Branding, are you getting it right?

I don't often get calls about branding, but this week was different.

A dentist called me and, as part of a general discussion about marketing, wanted to know what I thought of his new logo.

Now, it's important to recognise that a logo is a vital part of your marketing efforts, a logo that accidentally communicates the wrong thing can cause ALL your other marketing efforts to fail...so, you want your logo to be right, huh?

The conversation went like this...

"What values are to wanting to represent with this logo?", I asked?

"Pardon? I'm not sure, but I like the colour don't you? "

"It's not about liking it", I replied "your logo needs to communicate, in a single image, what your practice is about"

My next question left him totally stumped, "What's your brand essence?"

"OK, now I'm lost" was his reply.

The truth was that he'd gone to the design agency with no idea about what his logo should represent, what story it should tell, what emotions it should evoke or who it should appeal to.

It was just about getting a logo that he liked!

This could end in disaster!

There is a simple strategic process that good marketers go through that will build and sustain your brand.

It involves a laddering approach whereby a series of questions are asked, each question digs a little deeper and reveals more about what your practice represents.

Your practice philosophy, ideals and ultimately your marketing message are distilled into what's known as a brand essence.

THIS is what your logo needs to represent.

THIS is the design brief you go to your designers with.

THIS is then how the question "What do you think of my logo" is answered.

So if you're wanting to refresh, design or re-evaluate your practice logo here are 2 questions that you must answer, this is the first stage of the laddering processes and is part of a brand audit.

Q1. Establish a Brand Vision, which starts with "What are your core values?" [1] These are the important drivers in your life, the values you hold that would make you work, regardless of whether you got paid or not. Another question to ask yourself about values is "What would you tell your children are the core values you hold at work and hope they will hold when working?"

Understanding your core values is the first part in beginning to distil your brand essence.

Q2. What is your envisioned future? [2] You and your team should be behind a stretching vision about what the future local environment is like and what impact your practice has locally. This not only gives you something to add into your brand objectives, it also lets your team know what it is your practice is here to do…

Plus, if you know your envisioned future you can look to represent this to your potential customers with your brand imagery, name and strapline.

There's a really good way of working out your brand objectives and how you can target exactly the right customer, there are also 3 additional sections to a brand audit which should be completed before going on to create the 5 step brand essence.

I've put these additional steps (plus more about the brand audit) into a short course https://markoborn.thinkific.com/courses/building-or-refreshing-your-dental-brand

Once you've been through the entire brand vision, objectives, audit, esssence and resourcing exercises, you can then go on to create your logo, name and strapline!

Please, never, ever create your logo first and ask what someone else thinks of it without going through this full branding process.

[1] Martin, J. (1992) Cultures in Organisations: three perspectives, Oxford, Oxford University press

[2] Collins, J. and Porras, J (. 1996) Built to Last: London, century business