How to identify, evaluate and strengthen your brand from the inside out
As a business owner, you would know just how necessary it is to stand out in a crowded, noisy and competitive market. Your brand needs to be strong, consistent and working at its absolute best. All makes sense, common (business) knowledge right?
But how often do you assess this? And we mean really assess this…for example, is your brand connecting with your customers on a deeper level and is it showcasing everything that makes you awesome?
Well, this is where a Brand Audit comes in. But what is it exactly and why is it a super important tool to take the time to invest in?
A Brand Audit is an in-depth review of where your brand is currently at, where you are nailing it and where there might be some room for improvement. It’s a super important step in ensuring that your brand is aligned with your business goals and is effectively communicating your message to your target audience.
Here are the things that should be considered…
Your Brand Foundations
The core of your brand. It’s the framework everything is built from.
Great brand’s are not defined by their logo, rather it’s the intrinsic characteristics, the personality, the nuances that make a brand distinctive, relatable, memorable. We call this Brand DNA and it’s what separates you from the pack. It brings context to your brand assets, to your collateral, to your logo.
Without a true purpose, a clearly defined vision and a motivating reason for existence, it’s difficult for consumers to find a compelling reason to buy from you.
Strong brand foundations give you the edge over competitors and your customers, something to align to, something to identify themselves with that positions your brand as the only viable solution to meet their needs, wants and desires.
Clarity around your brand is the secret. Consistency is the tool.
Your Verbal Identity
Most brands don’t treat their words with the same respect they do their visual identity.
Brands built with clarity are better placed to build more meaningful relationships with their clients and the right tone helps them have difficult conversations (shout out to KFC and the FCK IT Bucket).
Brands who understand the importance of language can build more thoughtful and meaningful dialogues with their customers.
Your Visual Identity
A strong visual identity enables you to shape perception. It allows you to build an impression that openly represents you and the value you bring as a business.
Your identity guides communication and should connect with your audience on an emotional and primal level.
But how do you get it right?
Brand building is hard and expensive when it goes wrong. The failsafe to ensure you’re on the right track is having an innate understanding of your audience, who they are, what they like, where they hang out.
With a strong understanding of your audience, you can carve out a desirable place for them in your story. Let them play their part, stay true to your cause and build alignment with their desires directly into your brand’s DNA.
Once you understand that, you can craft your visual identity with purpose to build associations with more alignment and relatability.
Sounds like a lot to think about?
Well, it is and we admit, this isn’t exactly an easy task that should be approached lightly nor should it be avoided. So where do you start? As it so happens, we have created a no-nonsense, self-guided assessment that gives you everything you need to assess where your brand is currently at, identify gaps and hopefully help you figure out exactly where you want to be…which is circling well above those angry birds (hopefully!).
Get your copy here and if you get stuck…we are only a phone call away.
A Crash Course in Brand Journalism
Every year, marketers have a new buzzword that they’ll throw around to prove they are more in the know than any other marketer. The new terminology tends to die out as quick as it erupts, but brand journalism has stuck around – and for good reason.
The phrase ‘Brand Journalism’ first came into popular use in 2004, when McDonald’s Chief Marketing Officer, Larry Light, said that “no single ad tells the whole story”. Instead, Light said that McDonald’s had employed a new marketing tactic called ‘brand journalism’. In 2020, Forbes Magazine published an article by Light explaining how the once-controversial tactic is still alive and well in 2023.
Brand Journalism, Defined
Brand journalism is a technique that employs the tools, tactics, and strategies of traditional journalism to sell a brand’s story. It takes the fundamentals of journalism and places it into a corporate setting (which is why it’s sometimes referred to as corporate journalism).
Instead of advertising a product or service with a single (and repetitive) creative message, brand journalism allows a company to position and highlight its value from a different angle. It creates a channel for companies to tell stories that share the brand without rubbing it in the face of a consumer. Brand journalism should embody these characteristics:
- Timely and compelling storytelling;
- Balanced, well-investigated, fact-based findings that meet journalistic standards;
- Relevant to the reader’s world and clarifies complicated matters;
- Encourages discussion
Over the years, customers have wisened up to the realities of advertising and its constant intrusion. The second a product advertisement is seen online, instinct will reflexively scroll to the next post or video.
What makes brand journalism different is its approach to storytelling. At the very core of communication is the desire to tell and listen to stories. Brand journalism uses this understanding to engage readers by using their own interests and concerns to create articles that foster emotional connections to the brand. Solid storytelling through brand journalism means people can satisfy their appetites for self-directed research and information gathering.
Content Marketing vs Brand Journalism
Brand journalism is often confused with content marketing. Some marketers have tried to draw a hard line between the two but in all honesty, it isn’t so dry cut. The two techniques borrow from each other quite a lot. The difference lies in the outcomes.
