Brand identity and brand image

Problem: Brand identity and brand image

Learning objectives (LO):

1. How to build a strong brand identity?

• What is the difference between brand identity and brand image?
• How to manage brand identity?
•  What are the most important elements of a brand?

2. How to follow your own image and how to keep it consistent?

3. Rebranding

• Why do companies rebrand?
• Case studies

Keywords: Brand identity, brand image, rebranding, storytelling, vision and mission

LO1: How to build a strong brand identity?

1.1 What is the difference between brand identity and brand image?

•  Managementstudyguide

I found this table about brand identity and brand image here. The table looks at the different angles of identity and image, this makes the difference very clear. 

Brand image

- Current view of the customers about a brand: associations, set of beliefs about a brand, perception

- Emotional value, not just a mental image

- It should highlight an organization’s mission and vision to all. 

- Image is formed on basis of subjective perceptions that consumers have about the brand. Volvo = safety. Toyota = reliability.

- Image can be strengthened => brand communications: advertising, packaging, word of mouth publicity, other promotional tools, etc. => DIFFERENT from competitor's image 

- Brand image has not to be created, but is automatically formed. 

Brand identity

- Organization responsible for creating a product with unique characteristics. 

- Brand identity includes: Brand vision, brand culture, positioning, personality, relationships, and presentations.

- Mental and functional associations with the brand => familiarity and differentiation => trademark colours (for example - Blue colour with Pepsi), logo (for example - Nike), tagline (for example - Apple’s tagline is “Think different”),etc.

- Total proposal/promise that an organization makes to consumers. 

- Brand identity leads to brand loyalty, brand preference, high credibility, good prices and good financial returns.

Sources: 

- http://www.managementstudyguide.com/brand-identity.htm

- http://www.managementstudyguide.com/brand-image.htm

1.2 How to manage brand identity?

• Taking brand initiative

The greater the coherence between vision - culture and image (VCI) the stronger the brand:

- Vision: what company's top managers want to accomplish in the future

- Culture: what is believed of known by company employees

- Image: what external stakeholders expect/desire from the company

- Misalignments/gaps between vision, culture and image => bad (managed) brand => all the pieces have to be coherent, they have to form an integrated, expressive and satisfying whole that build strong corporate reputations.  

When managing a brand identity it can be very interesting to ask yourself the questions in the visual below. To keep the trust of your stakeholders you should manage your brand effectively. Not only during the brand launch but all the time, even when everything seems perfect. You should prevent gaps between vision, image and culture. When you have a gap your company seems less trustworthy. A brand identity manager should always pay attention to these questions and adapt the strategy if necessary.    

Source: Taking Brand Initiative  - Mary Jo Hatch,Majken Schultz p11-13https://books.google.fi/books?hl=nl&lr=&id=J5OiNWAREdAC&oi=fnd&pg=PR5&dq=manage+brand+identity&ots=0XqtdxZwwT&sig=pSu5HrPqfxX-DW_bTZGKFEXyrPk&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=manage%20brand%20identity&f=false

• Brand identity manager - your brand's personal trainer

- Personal trainer gives you a comprehensive program, realistic goals, education => tailored to your needs to get the results you're looking for. A personal trainer is an experienced professional who can see exactly what approach will yield the best results => how to maximize your time to get the results you want and need.

- Brand identity manager => similar => professional to get the results you want and need out of your brand and business. =>  personal trainer for your brand.  Spot-On Branding can analyze your brand to see what shape it’s in, and then begin the process of getting that brand into great shape!

- Think of it like this: every facet of your brand is like a body part that needs attention and work.  This is the KEY to creating a strong brand identity for your business.  From your logo to your website design, from your marketing collateral pieces to your business cards, EVERY detail needs to be toned and strengthened regularly to create a strong and balanced brand.

A Brand Identity Manager:

• Sees and creates the look and feel of your big brand vision, always aware, looking and moving toward the big picture results.
• Is the center of your brand, working to conduct and orchestrate each and every component, so your brand is always working at peak performance.
• Is thorough, with great attention to detail, so no bits of your brand are left behind or lacking.
• Aligns all of your brand components to ensure each and every collateral/multi-media piece is branded consistently and effectively.
• Develops a brand identity marketing strategy, outlining the best approach to snag your target market and popular demographics.
• Finds the right vendors to work for you for total brand appeal, such as copywriters, printers, website developers, photographers, social media marketers, PR directors, and more!
• Manages the aforementioned creative vendors for you, so you only have to deal with one person: your Brand Identity Manager, saving you time and money in the long run.

Source: http://ndrichardson.com/blog/2012/02/21/a-brand-identity-manager-your-brand’s-personal-trainer/

1.3 What are the most important elements of a brand?

1. The Brand Promise

- What will consumers get when they purchase a product or service? The brand promise incorporates more than just those tangible products and services. It also includes the feelings that consumers get when they use your products and services.

Ex: If you’re a Nike fan, the brand might represent athleticism, performance, strength, good health, and fun. 

2. The Brand Perceptions

- Brands are built by consumers, not companies, it’s the way consumers perceive a brand that defines it. It doesn’t matter what you think your brand promises. You need to work to develop consumer perceptions that accurately reflect your brand, or your brand is doomed to limited growth potential.

