Branding Without The Iron

I know that some of you believe that branding is the stinky, dirty job that cowboys do when they use a hot iron to burn their ranch’s mark on their cattle. Or maybe you think it’s what your doctor recommends you eat in order to stay “regular.” Well, that’s not what I mean. I’m talking about the branding that successful businesses use to position their companies in the marketplace.

Now, before I get into the details, let’s administer a little quiz to check your branding IQ:

Which of the following is true about branding?

A)  It’s the process of designing a company logo, tagline, or slogan.

B)  Only the creative, artsy-fartsy folks in the marketing and advertising departments need to worry about it.

C)  It’s an intangible asset that cannot be measured.

D)  Small businesses need not invest in it; branding is only used by global consumer companies such as McDonald’s and Disney.

E)  None of the above.

The answer is E, none of the above. All of these statements are common misconceptions about branding. How’d you do? Competition in today’s speed-of-the-Internet world is kind of tough, in case you haven’t noticed, and the current economic conditions don’t leave much room for slackers. Achieving a unique market position that creates sustainable growth is becoming more and more difficult.

It used to be enough to focus only on product differentiation, but the present environment requires a high level of investment into research, development, and production capabilities to keep growing. Then you’ve got to pump mega-bucks into marketing those points to make it worthwhile.

In other words, the stakes are getting higher and higher. Business leaders need to understand that a comprehensive corporate branding strategy is necessary.

In recent discussions about branding with friends and colleagues, I’ve realized there are varying opinions about this subject. So I decided to consult a couple of branding gurus to be sure I understood this topic well enough to write intelligently about it. (No wisecracks about my “smarts,” now!)