I googled “branding” today and came up with over 143 million hits in less than a second! Seems as though everybody and their uncle either does branding or is being branded nowadays. Heck, even my hometown of Cheviot, Ohio recently looked into a rebranding effort. Who would of thunk they even had a brand to begin with?
The use of the word branding has certainly changed since I entered the design profession in the early 80s. Then “branding” was associated with products like toothpaste, laundry detergent, or toilet paper. Now everyone has a brand, and a company’s brand is so important that it is recognized on the ledger sheets of most Fortune 500 companies. The financial value of Coca Cola brand, for example, is +$71 billion; Google itself is at +$55 billion, which is up $43 billion from 2006.*
Many people think of a company’s brand as the logo. But it’s much more than that; it’s the immediate emotional response that people have when they hear the company name or see the logo.
That emotional response—the brand value—builds up over time and is affected at every touchpoint. Take toilet paper, for example. Starbucks supplies double-ply toilet paper in its rest rooms, and it’s been reported that despite being presented with a compelling financial reason to switch from double-ply to single-ply, it stays with double-ply because it’s in line with the company’s brand values. Talk about your brand touch points!
That’s the kind of awareness and attention to detail that we bring to our clients’ companies, products and events. Even when our clients aren’t household names like Google or Starbucks, their brands matter just the same, if not more, as they have to work even harder to establish brand awareness. And it’s not just the big stuff like identities, brochures and web sites – which we love to do – but every touch point along the way, no matter how big or small…even the toilet paper.
-PK
* www.interbrand.com