Do you have a healthy brand?

To many of us in the advertising-design profession, this happens all too often. Hypothetically speaking, a business owner will approach us with their “product/ service” in hand and ask for advertising content to help grow their business. Problem is, in order to solve their marketing problem, we need to understand their brand health.

You wouldn’t walk into your doctor’s office and suggest that you need heart surgery because you’re feeling sluggish. The doctor might ask a few questions before reaching for the scalpel. Similarly, before we create content, we need to understand your brand. Otherwise, we’re just treating symptoms and not the disease.

We tell them that creative marketing without addressing their brand (ingredients which includes website, logo, signage, etc), is like putting a Band-Aid on a severed head. It might stop the bleeding momentarily, but it certainly isn’t going to heal the wound.

I understand how this happens. When you’re starting a business, there a million things demanding your attention such as hiring staff, inventory, construction, etc. And branding falls to the bottom of your “to-do” list.

To attract customers, your business needs a personality. It tells folks who you are. What you stand for. And why they should choose you over the business across the street. Your branding “ingredients” must work seamlessly. It forms the foundation of your business, and you must stand out from the beginning.

Maybe you’re the only game in town. If customers have nowhere else to go, you might get away with an amateur-looking brand (designed by an engineer’s kid who took a painting class in juvy). But what happens when competition arrives? That’s a scenario I’m about to experience.

AdMaki is expanding into a new market. The Okanagan. We’ll be the “new kids in town,” competing against established advertising agencies. After decades of hands-on experience creating awardwinning work for all kinds of business sectors, I’m hoping our arrival makes agencies nervous. Not because I want them to fail. Quite the opposite. I want them to look at AdMaki and ask themselves:
“Is our brand strong enough to compete with Brainface?”

That’s exactly what every business owner should be asking. The comfortable business owner thinks, “We’ve been here for years. Our customers know us.” Maybe they do. But what happens when competition with a shiny brand shows up? Does it make for a more compelling reason to choose them? That’s when the branding you ignored becomes a very expensive problem.

You may need to rebrand just when you should be concentrating on your business. The adage of “It’s less expensive to keep existing clients than to find new ones” holds true. Your brand should be the first investment you make and not one of the last things you fix. You don’t need to spend a fortune. But you do need to understand the value of getting it right. That reminds me of another adage (sorry), “You only get one chance to make a first impression”.

Your business deserves a personality. It deserves an identity. And it deserves to look as professional as the product/service you provide. And most importantly, it has to reflect your business.

So put your brand in front of a mirror and ask, “Do you like what you see?”

Cheers, mark