It is exciting how we all light up when talking about our brand, how we intend to build it and how it will be the leader in the market segment we occupy down the years.
News flash! A brand is not a tangible object. We can feel it in our hearts, yes, but we cannot touch or hold it.
This thing called a brand, what then is it? It is people’s impression of something. It lives in the mind. It’s how we feel towards something, which can happen naturally; yes, we can like or dislike something or someone without reasons.
Branding on the other hand is the deliberate act of shaping that impression. For example, what is that one idea we want our company to be known for? Let us say, hassle-free travel experience. Our desired brand, the impression we want people to have of us is, master of hassle-free travel experience. Everything done to shape that impression, from logos to colours through written content and marketing is branding; not the brand.
However, branding is like clothing. It can depict we are very intelligent, beautiful, and sophisticated but the moment we display our true behaviour, our brand becomes the effect of those actions. As Maya Angelou concisely put it,
“people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
Actions they say, speaks louder than words. Our brand stems from kept or broken promises. For us to achieve our desired impression in the mind of our target audience, our branding must be consistent with our actions. Do the opposite and our brand becomes opposite feelings; no matter how loud or beautiful our branding assets are.
PS: No matter how much is dedicated to communicating a hassle free travel experience, nobody is going to feel that way if luggage keeps getting destroyed or flights getting delayed.
