ZARZA We are Zarza, the prestigious firm behind major projects in information technology.
Listen "Ins and Outs of Branding Your Organization"
Episode Synopsis
Here’s a riddle…although if you’ve been reading or listening recently, it’s more of a review question.
What do slick, wildly successful brands like Salesforce, Nike, and Apple have in common with England’s historic royal families? Aside from hype, hefty name recognition, sky-high valuations that might compare to the Windsor family’s personal fortune, what’s the common thread?
Give up?
From a brand-builder’s perspective, there’s a right answer—they’re all distinguished, organizational, or ‘household’ brands that stamp their values, history, and reputation on every product.
Or in the case of the Windsors, every family member.
When we think about branding for individual products versus branding for organizations, household brands present one kind of overlap.
Usually, it’s the good kind.
Whether they’re putting out a new pair of basketball shoes, a line of kids’ athletic shorts, or an app that can track your biometrics while you work out, all of Nike’s products are clearly Nike. Though varied, built for different purposes, and even aimed at different audiences, each product reflects Nike’s core values. Those shoes, sorts, and app all exude its mantra of just do it, and carry that same reputation for stylish, athletic excellence. Each has the swoosh logo in a place where you can see it.
In other words, that strong, overarching brand carries a lot of weight and communicates a distinct identity. But while they all get a lift from that household brand, all of those individual products need to maintain trust and consistency.
Of course, Nike, Apple, and even Disney are not indestructible.
If a company with a high-flying reputation puts out one bad product, and then another…soon enough the entire brand will suffer.
https://youtu.be/k2T7EFVG5g0
Moving on From Product Branding
Last month, I talked all about product branding, and how making really amazing products (or, if you’re a business to business company, offering really amazing services) is a prerequisite, but not enough. Without a cohesive brand expression, marketing, and a strategy for gaining the trust and attention of those who might need that product, or service, chances are few people will know about it.
To that end, thoughtful product branding strategy hinges on the audience.
Knowing who your audience is and what relationship you’re building with them by way of your service is the starting point—and for many successful companies (Jeep, for one, comes to mind), it’s one way to build a widely recognized organizational brand.
People get to know that overall brand, and in the future, they return to them, because of their relationship with a product or service they really love. The association of the product transfers over to the household brand, and hopefully to more products or services that household brand might offer.
While this makes sense if you’re building outward for a product, or a service, there’s another, and I’d argue, a more advantageous way to approach branding for an organization.
Branding Your Organization Starts With…Your Organization.
No, I actually mean that.
While it might sound somewhat corny or on the nose, please bear with me:
Rather than starting with the audience (as you might with product branding…or as you’d probably have to if your whole brand is wrapped up in one product), start with yourself.
I’m not saying your audience, your customers, or the corner of the world that you’ll be interacting with day in, day out is irrelevant.
Don’t throw everyone else overboard while you go on some pilgrimage to another dimension.
Instead, do yourself the courtesy of realizing you, your team, and your entire organization is remarkable. From there, start digging…and just like you’d examine your audience, their needs, their history, their location, their purpose, their unique traits, values, likes, and dislikes as if you were marketing a product,
What do slick, wildly successful brands like Salesforce, Nike, and Apple have in common with England’s historic royal families? Aside from hype, hefty name recognition, sky-high valuations that might compare to the Windsor family’s personal fortune, what’s the common thread?
Give up?
From a brand-builder’s perspective, there’s a right answer—they’re all distinguished, organizational, or ‘household’ brands that stamp their values, history, and reputation on every product.
Or in the case of the Windsors, every family member.
When we think about branding for individual products versus branding for organizations, household brands present one kind of overlap.
Usually, it’s the good kind.
Whether they’re putting out a new pair of basketball shoes, a line of kids’ athletic shorts, or an app that can track your biometrics while you work out, all of Nike’s products are clearly Nike. Though varied, built for different purposes, and even aimed at different audiences, each product reflects Nike’s core values. Those shoes, sorts, and app all exude its mantra of just do it, and carry that same reputation for stylish, athletic excellence. Each has the swoosh logo in a place where you can see it.
In other words, that strong, overarching brand carries a lot of weight and communicates a distinct identity. But while they all get a lift from that household brand, all of those individual products need to maintain trust and consistency.
Of course, Nike, Apple, and even Disney are not indestructible.
If a company with a high-flying reputation puts out one bad product, and then another…soon enough the entire brand will suffer.
https://youtu.be/k2T7EFVG5g0
Moving on From Product Branding
Last month, I talked all about product branding, and how making really amazing products (or, if you’re a business to business company, offering really amazing services) is a prerequisite, but not enough. Without a cohesive brand expression, marketing, and a strategy for gaining the trust and attention of those who might need that product, or service, chances are few people will know about it.
To that end, thoughtful product branding strategy hinges on the audience.
Knowing who your audience is and what relationship you’re building with them by way of your service is the starting point—and for many successful companies (Jeep, for one, comes to mind), it’s one way to build a widely recognized organizational brand.
People get to know that overall brand, and in the future, they return to them, because of their relationship with a product or service they really love. The association of the product transfers over to the household brand, and hopefully to more products or services that household brand might offer.
While this makes sense if you’re building outward for a product, or a service, there’s another, and I’d argue, a more advantageous way to approach branding for an organization.
Branding Your Organization Starts With…Your Organization.
No, I actually mean that.
While it might sound somewhat corny or on the nose, please bear with me:
Rather than starting with the audience (as you might with product branding…or as you’d probably have to if your whole brand is wrapped up in one product), start with yourself.
I’m not saying your audience, your customers, or the corner of the world that you’ll be interacting with day in, day out is irrelevant.
Don’t throw everyone else overboard while you go on some pilgrimage to another dimension.
Instead, do yourself the courtesy of realizing you, your team, and your entire organization is remarkable. From there, start digging…and just like you’d examine your audience, their needs, their history, their location, their purpose, their unique traits, values, likes, and dislikes as if you were marketing a product,
More episodes of the podcast Resoundcast - the branding podcast from Resound, a creative agency
Capture Your Brand Anthem with Video
15/03/2023
In God we trust