Why Develop your Brand?

Twinning Strategy invited Stace Caseria of Trust Deep Branding on this week's episode to discuss brand development. For those of us not well versed like me (Eric) in marketing speak, the experts defined brand as the story you tell your customers and employeess about your company. It is that story that drives interest, loyalty, growth and your team's approach. 

Clearly, there is a difference between branding for Cheez-Its that is different from branding for a start-up biotech company that may not have a drug on market for a decade. The common thread is that everyone company needs to tell a story to some audience. The story may be for parents trying to decide what snack to get while on a trip to the supermarket, or it may be for the venture capitalist (VC) that you need to inspire to see your company as a potential unicorn. That's the brand.

For startups and early stage companies, brand may feel like a 'nice-to-have' cost center. At this stage it can often be mistaken for logo and 'oh yeah maybe we do need a website'. But as Stace describes, having that conversation early about who your audience is and why you do what you do are a recipe for paying dividends. As Elena put, it is never too early to start building brand, even for companies that don't quite understand its power.

Building the deep trust (see where Stace's company name comes from) with your brand that it is going to deliver stretches beyond the marketplace and deep into the company when well executed. As Jeff says, his. job as brand manager/marketer was to inspire the companies employees from the executives to managers to staff to deliver the promise that the marketing projects. In a restaurant setting, this would be making sure that the waiters and hosts and kitchen staff have a playbook that aligns service with the company story--we're a welcoming, family friendly experience is translated into checking on patrons ('filling the glasses') to make sure the restaurant is following through.  For Stace in this space, an example was building a visual playbook for a founder to provide to his franchisees. 

Our conclusion, branding has its place in all companies though its form, execution and short-term goals maybe different, the principles of defining and projecting the story are consistent