My Brand Soapbox

Sometimes it’s best to start with the basics. There is, frankly, too much marketing jargon thrown about inaccurately, and everyone’s an expert, so here’s my attempt at setting the record straight. My breakdown might help you help your internal stakeholders align on what brand is, and what it isn’t.

I’m passionate about this: A brand is not simply a logo. It’s an operational system, a company culture embodied; an intangible belief system which drives who a company is and how they show up in the world. Of course, the brand identity may show up in the form of a logo—that’s called branding, but it’s much more than that. It’s a feeling, an association, a memory, a perception. As marketers, we mostly know this, but it’s sometimes hard to explain the difference to a boardroom. Just because you have a pretty identity package doesn’t mean you have brand equity or meaning.  

So, when your own team can’t describe what you do in one sentence, you aren’t sure who your audience is or what they think about you, or competitors begin capturing your market share, it’s time to reevaluate your brand platform, identity, and strategy.

Now’s the time when I tell you more of what you already know: that brand strategy is not a marketing, campaign, product, or social strategy, etc., but it all should ultimately be rooted in the brand strategy. Get the foundation right first, and the rest is all downstream.  

The brand strategy should ideally be informed by the business strategy and:

• The market landscape (What factors, seen and unseen, should we be aware of?)

• Key competitors (Because positioning is relative; it only works when it’s set against something.)

• Audience desires, beliefs, and behaviors (Do we truly know our customer? And are we meeting their needs and expectations?)

• Cultural, operational, and organizational realities of the company (Not just what the C-Suite thinks, but what people who deal with these realities think.)

• Actual culture (What is going on in our cultural moment and how does that impact how we show up in the world?)

• Vision for the future (Is it clear? Is it relevant? Is it wise?)

So, how do you evaluate the effectiveness of your brand? First: identify the Big Thing. And by Big Thing, I mean, what is the problem? Is there a problem? Is there a disconnect between what your brand says and how it shows up in the world?  

If the problem is unclear, sift first through existing brand perception and evaluate the market landscape. Through conversation, questioning, and evaluation, realities or new questions worth exploring will emerge. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to this type of work, but it’s imperative that when evaluating brand perception, you get transparent feedback from the stakeholders within (and outside of) the organization.

Depending on the situation, we recommend gathering a mix of VOC from past and current customers, capturing internal stakeholder feedback from employees at all levels of the organization (because ultimately, these should be your first brand champions), conducting a competitive audit and an audit of your existing brand materials, evaluating the broader market landscape as well as parallel or comparative industries, and cultural and social listening.  

And we truly believe the deepest insights emerge when someone from outside of your organization is doing the work. The benefit is that an outsider typically has an unbiased, objective point of view. They aren’t jaded by the day-to-day of working with a particular set of humans, and they won’t sugarcoat reality. CVR offers strategic counsel for companies that recognize the need for an outside POV, facilitating custom qualitative and quantitative brand research studies.

It's easy to overcomplicate the brand “discovery” process. There are frameworks for analyzing the research and different structures for mapping brand platform components, but essentially, when done the right way, it’s rooted in a transparent, holistic, honest response to the following questions:  

• Who are we?

• Why do we exist?

• What do we do?  

• How do we do things?  

• How and where do we show up in the world?  

• Why should anyone care?  

The outcome should be confidence, clarity, and consistency; true guidance for the present and for the future of your brand. If that sounds like something you need, we’d love to get all in your business. And if you want to hear more about or dive deeper into our perspectives on brand strategy, give us a buzz at newbiz@cvrindy.com.  

Please note that all em dashes are my own. I’ll give AI credit where it’s due, but it’s not due here.

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