Does branding need to be about a company and their limited/unlimited marketing budgets? Or is it more about that, when it comes to connecting with the consumer with the business?
According to Geoffrey James from Inc. Magazine,
"It’s a myth that having lots of brands and plenty of branding is good for business, after a certain point, both brands and branding cease to be useful."
Ah, here we see the law of diminishing returns. Does it apply to branding? Does it stop being useful after a certain point? Is branding supposed to last forever?
It is these sort of questions that need to be tackled so that branding and its place in the 21st century world is scrutinized and reflected upon. We asked some design industry specialists whether is it still prudent to consider branding as worthy of your marketing dollars.
According to Michael Niemen,
‘A logo is not branding. The local garage might like a logo to put on their business cards but their brand is the impression I take away when I go there. The greatest logo on earth won’t change my mind after a bad experience. I don’t think global brands are projecting an artificial impression of themselves since their businesses are much more transparent than they were top/down advertising days. The best way to project a positive brand image, is to actually be positive. Its win/win.’
So basically its not about you sloughing through your marketing budget to keep your brand alive, but your customers who keep your brand afloat.
Ron Tinsley considers the organization’s size and goal and how that invariably influences and affects their branding efforts,
‘A small business that needs branding may simply need a logo, website and social media presence. He cannot afford much else. But large global brands want to get into peoples heads so they develop demographic and psychographic profiles of their customer. Branding, for them, is more about the values they communicate through the things that represent them.’
Its not just about having a pretty face out there as much as knowing what approach of branding your organization can accrue advantages with.