Ex: What are consumers’ perceptions of Lady Gaga? You can bet everything she does is meant to create specific consumer perceptions.

3. The Brand Expectations

- Based on your brand promise, consumers develop expectations for your brand. When they purchase your products or services, they assume their expectations for your brand will be met. If your brand doesn’t meet consumer expectations in every interaction, consumers will become confused by your brand and turn away from it in search of another brand that does meet their expectations in every interaction.

Ex: Imagine Rolls Royce launched a $10,000 car. To say the least, consumers would be extremely confused because such a product doesn’t meet their expectations for a luxury brand.

4. The Brand Persona

- “Who is a brand?” Every brand has a persona, your brand as a person. What is that person like? What can you expect when you interact with that person? From appearance to personality and everything in between, your brand persona is one that consumers will evaluate and judge before they do business with you.

Ex: Who would you rather spend time with: Apple or Microsoft? These two brands have very different brand personas. 

5. The Brand Elements

- Your brand is represented by the intangible elements described above as well as tangible elements such as logo, messaging, packaging, and so on. All of these elements must work together to consistently communicate your brand promise, shape brand perceptions, meet brand expectations, and define your brand persona. If one element is awry, your entire brand can suffer.

=> A brand is clear, reliable, and believable to both your consumers and your employees. 

=> Before you can define and live your brand, you need to do some research so you don’t waste time taking your brand in a direction that won’t allow you to reach your goals. 

=> You must understand your competitors and audience, so you can develop a brand that promises the right things to the right people. 

=> Research should be first, definition, strategy, and execution should follow, and in time, your brand will grow. 

Source: http://aytm.com/blog/branding/branding-factors

• The business blueprint TV

Interesting video about the 4 most important elements of a brand, how you can start branding from the inside out instead of from the outside in.

- Clarity: mission, vision and values => project brand message clearly

- Audience, ideal client => who are you talking with

- Team needs to understand where you want to go 

- Client experience: online/offline/combination => what you're going to be known for 

LO2: How to follow your own image and how to keep it consistent?

• How to keep your image consistent? 

- Building a strong brand = consistency => consistent brand gets noticed. This recognition brings prospective new business. It is vital to be consistent across all communication channels. But what are the best ways to do this?

1. Examine your brand
- Take a look at your brand over time => ensure it remains true to the business. Researching how your brand is perceived can highlight issues you never knew existed.

- Brand and marketing review => interviews with clients => give you a better understanding of customer interpretations and reactions to your marketing and brand. You can also do an internal review with employees to better understand their view of the company.

- Once you’re aware of any problems, you can act accordingly. 

2. Appearance
- It is important to get it right at the foundations of your brand so you have a strong platform from which to builD => appearance should achieve clarity and consistency across the foundations of your brand (fonts, logos, colour palettes, images and most importantly, the presentation of your service names and descriptions) Think of any strong brand and you are likely to be able to list its colours, use of imagery and the products it sells. This is what creates recognition, trust and therefore engagement. 

- No matter whether someone sees an email, advert, brochure or social media profile, or attends one of your sponsored events, they will recognise immediately it is you and that they can trust it.

3. Messaging  
- Audience should know what to expect from your brand. Regularly changing your media spokesperson or sending messages that don’t tie-in with what you stand for is likely to cause confusion.

- Having the same person quoted each time there is a mention in the press will show a human side to your brand and companies will be more likely to recognise you. 

- Brand message should achieve recognition, trust and engagement. If the audience recognises a piece of communication they are more likely to engage with it.That doesn’t mean every single thing has to look identical all of the time, but using a consistent tone of voice and look and feel will ensure your communications are instantly recognisable.

- Brand presence => more than a nice logo and a bit of advertising – it is the summation of everything you stand for, everything you believe in and everything you do. It is how you look, how you talk and how you act.

- Creating a good impression in the minds of your customers and prospects is vital in today’s market. It can help deliver a competitive advantage, a greater return on investment and long-term brand loyalty. It can help build a better business.

- A consistent brand creates trust. If prospects trust you they are much more likely to buy your services. If your customers trust you they are more likely to stay with you, but even more crucially, they are more likely to recommend you to others.

Source: http://www.b2bmarketing.net/knowledgebank/branding/best-practice/how-keep-your-brand-consistent

LO3: Rebranding

3.1 Why do companies rebrand?

• The top ten reasons for rebranding

OUT WITH THE OLD, IN WITH THE NEW

On average, organisations and brands change their corporate identities once every seven to ten years. This often involves restyling logos, colour palettes, visual language and the photographic style. In a small number of cases, the name of the organisation is also changed during this process. Although there is usually one main reason for making the change, the motivation behind a rebranding project is often a combination of several factors. Here is an overview of the ten most common reasons for a corporate rebranding.

