If you were to ask someone on the street what a brand is, they’re likely to tell you it’s a logo design, a strapline or a shop front. But the reality is, it’s the most important asset to your business. To truly understand how powerful a brand can be, how it manifests itself and what it stands for, you need to start peeling back the layers.
At Mobas we speak to countless business leaders who are exceptionally capable when talking about their firm’s products and services but become tongue-tied when it comes to describing their brand’s purpose. This is why brand definition is so important to us and why it sits as the first stage of the brand development process, ultimately informing the brand strategy, brand creation, brand delivery and brand evaluation phases of our brand projects. It’s the vital starting point for Mobas as a brand strategy agency, as we explain below.
What do we mean by ‘brand definition’?
Brand definition is the foundation for everything a brand stands for. While many may jump to colours, copy and iconography, at Mobas, a brand is rooted in a promise or purpose. A successful brand definition holds the entire business account to your customers, stakeholders and employees and influences them to engage with you and become part of your journey.
The benefits to your end-customers or end-users from having a clearly defined brand is conveying the truth of who your business is and what it stands for.
A brand, to remain competitive, must be engaging, relevant, understandable and, above all, consistently delivered. At Mobas, the brand definition sits at the beginning of the brand journey we develop for our clients. It forms an essence, a phrase or sentence that encapsulates what a brand stands for and which informs the brand’s mission, vision, values and personality.
How are brand strategies defined?
While many agencies can design lovely logos, our approach isn’t swayed by fashionable colours and funky icons. For us, a brand comes deep from within the business and the people in it, it defines the offering in a unique way that appeals to the customers of today and tomorrow. It’s a flag that staff can follow. ‘It’s us on our very best day.’
Although every company is different, our approach follows a similar journey of discovery and exploration that starts with listening. A brand cannot be imposed or projected from anyone outside of your organisation. It must come from within, which is why we start all our brand projects with a series of listening exercises in the shape of workshops, staff and customer surveys, desk research and stakeholder interviews.
Throughout this process, the Mobas brand strategy specialists work with you to identify how your business stands above its competitors and how this can be articulated and brought to life through a range of digital marketing channels. Having completed a large number of brand projects over the past two decades, we’ve honed our ability to draw together themes and threads of a narrative that articulate what your brand is and what it stands for.
Having completed our listening or discovery phase, we’ll bring the brand to life through the delivery of a brand map.
We capture insights from your team, stakeholders and customers to curate their interpretations into a clear narrative that can then be used to inform not only the visual brand but also how the brand communicates at every touchpoint, from your external-facing website to your internal communications and everything in between.
Harnessing your brand to drive success
It’s vital to the success of any brand project that the brand definition is authentic, true and believable. You may be operating under a single corporate brand, or juggling a suite of divisional or product identities that you want to take to market – whatever the nature of your challenge, brand equity should be at the heart of everything you do, giving the business a purpose that goes beyond the visual badge. And as a skilled brand solutions agency, we’re here to guide you on that journey.
Critically, by defining the brand strategy we create confidence and an ability to develop marketing campaigns or communications programmes that are right first time because they’re based on a clearly recognised and understood brand promise.
Ready to give your brand the clarity it deserves?
We’re committed to delivering brands that not only look and sound compelling but are designed to support a business’s plans for brand transformation and growth, so we look five and ten years ahead to the company you want to become. Radical market change and constant evolution has become the norm, so we pitch our brands ahead of the current market in a way that consistently draws audiences to them. If you’re looking to get clarity of your brand positioning, contact Cambridge’s premier branding agency to arrange an exploratory meeting to discuss your business and brand ambitions.