In order to accurately launch this blog, it needs to be defined as to what constitutes a brand versus simply a product. In the marketplace a product will be viewed as an item that may or may not be useful to the consumer based on function. However, in any store there will be various products that all perform many of the same functions as their competitors with a few minor exceptions. How can a value be placed on that? Who would care which item they purchased? With a brand, those questions are never asked.
Brands transcend mere products into consumer lifestyles. They speak to the individual identity that desperately needs a voice which no words can produce. To put it quite simply - brands are art. They are poetry in motion even if they are sitting still. They can speak a thousand words to any bystander who takes notice. As such, brands need to be taken quite seriously by any business. There needs to be a brand curator much like a museum would have to care for its art pieces. Brands are not merely designs and fancy packaging as many would perceive when they think of brands. Nay. True branding comes in the communication between business and consumer.
There must be consistency in this communication, but ultimately it is the style in which the message of the brand is communicated that will have the ultimate effect. Sometimes less is more, and other times more is less. Give the brand personality and it will do the rest itself. It will fly on wings of ecstasy, soar to the top of Mount Sinai, and return on a chariot of LED lights and rock 'n roll waves.
It is a shame when a company misconstrues its own creation in order to generate "buzz." All-State Auto Insurance, for example, had a marvelous campaign that spoke to the sincerity of accident victims, which always ended with "Are you in good hands?" The very notion of "good hands" gave rise to its simple logo of two hands cupped to give offerings like in a church. However, now they use some dolt posing as the face of accidents with dry humor. Or the Grammys most recent show. It went the way of MTV with its graphics and abandoned its reverence as the very benchmark of quality music, at least in branding. These changes all to catch the attention of the youthful generation. Where's the guidance, though?
When done right, a brand can come to symbolize the heart of a culture, the ethos of a society, and the soul of a generation. But in its plight to achieve such caliber, it must first speak accurately to its target market, differentiating itself from its competition and representing the parent company as it desires to be perceived. Contrast is the key to art and therefore a successful branding campaign. Yet the brilliance of it can go unnoticed when companies fail to recognize what they truly have in their possession.
A brand is not a toy. It is a revolution.
