Why Branding Matters in Marketing

“You nailed it!”

“Wow!”

“That captures the essence of us.”

“I love it.”

These are quotes from actual clients after their “Juice” is unveiled. It may sound boastful, but after doing the work, digging deep and going through the peaks and valleys of the creative process, this actually is the typical response from clients. Why do clients respond this way? Read on to find out.

Arriving at The Juice is a pivotal step in our Orange Label Approach. So, what is The Juice? We define it for our clients as the compelling messaging and visual differentiation of a brand. In our Approach, The Juice takes all the View from the Field research into account and transforms these discoveries into something tangible. Based on a collection of interviews, anecdotes and client context, The Juice embodies the intrinsic value of a brand. During this process we find the answer to the question: what kind of messaging and visual appeal will speak to a brand’s core audience, appeal to new customers and resonate with decision influencers and makers.

Getting to The Juice requires left and right-brain thinking. While there is a fair amount of creativity required, all content must be developed with a strategic focus that fulfills a brand’s goals and objectives. For example, a retail brand may want to reach a younger audience with pithy, direct and out-of-the-box creative. At the same time, this brand does not want to ostracize its loyal customer base, which is made up of an older demographic. As response marketing experts, it’s our job to produce content that appeals to the widest audience possible while communicating a powerful message that drives strong results.

It’s no secret that companies can be complicated and summing up a brand’s essence in one neat, packaged message is no small task. That said, there are exercises that can move the process forward. Elevator speeches, for example, sum-up a brand’s values and offerings in a few brief sentences. The elevator speech is especially powerful as it can easily be shared internally among employees and externally to prospective customers in around 30 seconds. Writing benefit statements are also helpful in identifying exactly what a company provides its customers, whether it’s attentive customer service, high-quality products or knowledgeable staff. These benefit statements prove especially effective when determining a company’s core values, as they already identify key differentiators.

Design is also a crucial part of bringing brand’s Juice to life. When determining The Juice, we consider visual possibilities from every angle, focusing on everything from typography to photography, logo design to website development. We look at what the competition is producing and analyze industry standards to create artwork that breaks through and captures the audience’s attention. Piecing together all of the components, it is also recommended to publish a style guide where employees and response marketing teams can easily access these branded design elements. Style guides act as an important point of reference that ensures designs stay consistent across multiple platforms.

In this day and age, shareability is another factor to consider as more and more people turn to digital platforms for information and communication. Clear, powerful messaging that authentically conveys a brand’s identity will motivate users to share your content. In a recent survey conducted by the New Jersey Institute of Technology, researchers found that 80 percent of consumers decide to follow a brand if their content is “authentic.” In this same study, consumers were 3 times more likely to trust a brand’s content than its employees. Observing these statistics, it’s clear that a brand’s content and overall message has major influence when it comes to making purchase decisions. Brand messaging, if formulated thoughtfully, can also instill emotional benefits among customers, such as peace of mind and trust. The same goes for internal engagement – according to MSLGroup, when employees share a brand message on social media, it gets 561 percent more reach than when the same message is shared on the brand’s own social media channels.

No matter the industry, from a branding perspective, what you say and look like matters. Projecting a message that is authentic, relevant and easily shared separates brands from the competition and paves the way to lasting value. The Juice informs all marketing content moving forward, from social media to print and digital advertising. If a brand was a person, The Juice would be its voice, its personality and its overall demeanor. The Juice is the essence of a brand, the basis on which all concepts are formed – without it, marketing execution strategies cannot be formed. In our next blog, Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail, we’ll describe the logistics behind response-driven marketing and provide implementation best practices for maximum ROI.