Brand journalisms goal is to:
Build awareness and affinity for the brand;
Create context for subsequent brand messaging;
Organically acquire relevant audience
Content marketing aims to:
Capture and nurture interest;
Generate leads and conversions;
Build loyalty with the existing audience
Maker Street’s 4 Step Guide to Brand Journalism
Narrow down your audience
It’s the first step to pretty much every type of advertising: find out exactly who you’re talking to. It’s always tempting to stay somewhat vague so your article appeals to as wide of an audience as possible. We aren’t broadcasting this writing on national television, though, we’re publishing it to the internet where everything is targeted, traced, and tailored. Narrowing it down to a single person or the idea of that person makes for a far more compelling piece while also giving you a clear foundation to start writing from.
Identify their concerns
Now that we’ve narrowed down the audience to a specific type of person, we need to work out what makes them move. What problem are they facing that your business can help fix? Identifying this problem will give your business a purpose and create an underlying sense of understanding and compassion with your reader. In 2021, if we have a problem, we’re likely to ask google as the first port of call.
So, what is the query that would bring your audience to the article?
Focus on language
When you’re talking about a variety of topics, it’s important to make sure you have a consistent tone of voice across all outlets. As the old adage goes, consistency is key. Though it is important to keep reflecting on your tone of voice as your brand evolves. Who is your audience and how does your business engage them? What do they best respond to? It’s imperative that you find the tone for your brand that levels with the audience and encourages them to give you their business.
Now write your story
Once you’ve done your homework (and the previous steps), this is where you get the ball rolling. You know who you’re talking to, why you’re talking to them, and how you’ll speak with them. Now is the time to grab their attention and work out what you want to say to them.
It’s important to remember to focus on their points and how you can help them without the upsell. This isn’t an ad, it’s a beautifully crafted piece of the bigger story – your story. Expand your brand beyond product placement
Brand Journalism, Summarised
Brand journalism is a way of ushering customers towards your brand and not about selling your product – done correctly and the sales will come. In fact, you aren’t selling your product, instead you are selling the idea of what your product can bring to your customer. Brand journalism allows a business to acquire relevant audiences with potential interest in the offering. It sets up the pretext for subsequent brand messaging that can build trust and investment in your brand to forge long-lasting relationships with your customers.
Brand journalism addresses the realities of the audience. A brand can mean different things to different customers based on location, age, work, etc. In a world of hyper-segmentation thanks to mobile media, one-size-fits-all advertising rarely works, if ever. Brand journalism is a fantastic way to add a multi-dimensional layer to your business while simultaneously circumventing the advertising burn-out of a post-digital world.
Take this article as an example. We’ve centred this piece around the prospects of brand journalism and how it can help businesses forge long-lasting relationships with their customers. We aren’t selling a product, but we are highlighting the value that a product we create can bring to our clients.
So, forgive us for the upsell but if you’d like to chat about all things branding, drop us a line. studio@mkrst.co
When is the ideal time to do a brand refresh?
Have your sales plateaued? Are you finding it harder to attract new customers? Are you launching new products or services? Have you recently gone through a merger or acquisition? Does your brand feel inconsistent across different touch points?
These are just a few questions you can ask yourself to self-assess whether a brand refresh might be on the cards for you. For every business, brand is the heart of their identity. It is what customers recognise and trust. Ultimately, it’s the brand (not the product) that plays a crucial role in consumers’ decision-making processes when selecting one product, or service, over another.
But, even the most established brands can become stale, outdated, or out of touch with changing times and consumer expectations, leaving you at the bottom of the list or resulting in endless abandoned shopping carts.
So, is this where a brand refresh should be planned? Well yes, but there’s other key indicators to also consider in order to determine exactly what is required and when…
Some key considerations
Staying relevant
Markets are continually evolving. We’ve all heard and probably witnessed scenarios where companies have not kept up with changing landscapes and start to look and feel a little less relevant. Consumer behaviours and preferences change, and brands need to adapt to remain competitive e.g needing to shift from a bricks and mortar store to an online shopping experience.
New competition or competitors stepping up their game
As new competitors enter your market, established brands may need to differentiate themselves to better resonate with customers. This can involve updating or better articulating your brand’s messaging, visual identity, (along with a potential update to product offerings and prices) to stay competitive.
You look at your brand and it simply “feels” outdated
When you know, you know. A brand that has not been updated or tweaked in a while may begin to feel a little off the mark, outdated and irrelevant to consumers. A refresher, even an uplift can help bring the brand into the current age whilst ensuring it is still aligning and connecting with customers desires.
Your company has had a strategic change in direction
As a company’s business objectives and goals change over time, so does its brand identity. For example, a need to secure higher margins and appeal to a new/growing market segment could mean shifting focus from affordability to quality and luxury. This type of shift may result in a change to how the brand communicates and an uplift in the way it does this (the identity and brand systems).
