Are you ready to give up the word “brand”?
I don’t know about you, but I dislike using the word “brand”. It sounds super-polished, over-the-top-image-obsessed and heavily-corporate.
Brand (in the company “branding” sense) evolved from the word “brand” as a permanent burn in the shape of a symbol on cattle and other animals. Later, brand became synonymous with an identifying mark that companies used as their logo or service mark. In the past few years, brand has come to stand for the sum of all the characteristics, both tangible and intangible, that make a company unique, representing a physical and emotional relationship between consumers and a company.
Those early definitions are why I am ready to give up the word brand. The idea of how a person interacts on an emotional and physical level with a company is much more powerful than how a company “brands” or “marks” a person with their logo and colors.
Consumers want to interact with organizations using more open dialogue, and seek to find companies that are the right “fit” for them. This doesn’t mean they just like how their logo looks, rather consumers are drawn to how a company presents itself and what it stands for. They like the type of customer service they receive, the feeling they have when they make a phone call or walk into a store.
I like calling this a company’s personality. This comes from Q Digital Studio’s philosophy of working with small businesses to build a positive, mutually rewarding and sustainable relationships with customers. Branding a small company too much can scare off potential clients. We work on developing the type of personality that will attract the right clients.
Q Digital Studio has created a Personality Test worksheet for businesses and organizations to help them start defining their personality. You can download our worksheet (no charge, no obligation!) if you’d like to check it out and get to know your company’s personality.
Download the Personality Test Worksheet >
Let us know if you’d like help defining your company’s personality >
