By Richard Webb, Director, Brocklebank Creative Services
With the popularity and utilisation of direct media increasing over recent years, the interaction organisations can now achieve with customers, to a very personal level, is more important than ever when satisfying the need to highlight your offering.
From hamburgers to homes, shoes or surfboards, no matter the focus of your service or product, the reach that is achievable thanks to the multitude of channels, means clear, consistent recognition is more important than ever.
The housing sector was already a smorgasbord of choice, and now Build to Rent is witnessing even bigger corporations stake claim to portions of what is already a very competitive market.
These additional competitors only add further complexity to the challenge of brand awareness. Organisations need to make sure they stand out from the crowd – to not only retain custom, but to remain an attractive and appealing alternative to others.
This is a particular reason as to why your branding not only needs to be recognisable, but also coherent and cohesive in its application.
At a glance, branding may appear an easy concept to apply – think a logo and a selection of colours to convey a consistent appearance. Simple.
In reality there is far more nuance and detail to consider, especially when taking into account the wealth of promotional channels at a brands disposal. Applying a brand can be a far more complex process, requiring experience, research and certain foresight.
Consideration should be given to genuine working application, rather than just a conceptual ‘look and feel’ of a theoretical presentation. A concept that initially looks great in development, may prove to be difficult to apply in practice, simply because it wasn’t created to the appropriate parameters of use.
Too often does a lack of foresight begin to affect the perception of a brand ideal in application, leading to confusion and a disjointed presence over time. The misconception of a brand can prove to be fatal in terms of its communicative success.
An organisations identity and the services offered behind it, generate links and relationships in the people that interact. Brands promote an instant recollection of experience and have an ability to link your organisation and its products with your customers on very intimate terms.
Think of a brand as a virtual personality, if you will.
The rigid physicality of any property development means that unless it can be observed in person, selling is for the most part nurtured remotely. Appeal has to be conveyed through a range of visual presentation.
This is why a well construed brand application is imperative, as an identity is communicated in many different formats and contexts.
Your brand will be interpreted by individuals at many different levels. Attitudes to a brand – by both existing and potential clients – will vary if that interpretation isn’t monitored and controlled with consistency in application, how well the brand reinforces its message, and most importantly, how it creates positive affiliations.
Brand applications that are too complex, lacking in research or failing to be cohesive in their application, often become disjointed and difficult to maintain, affecting that all important consistency in the perception they need to generate.
Refinement and intrinsic qualities are both elements of successful brands that help sustain association and generate a greater depth of connection and recognition, but that doesn’t mean you need levels of awkward complexity or pretence.
Keeping the approach as simple as possible will undoubtedly offer the greatest impact across a range of media and a larger potential for affiliation, but this is possibly the most difficult to attain without careful planning and consideration.
Those are both key areas of brand development and application that shouldn’t be ignored in today’s world of immediate media and the very personal connections that can be built between a product and consumer, especially when a person is to possibly call your product, home.
As every marketeer knows, there is no better recommendation than from the horse’s mouth. The challenge for all brands is to achieve reinforcement of that level of assurance and confidence on a consistent basis.
Application of a coherent and consistent identity is just part of that puzzle.
Learn more about how Brocklebank Creative can assist your brand journey, contact Richard on 07808 644 610 or email hello@brocklebankcreative.co.uk