If you’re finding negative feedback in how consumers respond and interact with you, it’s probably time to take a look internally at what might be driving that. When a brand lands a negative reputation, a refresh is almost always on the cards. It goes a long way in helping the business reposition itself in the market to regain customer trust and credibility. A rebrand can help distance a company from the past and refocus their efforts on aligning with their customers morals, values and beliefs.
Establishing a foothold in a new target market
As brands seek to expand their customer base, they may need to refresh their existing brand identity or introduce a new brand to appeal to the new target market/demographics. This can involve updating visual elements, messaging, or product offerings to better resonate with the new target audience.
So what does this actually look like?
Let’s explore these signals a tad more with some examples of brands that have refreshed their identity over the years. And before you say it, yes, most of these are well known. However, it just goes to show that no matter how large a brand you are, no matter how much of a market share you have, it’s important to keep your brand fresh and relevant with your audience.
Staying relevant:
Remember Blockbuster? Blockbuster was pretty much THE video rental store to go to… but they didn’t adapt to the shift towards online streaming and were eventually replaced by companies like Netflix, Stan and Hulu. And let’s not forget Kodak, a massive camera and film company, really missed the market signals and failed to adapt to the shift towards digital photography.
New competition or competitors stepping up their game:
Pepsi underwent a massive rebranding effort in 2008 to differentiate itself from Coca-Cola and appeal to younger consumers. The updated brand identity included a new logo and updated packaging design. Pepsi’s rebranding effort had a positive impact on the company, helping to revitalise its brand and appeal to a younger generation of consumers.
Outdated:
Qantas had been using the same logo for almost 20 years and was seen as outdated and lacking by many consumers, young and old. In 2007 they unveiled a new brand identity, which included a new logo, aircraft livery, and brand positioning. They also launched a new brand positioning campaign, which focused on the airline’s heritage and reputation for safety and reliability: “Spirit of Australia”.
Strategic change in direction:
Apple shifted its focus from computers to personal electronics in the early 2000s, prompting a refresh of its brand identity and marketing campaigns.
A few years later in 2015 McDonald’s refreshed its brand identity to reflect a shift towards healthier menu options and a more modern restaurant design. This came as they recognised their audience and primary consumer was growing up forcing them to do the same in order to maintain a monopoly in the market.
Negative brand reputation:
Yep… we’re digging up Volkswagen and their diesel scam! Come on… it was a massive “faux pas” and yet look at them go now! Volkswagen underwent a realignment effort in 2016 following the “Dieselgate” scandal. (Remember… where they installed illegal software on diesel vehicles to deceive us all about their high emissions?) The company updated its brand to distance itself from the scandal and shift consumer perceptions toward their new stance on sustainability.
In the early 2000s, KFC faced criticism over the health implications of its menu, which was high in calories, fat, and sodium. In addition to introducing healthier menu options, they rebranded, dropping “Kentucky Fried Chicken” to a simple “KFC”. The company believed that the word “fried” had negative connotations and wanted to distance itself from that image. While KFC still offers its classic fried chicken, the company’s efforts to offer healthier options and rebrand itself as KFC have helped to keep the brand relevant and appeal to a broader range of consumers in an ever-changing market.
Establishing a foothold in a new target market:
Long before “woke” was a “thing” Mattel faced criticism over Barbie’s representation of beauty standards and its impact on young girls’ self-esteem. In 2016 Barbie underwent a major rebranding exercise in an effort to make the brand more inclusive and diverse. The new Barbie line included dolls of different body types, skin tones, and hairstyles, as well as new careers and interests. The new dolls also featured more realistic proportions and facial features, aimed at promoting a healthier and more positive body image which helped to emphasise Barbie’s commitment in promoting diversity and inclusivity.
The new line of Barbie dolls and the rebranding effort were well-received by consumers and were seen as a positive step forward for the brand.Mattel was able to create a more positive and inclusive brand image for Barbie and to a larger, more diverse audience.
So where does this lead us?
We started with what seemed like a simple enough question: “When is the ideal time to do a brand refresh?”
And our thoughts are this; established brands need to consider how a brand refresh could help them grow, influence and build positive associations with their brand. This could be after a merger or acquisition, when sales are declining, or when launching new products or services. Sometimes it’s about building relevance, other times it’s about attracting new customers and re-engaging existing ones. And sometimes, it’s just about changing the conversation.
In conclusion, if you are experiencing declining sales, finding it hard to attract new customers, and struggling to re-engage with your existing customers, it may be time to consider investing in brand refresh.
Need help?
You don’t have to navigate this challenge alone! We help existing businesses, startup ventures, spaces and places shape bold brands worth talking about. Our focus is on helping brands communicate with more clarity to bring purpose and meaning to the forefront of the conversation.
We have developed a tried and tested 12 week Brand Delivery System to make this happen. So if you’d like to learn more, email us, phone us (+61 7 3556 5329), send us a message via LinkedIn or download our free Brand Audit Workbook.