My two favourite definitions are from a successful entrepreneur and a brand guru:

Well, not exactly. I won’t throw another quote at you, so I’ll get straight to the point: A brand is a feeling, an emotional connection between business and user. Branding is all the tangible elements that generate that feeling, such as: the visual identity, messaging, packaging, POS, website and so on.

On average, we are exposed to about 4,000 to 10,000 brands a day, and if that isn’t enough, we live in an era of “almost identical features”, where most products [see mobile phones or bottled water] are offering extremely similar features and benefits.

How do you stand out then? Standing out is where a strong brand shines at its brightest. Sure, marketing and paid promotions can help you get noticed in the short run, but building a strong bond with your customers through a powerful brand will help your business expand sustainably and consistently.

Let’s take brands like Coca Cola, Apple or Amazon as an example; they are built over time, step by step. They focus on customer satisfaction, empowerment and support in order to gain, but most importantly, retain customer loyalty and trust.

Have you ever wondered why bottled water can have a price that ranges from $1 to a staggering $60,000 for 750ml? The answer is brand and branding [I do feel the urge to emphasize that both bottles contain pure water]. As crazy as it sounds, people buy brands not products and they are more than happy to pay extra simply because it is sold by a brand they love, admire or aspire to be a part of.

Look at Supreme, or any other luxury brand, a t-shirt is a t-shirt right? Well, then why are we willing to pay $200 for a black t-shirt with a red and white logo on it, when a similar one retails at $3 at Primark or H&M?

These products are much more than a purchase, they are a statement. “I don't buy it because I need it, I buy it because of how it makes me feel”.

Brand-led companies understand that a powerful brand strongly impacts their bottom line.

Humans like to feel safe, we are risk-averse. Would you ever change your operating system after 15 years?

This approach works the same and triggers that feeling of safety when a company we trust and are loyal to releases a brand-new line of products. Let’s say one of your favourite companies (that was never into watches) launches a smartwatch⌚️; we already know that we can rely on this company to produce quality products, we already trust them, therefore this is a safe purchase. We buy without thinking twice; I like to call it auto-pilot purchasing.

A strong brand does not only allow a company to consolidate its market position and expand its offering without diluting its impact, but it also invites customers to stand by the brand for the long run because they feel safe.

The brand also affects your company’s value. In the c-suite table, this is called “goodwill” and it's the most impactful non-financial valuation that your company has.

This is an extremely complicated topic, and a bit out of my league to be honest, but in a few words the company is valued by its customer loyalty, recognition, awareness and other intangible assets.

The higher the brand value, the higher the company evaluation.

The impact of a successful brand is not only measured outwardly, the positive change is in fact also internal to the company. 

Brands with a strong focus on human-driven culture are able to attract, engage and retain talent much easier than the competition. If we talk with numbers, it is proven that companies with highly engaged employees outperform the competition by 147% in earnings per share.

A good brand is also a good reputation and that will attract the right people, without much effort. This means you can invest recruitment fees in spoiling your team! 

Please feel free to reach out if you would like to discuss more about your brand and how to unleash its superpower!