Your Brand is Not Your Logo

Your Brand is Not Your Logo

Increasingly people (customers) are looking for stories. The story of how your product got to market. The story they can tell their friends about the discovery they made.

Right now people are more critical than ever before about spending on things with real integrity. Your brand (what you are known for), is not just a logo or a name. Your brand is your core values of what your compnay stands for and the experience you create.

Real Experiences for Real People

No more lipstik on the pig!!

"Lipstick on a pig" has been used a bit lately, The Obama campaign famously used this phrase as method of diminishing the competitors story. It worked as they struck a nerve with their audience.

People now look beyond the glitter and hype that used to sell products, services and politicians. People now question where products come from, who makes them, what is the 'Global Warming Potential'?

People want to have great experiences and to share them with people they love. Yet many organisations still believe that a paint job and a new logo will fool people into trusting their product. They also think you can have just one flagship product and a whole bunch of safe products.

Companies have been investing in the image without investing in the story.

It's all about the People

People make great companies

A recent survey of 500 global businesses showed that most businesses are adressing business downturn by investing in advertsising, cutting costs, and squeezing suppliers. These things do make the bottom line more attractive for the next quarter, but they only delay the eventual slide.

Long term business success comes from investing in the story. If your customers don't love your product, the way they buy the product and the after sales service. And if the people building your product don't love doing it, spending money on brand awareness isn't going to help you.

You need to build a culture of innovation. You need the story that gets told about you to be a story that you designed to be a great legacy. You don't want someone else deciding what the story will be.

Companies like Cadbury are waking up to this. A business founded on social values that lost its way over the years. Cadbury are now making all their chocolate from fair trade cocoa beans. Cadbury are building the story. They could have invented a new logo but that is all they would have.

Companies like Google, IDEO and John Lewis know that building a team of happy motivated people is the key to success. Creating an innovative culture, encouraging employee and industry interaction and making work fun attracts the right people, keeps the right people and gets the story told.

What is the story behind your brand?