenticity and Memorability.

An authentic brand is the one that is real, true and genuine.  It has that precious element coming from uniqueness.  The aspects of branding includes the ability of a company/business/brand to identify with an idea, a goal, a color pallet or a conviction

The branding of a company starts, firs of all, with a clarified identity because this one is closely related to the performance of the brand. In 2017 is necessary to stand out using that element that makes you unique, exactly like the beauty store I told you about in the first sentences. This is important because of the context in which modern society tends towards uniformity. I say this because I saw that everything that surrounds us tends to follow a pattern, a “recipe “.

We live in a world that has a free market where companies starts to understand that the most valuable active they have is the brand. Besides the fact that branding is the personality of a business, it helps you to:

·         Be recognize by the consumers

·         Place in their mind your identity, values and your culture

·         Attract clients that matches you and make them loyal

·         Easily introduce new products on the market

·         Attract new potentially valuable employers for your business, sharing the same ideas and visions.

The branding of a company is what people are thinking about your business, in other words, what they are speaking about your brand when you are not around.

Branding has to start first and foremost at awareness level as an important action for your business and then to continue with the creation of a story, logo or slogan. All of this will flow naturally if you know the most important 4 questions: Who we are? What are we doing? How are we doing? Why are we doing?

The goals of any company adopting branding as a long-term strategy need not necessarily to be daring but must meet at least 3 important conditions:

·         To know very clear what is your brand

·         Your clients to be loyal to your brand and the value you bring on the market

·         Your employers to believe and identify with your brand

Psychologically, the branding process is not the easiest thing to do and it requires lots of introspection, observations and engagement.  This means that you have to analyze all the aspects of your business and try to formulate a single idea that will focus everything you want to say about your business.

Here came in the action the brand promise that gives you more questions to answer: In what thing do you believe the most?  What problems does your business solve for your customers?

To find the answers to this questions is not easy but you can be sure that you found the brand promise when, hearing an idea, out of the context, immediately reminds you of your brand.

From that moment, when you find an affirmation you believe in, be ready to develop it and use it in every aspects of the communication and visual identity of your brand. As much as you develop the idea that matches your brand, with that much  you can discover more about it and you become capable to develop, from now on, a story. This is the brand identity definition.

On the way, you will find out that your brand identity starts to have a shape, an accessible one, understandable for you and your customers.  After you choose the brand identity, the branding strategy, the logo and other important elements, is mandatory to give a copy of your branding documents to the person in charge with social media/ copywriting. Or better, get in touch with a marketing and branding agency like Vandy Vision,  which make Creative Artwork to Boost, Beautify and Digitalize your Brand & Business through Web Design, Strategy and Technology. They will make your brand memorable, like the beauty store that stayed in my mind for years.