What is branding?

Let's start with what branding isn't. Contrary to what a lot of people say it is.

It's not a logo. A logo is a handy tool for a business, but it's not the brand. It's a symbol for the brand.

A brand is not a product. When people talk about buying this brand or that brand, they're talking about buying one product or another product. That is not the brand.

People say a brand is a promise the company makes to customers, and there's some truth here, but that's not what a brand is either.

None of these explains what a brand is. A brand is a result. A result that should grow Brand Value and Customer Excellence.

It's a customer's gut feeling about a product, service, or company. It ends up in their heads and their hearts. They translate the raw materials thrown at them and make something out of it. But they're making it. They create a brand—the customers.

And every customer creates a slightly different view of the brand. Each product and touchpoint is a brand. Together these millions of ‘customer brands’ collectively shape a brand's true reputation.

That reputation is the brand, and the brand is the result.

Your brand isn't what you say it is. It's what they say it is.

- Marty Neumeier, the leading expert on branding, design, innovation, and creativity.

And if brands don't start there, a brand’s result will only ever be as strong as the customers' gut feelings about a product, service, or company.

A Customer Excellence litmus provides an incredibly detailed insight into the customer's gut and emotional feelings about that brand and company.

The Brand Diagnostic Assessment™ (BDA™) measures the brand's customer experiences - touching every touchpoint, from product, design, messaging, look and feel, and experience - to brand culture and employee behaviours. It pinpoints WHY revenue vanishes unnoticed from brands over time.

Over a decade of creating Brand Value & Customer Excellence, experience shows customers powerfully communicate daily "Your brand isn't what you say it is. It's what we say it is."

Understanding these identify the brand’s hidden (upside) value. It brings light to a brand’s unseen - the unknown unknowns. It highlights fresh insights that strengthen and boost brand performance and revenue growth. It breaks down the impossible-to-solve Global Luxury Industry CEO challenges.

More on Marty Neumeier

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martyneumeier/

Level C: https://www.levelc.org/

Liquid Agency: https://www.liquidagency.com/people/marty-neumeier/