Brand management Archives - Brand Reflections

At first glance, the challenge facing brands today appears to be one of amplification – in a crowded marketplace, whoever shouts loudest gets the attention. Yet a simple analysis will reveal that the correlation between volume and outcome seems tenuous at best.

Rather than turning up the volume to 11 and acting as the gatekeeper for all brand communication, the focus should be on creating a high level of consistency of perception around the brand identity. In other words, developing a brand with a clear, identifiable personality.

Yet achieving this in a world of ever-expanding communication channels is a considerable challenge. With the boundaries between marketing tools becoming increasingly blurred, any increase in the scope and complexity of communication – combined with the inevitable increase in the number of parties involved – runs the risk of delivering content that fails to align fully with the brand identity. No doubt social media and other channels enable brands to connect with customers in new ways, however these methods can also dilute brand identity very easily.
Continue reading “Humanising your Brand: The Tale of a Winning Personality”

Brand Reflections was developed from an initial curiosity into whether there is any overlap between the work we have done on measuring the formation and development of team relationships and group culture and how the perception of brands varies amongst consumers and brand managers. In other words, how important is the consistency of the perception of a brand’s “personality”.

At first glance there don’t appear to be too many connections between these two areas, however, scratching beneath the surface reveals some key psychological commonalities.

As with personal and workplace relationships and with our relationships with brands and organisations, we form perceptions and opinions through the prism of personality traits and characteristics. It may sound strange, but for any brand that we come in to contact with, even at a very superficial level, we develop a set of characteristics or views that we believe we can apply to the brand. This often takes place on a subconscious level but is without doubt one of the many factors that influences our relationship with the brand.
Continue reading “An Introduction to Brand Reflections”