Everyone does Branding nowadays
That's not a complaint, it's a reality: as Brand is multifaceted, one has to ...
1. rationalize it
2. align Business with it
3. make Marketing be the context for it
4. let Marketing be rooted in it
5. accrue value in it
6. ensure that AI can read it
7. ensure to AI-codify it
8. communicate it
9. promote it
10. differentiate it
11. ensure relevance for it
12. lend distinctiveness to it
13. measure it
14. manage it
15. storytell it
16. make an operating system out of it
17. add verbal components to it
18. add visual components to it
+etc>
18+ things that must be done, and that to be done well require innate talents, hard-earned professional skills, and lengthy hands-on experience.
As such, many different highly capable professionals work with/in Branding and legitimately have something to say:
Business Consultants
Marketing Strategists
Organizational Consultants
Behavioral Expert
Economists
Investors,
AI Specialists
Namers
Graphic Designers
Web Designers
SEO experts
Media Outreacher
Personal Branders
Social Media experts
Copywriters
Digital Professionals
Advertising, of all kinds
PR Strategists
Gurus, of all kinds
and more.
--
Now:
you noticed what those 18+ bulletpointed items have in common:
"it".
And 'it' is Brand. (and yes: 'it' resides in their mind etc - but you have to define 'it' first, then make 'it' happen, and then work hard at letting 'it' stay that way).
You can tell me about Business and Marketing and AI and anything else until you're blue in the face, but it is a fact that no matter what ... 'it' needs to be thought up - before and/or after doing all those 18+ bulletpoints. Without (a meaningful) 'it', you're spinning wheels and squeezing blood from a stone, and spending a ton of marketing and comms money along the way.
But here's the issue:
all of those highly capable professionals say that they are great at doing 'it': surely some can, but as surely not all can. 'It' is not easy, and requires innate talents, hard-earned professional skills, and lengthy hands-on experience - just like those other 18+ things.
---
A final note about the 'it'.
Despite all the charts and frameworks and wheels and pyramids and summersaulted models, the discipline of Branding at large hinges on two - just two - indispensable/foundational parts:
• IT 1: the 'it' itself, a core concept/intent that needs to be crafted (and not be just a cool slogan + storytelling)
and
• IT 2: the perspective that 'it' must decide for going to market (and not be just efficient Portfolio Management)
And that's Brand Promise and Brand Architecture.
(or whatever 'labels' one uses)
Do these two in a deeply meaningful way, and all other parts of Brand & Branding will fall into place as they are foundations, enabling corollaries, expressions, and plannable consequences to ...'it'.
(and ... at masterbranded, we do IT 1 and 2 exceptionally well)
#brand #branding #brandstrategy #brandconsulting #masterbranded #brandfundamentals