Maintaining a healthy Brand
The question of “what does a healthy brand look like?”, is vastly different to what one might assume.
Whilst imagining your brand working out is an interesting and provocative thought, it’s probably best that we take a step back and question what “healthy” actually means in the world of brands.
You might say that “they’re not living” but, if you were to, then that would be your first problem. They should be. They should never stay still, and should be ever-evolving.
That’s probably the best place for us to start.
A very common issue that has been brought to light through various experiences for us in the studio, is the idea that a brand should be "on trend" and creatively "current".
A couple quite high profile cases - that shall remain unnamed for now (I’ll need several drinks before I dare say who) - have taken this to the extreme.
I’ll come back to those nameless stories in a moment.
Illustration by Keeping
First, in order for me to be able to explain what is wrong with this approach, we need to be clear on what a “brand” constitutes; because the desire to be current isn’t necessarily wrong, if you go about it in the right way.
What is a brand made of?
I’m happy to say that over the past year or two, marketing professionals are more readily acknowledging that a brand is vastly more than just a logo.
Of course a brand, almost without fail, will have a logo. However, this is just one of many components. Knowing how to implement this understanding is key to keeping our brand healthy. After all, you need to know the composition of your body before you can begin to treat it right.
The physical and mental state of your brand are crucial in equal measure. Just as the world is beginning to wake up to mental health being as common and treatable as physical wellbeing in humans, we need to understand that our brands’ physical form is not the only facet that needs to be treated right.
If you only have a logo, it will lend very little help to your greater business objectives.
Your values and business proposition form two of the core components to the mental state of your brand. Understanding these fully, and ensuring that they are reflected in how you dress, will begin to enable you to establish a more fluid and clear identity.
How to do just that, is the topic of another blog post. Simply knowing this is the case, however, will form a key part of us understanding how to keep your brand fit.
Your brand’s physical state also depends on two core components: your logo, and the creative that surrounds it.
Remember the stories I mentioned where some of our clients wanted to be “trendy” and “current”? Well, the premise of those desires is not necessarily something that you have to get away from. It’s simply understanding where you can seek to exploit those traits.
Rather than your logo seeking to be too clever, your brand’s creative is where you can begin to explore your character and play with current design trends.
A good logo should be timeless. It should be the person that can go in to any room, and get on with everyone around them. It’ll dress differently if it’s going to a friends house, than if it is going to a formal dinner party. All the while, it’ll be the same person underneath.
Your logo should be the person that can go in to any room, and get on with everyone around them.
This isn’t to say that your logo has no role to play in your character. In fact, it plays a very large but different one.
In simple terms, I would begin to take a look back at the two “mental” states of your brand and try to connect them with your “physical” states.
In rough terms, we should look at your brand’s proposition for the traits that your logo should portray.
For example, if you are offering a service to bankers in the city of London, you would perhaps want to ooze strength and security. Your logo may be bold, and confident in its use of it’s icon in isolation. Almost saying “surely you know who I am?”.
Or, perhaps you’re a Bed & Breakfast. Maybe then, your brand should be more elegant and understated. Giving off an air of sophistication, yet not one to steal the limelight. That’s what your guests do, you simply facilitate them.
All of the above, if well thought through, can be achieved through the clever use of typography. Perhaps a simple, yet intelligent, icon to accompany it for use on smaller format print. But only if that’s a consideration we need to be making, not just for the sake of it.
On this basis, your brand’s values would then inform the creative that surrounds the logo.
This is where you show your adaptability, and ability to stand the test of time. It’s where you have the chance to show that you can evolve, and stand out for the right reasons.
A brilliant example of doing this right, are the Creative Campaigns that you will see on a daily basis as you walk through the tube stations or wait at traffic lights in your car.
If you look at old Coca Cola adverts, they’ll almost feel familiar still. Even if you weren’t around to see them when they came out.
Why? Not because of the creative. The creative was of the era. Some are sketched, some are watercolour, others are very image-led or perhaps use illustrations.
You’ll still recognise them though, because of the logo that stands true throughout. Never growing old, because it was able to be subtly tweaked over time in order to keep up.
What is my brand’s life expectancy?
To summarise, I thought I would ask the (quite literally) age old question. “What is my brand’s life expectancy?”.
Well, to see if you can consider your brand to be healthy, ask yourself a few of these questions:
Does my logo try to do too much?
Do I continue to evolve my branding, so as not to give myself a large void to fill in a few years time?
Do my logo and brand creative effectively portray my proposition and values?
Do I make use of creative (everything from a flyer to a TV advert) to stay current and stand out from the crowd?
If you can honestly answer those questions and feel good about your answers, then your brand can live forever.
Of course, there will be exceptions. Take Google as an example. They had such a large void to fill that a complete rebrand took place, followed by years worth of rollout that still isn’t finished today.
But not all of us have the billion dollar budgets required to make this a success, and even Google would have tried to avoid that if they could.
If you truly want to create a successful business that will thrive over decades to come, my advice is to begin living like one and switch to a healthy diet sooner rather than later.