1. MERGERS, ACQUISITIONS AND DEMERGERS

For the most part, changes of business ownership, such as mergers, acquisitions and demergers, result in an immediate rebranding. The aim here is not only to make the change visible, but also to comply with legal requirements. In the case of demergers, the party that has split off is obliged to develop its own brand. This makes clear that it no longer forms part of the organisation. Over the past few years this process has taken place at grid operators, which were obliged to split off from their energy company. This resulted in the companies Enexis, Alliander and Stedin. There are several possibilities when it comes to mergers and acquisitions. The new company may develop a completely new brand (as in the case of @home, Casema and Multikabel, which together became Ziggo). In other cases the name of one of the parties is used (e.g. Getronics, which continued under the KPN brand following its acquisition by KPN).

2. REPOSITIONING

If implemented properly, a change to the positioning and brand promise of a company has major consequences for the organisation. Everything is adapted in line with the organisation’s new strategy and promise: its products or services, HR policy, customer contact, corporate identity, etc. Rebranding makes this change visible for all stakeholders. We saw an example of this last year with Gamma, which repositioned itself by moving away from traditional home improvements (DIY) and towards interiors (enjoyment).

3. INTERNATIONALISATION

In some cases, rebranding is necessary so that a brand can also be used internationally. This may be because the brand name is too specific to a particular country (e.g.: NS Internationaal, which has become NS Hispeed). In certain countries a brand name may also conjure up the wrong associations. Organisations that sell the same products in several countries, but under different brand names, are also increasingly opting to use one brand internationally. Famous examples include the rebranding of Jif to Cif, Smiths to Lay’s, Raider to Twix and Postbank (which was only used in the Netherlands) to ING (the brand that is used everywhere internationally).

4. CHANGING MARKETS

For some companies, changes in the market situation mean that their very existence comes under threat. The digitisation of society in particular is making it necessary for certain sectors to reinvent themselves. Different requirements call for a different product to be offered. One example here is the Free Record Shop, which adapted its logo, corporate identity and retail environment in 2008 to give its brand a boost.

5. BAD REPUTATION

If a brand has a bad reputation and this is having a serious impact on its operating result, rebranding can ensure that negative associations with the brand are ameliorated or dispelled. It is important here that not only the exterior changes, but that the change is also implemented in all other aspects of the organisation. This is the only way that a rebranding project can remove any negative associations with the brand and therefore be successful. The rebranding of VendexKBB to Maxeda is one example of this.

6. CONFLICT WITH STAKEHOLDERS

Developing a brand may in itself also lead to a rebranding. This may be because the new style is too similar to an existing brand, for example. Such a situation was faced by Multimate, which, after its rebranding, lost a lawsuit against Ikea as the two brands had become too similar. Multimate had to make sure that its new logo was no longer visible in any shape or form within a period of six months. Another reason is that a rebranding can sometimes be so negatively received by internal and external stakeholders that it stands in the way of the organisation’s success. An example of this from last year was the rebranding of clothing company Gap, which decided within the space of a week that it would keep its old logo after all.

7. NEW CEO

A new CEO often brings a new lease of life to an organisation. This may result in (major) organisational changes that also influence the course the company takes. Such a situation arose at Apple, for example, following the return of Steve Jobs in 1997. At that time Apple had to change in order to survive. Jobs himself took a hand in choosing the new logo, which changed from the rainbow-coloured apple to the more modern metallic variant.

8. OUTDATED IMAGE

One of the most common reasons for undertaking a corporate rebranding project is modernisation. Trends mean that over time brands come across as old-fashioned if they have not been updated. Although in many cases it is not the main reason, a more modern image is often one of the motivations behind a rebranding project.

9. CHANGING BRAND PORTFOLIO

Over the years, an organisation has to deal with the development and acquisition of numerous new brands. In time this results in an extremely diverse and broad brand portfolio that is no longer logical for anyone and is therefore only still understood by a handful of people. Furthermore, carrying many different brands often leads to high costs when it comes to maintaining and promoting the brand. In such cases, rebranding ensures that the entire brand portfolio is brought into line and tells a clear story about the organisation. A number of years ago, USG People rationalised and coordinated its brand portfolio in this way.

10. FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OF CORPORATE IDENTITY

A few years ago, for the majority of organisations a corporate identity consisted of just a logo, a primary colour palette and typography. Brand elements such as a photographic style, visual language and a secondary colour palette had not been defined back then. This meant that there was a great deal of freedom when it came to applying the corporate identity, with the result that the brand’s visual image ultimately became something of a mess. In such cases the further development of an organisation's corporate identity is a must to ensure the creation of a consistent and recognisable brand.

THE TOP FOUR REASONS FOR CHANGING A COMPANY NAME

A few years ago, for the majority of organisations a corporate identity consisted of just a logo, a primary colour palette and typography. Brand elements such as a photographic style, visual language and a secondary colour palette had not been defined back then. This meant that there was a great deal of freedom when it came to applying the corporate identity, with the result that the brand’s visual image ultimately became something of a mess. In such cases the further development of an organisation's corporate identity is a must to ensure the creation of a consistent and recognisable brand.

Source: http://www.vim-group.com/en/top-ten-reasons-rebranding/

3.2 Case studies

• 10 mistakes marketeers make when rebranding

Interesting video about rebranding. 

• 10 succesful rebranding campaigns

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/10-most-successful-rebranding-campaigns-2011-2?IR=T