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Brand building is a persistent process of strengthening what a brand stands for, with relentless adherence to its brand DNA, and tirelessly striving for its purpose, meaning, and relevance to its target audience.
Many people mistake brand building with branding. Brand building is far more than branding – if your understanding of the word “branding” is what most people (correctly or incorrectly) describe as: the superficial look and feel of a brand, such as logo, color, font, and style.
To build a brand, more than just a successful business, organizational leadership, management, and employees need to align specific short term goals, even daily routines, with a company’s long term mission, and vision.
The most difficult part for most businesses and leaders is finding their vision, their true North, to guide their brands’ mission and goals.
Perhaps the second most difficult part is in executing goals, mission, and vision – in sync, in sequence, in time.
The power of having a North Star or a vision to guide all aspects of a company’s operations and growth is enormous:
Vision development takes in-depth, in-width, multidisciplinary, and cross functional analyses of a company’s ideals, beliefs, values, business model, product market fit, customer profile, competitive landscape, unique value propositions, brand positioning, brand messaging, brand voice, brand persona, brand DNA, …
Vision determines a mission to be accomplished within a period of time.
Goals are specific steps for achieving a mission, the accomplishment of which gets a brand closer to its grand and timeless vision.
Vision is the ultimate linchpin and the North Star that motivates and inspires both the internal workforce and the external customers’ trust and loyalty.
Trust-building takes time.
Bonding and attachment takes time.
Loyalty takes time.
After all the time, efforts, and money invested in creating brand loyalty, the last thing a brand would do is to shoot itself in the foot with DNA mutation – a fundamental change in what a brand stands for.
For example, what if Apple no longer stands for design-over-engineering, simplicity and delight in user experience, and, to the extent possible, security, privacy, user autonomy – all of their most important brand DNA elements, how would all the Apple “cult” followers feel? – Disappointment at least, even a sense of betrayal, since they deeply cherished Apple’s brand DNA and believed that these qualities would unfailingly be part and parcel of Apple, with which they had fallen in love, as the soul of the brand.
“Brand vision”, “stand for something”, “brand DNA” are just alternative ways of describing the heart, soul, and essence of a brand.
Leaders, management, employees, and even investors must first and foremost buy into the soul of their company, what their brand stands for, and share the same brand values and beliefs.
After aligning brand values with the beliefs of the entire workforce – the human capital of an organization – people can unleash tremendous creativity, ingenuity, productivity and loyalty. A vibrant and momentous organizational culture is thus created, which is the best driving force for a brand.
Without a solid and inspiring brand vision, it is impossible to develop a healthy organizational culture, without which a company cannot achieve sustained growth.
Organizational culture is both the function of and the living and breathing result of a brand vision. A culture is often in a state of flux, with its highs and lows. But the guiding principles, the North Star of an organization should stay constant, unchanged, and unwavering.
The highest honor a brand can gain is another person’s complete trust and loyalty, whether from an internal employee or from an external customer. Trust and loyalty are more valuable than what can be measured by money.
It is hard to earn others’ long lasting loyalty.
It is even harder to keep it.
Once a brand has created loyal followers, do everything possible not to break their hearts. Honor their faith in your brand, whether business or personal. Take every measure to treat their trust and loyalty with the utmost care.
That’s the beginning of a timeless brand.
We at 10 Plus Brand are here to help you build your business or personal brand with Brand DNA Decoding, content creation, and brand amplification. Please visit our website www.10PlusBrand.com and send us a message there for an initial consultation, or a brand audit. Thank you!
© Joanne Z. Tan All rights reserved.
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