Brand identity, brand awareness, personal branding, brand reputation: how to make yourself known
These are the different aspects with which one recognizes the same need:
To be recognized
But even before you have to understand
How to make yourself known
Hence the importance of a correct marketing strategy integrated between old and new technologies.
The need for man has always been “to create a group”
It is known that the success of a company depends on the knowledge and perception that the public has about the brand.
Since ancient times the “brand” was a symbol of recognition, of belonging: from the marking of cattle to tattoos, the “brand” was a symbol that identified belonging to the same group.
And the need for companies is to form a “group” of customers, of people who follow and trust them, by purchasing products and services from her.
So all companies aim to ensure that their “brand” is known and followed.
And they do it with “Advertising” or by addressing those who do not know them, making themselves “public”.
So what is “Advertising?”
We start from the fundamental concept that the “brand” is not only the “logo”
In graphic terminology, in fact, they are two very distinct things:
- The logo is normally composed of a name and an eventual graphic symbol of recognition, which identifies (hopefully univocally) our company
- The brand is instead a set of messages that allow the public to “represent” the company, therefore including all those activities aimed at increasing the public’s perception of the existence of our company and its products
In the context of communication, therefore, we will never talk about the logo, but always about the brand.
What is the “Communication” made of
The communication work of a brand (from now on we will also call it “brand” to identify it as “good” ones do) consists of many activities that help us get the idea into the head of our possible customers, let’s see together the main ones
Corporate Identity (or Coordinated Image)
which develops an idea, coordinated precisely, of presentation of the various communication aspects, declining our brand on the various supports (letterhead, envelopes, business cards, brochures, but also the website, signatures on e-mail) until the creation of more complex campaigns, which must comply with the terms defined by the company policy in terms of presentation.
This activity must focus on the focal questions: Who we are (as a Company of course), how we distinguish ourselves from the competition and with what products we present ourselves, what market we face and to whom we turn (target), where we want to arrive … obviously starting, in the case of a startup or a new product, by choosing the appropriate name.
Above and below the line communication
we often hear about it when we talk to graphic designers and agencies and ask ourselves “what is above and below the line? but above all: what is that line? ”, and many times we dare not ask it.
Simply the line is made to separate the “general” audience from the “targeted” one, let’s say that it is a game “our target against the rest of the world”. Above the line there are people who watch television, listen to the radio, read the newspaper, surf the internet, which we must reach with commercials, advertisements, etc. Below the line there are the “marketing” materials and events reserved for a specific group of users, which we have selected and which have become our goal; here catalogs, events, promotions are produced.
Obviously many activities “have the” foot in two shoes “(or rather:” over the top “) because they involve both areas, let’s give some examples: a social media campaign is aimed at the general public but can be” targeted “(yes, it is said so unfortunately), the profiling of Google allows to show our advertising on the internet to those users who have specific interests or are looking for specific words … these activities have been called “through the line” or “straddling the line” and include communication to the public who knows us and what we need to reach to let people know that “we are here”.
Campaigns
Under the term campaign there are all those activities aimed at a specific communication objective, whether it is the launch of a new product or a price drop, even a change of location because we are more reachable or we move to a more prestigious location ; all the relevant news of the Company should be subject to a “campaign”.
Whether small or large, which addresses old or new customers, it must always be coordinated with official communication; personal or improvised and undefined initiatives together with those involved in corporate communication should therefore be avoided, because they could provide images that are inconsistent with those officially decided.
The campaign is an instrument that must be “measured” as a return effect, defining whether it has achieved the objective, in numerical or qualitative terms, and allowing us to verify the effectiveness of our communication structure, whether it is the finalized “return” the acquisition of new customers or the sale of a certain number of pieces.
Digital tools ( search engines , website, social networks) are very useful in this case because they can, if properly studied, provide the effectiveness indicator through the number of clicks, steps and visualization, etc. Obviously the advertisements in newspapers or on television reach “potentially” millions of users, but we cannot measure if at that moment they were in front of the television or they were leafing through that specific page.
Conclusions
As we have seen, there are many activities that must be developed to promote the Company and Products.
And we have seen that to obtain good results they must be differentiated, but integrated and coordinated, above all to the “general” policy of corporate marketing
Sometimes the supervision and coordination, but also the realization, can be complex and demanding
It is therefore obvious that to achieve optimal results it is necessary, at least initially, to support professionals who can, in addition to structuring the activities, also train the staff to manage the various activities on their own.
It is therefore appropriate to choose people who have experience , who have knowledge of traditional or technological tools, who know how to follow operational and regulatory changes in the communication field (e.g. rules of engagement or blocking, Privacy, consumer rights), and who have time to devote to talk and agree, advising us, the best brand strategy for your company.
