Brands are no longer just symbols, names, or designs. They have become an identity. A cohesive message delivered in unison.
Products have become abundant in the market. There is a technology that can solve every business problem. And, with the technology comes the buyers and competitors.
An organization or individual must compete for the attention of the buyer.
With social media, individuals can position themselves as solutions to problems, too. This could be a marketing problem, as the rise of influence marketing would suggest. Or they could sell their product, like Neil Patel’s Ubersuggest. Have no doubt, he is an SEO influencer and the face of his organization. People buy his product because his name is attached to it.
But why is this? Some organizations and individuals present themselves in a manner that we find refreshing.
Their charisma is infectious and investing our attention is entertaining and enlightening. Once an organization or individual is perceived to be charismatic, they begin to hold the attention of a relevant audience.
These organizations and individuals are called brands.
For all the vagueness of the term, we must ask: What is a brand?
A brand is an identity.
Let us talk about a famous story: Michael Jordan and Nike. In 1984, Nike and Michael Jordan created a historic moment in sports and fashion: the Air Jordan.
The legendary red and black Jordan pair were on full display during a pre-season game when Michael Jordan wore it for the first time.
The NBA was furious. They sent a letter to Nike stating the shoes violated policy and would levy a fine of $5000 per game. Nike agreed and paid the fine for each of his games, revolutionizing marketing.
The Air Jordan became an anti-establishment and a rebel-figure sneaker in the market, becoming the most popular individual-led brand ever. The legendary sneakers sold enough copies in May to reach $70 million in sales.
You may think that Nike here is the brand in question, but let us pivot and understand that while Nike defined itself as a disruptor and risk taker, it was Michael Jordan, the conqueror, who would take the limelight. And not just for his exceptional skills on the court but his presence and sense of marketing.
From his iconic ‘Be Like Mikeʼ marketing campaign to Space Jam, he became a phenomenon. A brand.
Defining a brand.
A brand is any distinctive feature like a name, term, design, or symbol that identifies goods or services. That is what it says on the American Marketing Association.
But looking at Jordan, doesn’t it feel more than that? He had no term or design. All Michael Jordan had to offer was him.
In the influencer market of personal branding, where thought leadership has become vital to stand out—a brand should be defined as the ability of an organization or an individual to craft a recognizable voice that creates an emotional response within an audience.
The need for a brand voice or identity
Have you heard about CEPs? These are Category Entry Points. These cues inside the buyer’s head help them retrieve a brand from their memory banks.
In any category, certain brands will come to your mind. Think about smartphones. Which brand comes to your mind? Apple or Samsung?
Think about AI. It’s OpenAI’s ChatGPT, is it not? Whatever the category, you have associated certain products with a brand. For a brand you trust, you don’t buy only for the product but rather the experience the brand provides through them. You want to be identified with it.
A brand voice helps organizations and individuals develop a unique voice that can be thought of easily in buying situations. This voice can generate an emotional response. Or generate trust from B2B buyers in the market for risk-mitigating solutions. A brand voice helps buyers understand what you/your organization stand for.
Crafting a brand identity takes creativity, patience, and experimentation.
Why do you connect with certain brands? It is because something resonates with you. Something that the brand does or conveys speaks to you on a personal level.
That is the brand identity. A way of saying and expressing their ideas. Crafting this voice or identity takes patience, a readiness to experiment, and creative risk-taking.
Let us break the brand voice down into two parts.
- Crafting an identity from the organization/individual perspective.
- The importance of the voice for the buyers/consumers.
Brand Identity: The creator’s perspective
To find the brand identity, the creator— organization or the individual—must understand the why. This is the noble mission of the brand. For businesses like Apple, it is to bring the best user experience through their services, products, and software.
For SEMrush, it is to make marketing competition fair and transparent. For individuals, take the de facto productivity brand, Ali Abbdal. For him and his team, it is helping people build a life they love.
Knowing the why helps brands craft a clear and concise message. The why provides the core of a brand identity.
Once a brand identifies its core, it can move towards the next layer, the how.
The how details the process of you bringing your mission into reality. If Apple wants to create the best user experience, how are they doing it? It is by using the best available specs in the market and designing their products to have a premium feel.
Or Ali Abbdal? How does he help people lead a life they love? Through free productivity resources online and actionable steps for successful and time-efficient people.
The how brings your why into existence and provides a platform for people to believe in you.
The next layer of this equation is the what. What are the methods by which you deliver your why and how? For Apple, the iPhone, iPad, and Mac are the what.
For individual-led brands, the recent trend is that of the content. Individual brands deliver the what by showing themselves to the world. It is their personality and their life that draws audiences in.
Many platforms enable this, from the GenZ culture of TikTok to thought leadership on LinkedIn. Social media empowers anyone to rise, organizations included, and become a cultural phenomenon.
And brand identity is all about it: Becoming a cultural icon.
Keen readers must have noticed that a brand voice follows Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle. But it is not that he discovered the formula. He observed that successful leaders and brands followed this type of identity exploration. A differentiating brand builds from the inside.
Brand Identity: For the buyer
Why would the buyer decide to go for your brand? For B2B buying scenarios, they want to mitigate risk without disturbing the status quo.
While purchasing, they think along these verticals:
- Will our purchase integrate well within our existing systems?
- Does the purchase solve a problem we are facing?
- Will it solve any potential risks we will face in the future?
There is a reason why SEMrush, Salesforce, and HubSpot are so easy to integrate with existing software and data collectors. And vice-versa.
Usually, the conversations are around avoiding market failures and adding organization-elevating solutions. For B2B buyers, disruption of their organization is not a safe option. This rings true for most traditional organizations.
According to Gartner’s survey, the B2B buying committee has 6 to 10 individuals. Each individual has concerns and options they would prefer. Yet this group of opinionated individuals manage to reach a conclusion.
ABM is to be greatly appreciated for this. The core of ABM campaigns is a cohesive, consistent, and seamless brand identity.
If the majority in the buying committee: –
- Can identify with your brand
- Find it relatable
- Believe the solutions align with their mission and values.
- Accept the promise to deliver a positive outcome is tangible and achievable.
They will accept your solution as the best in the market for them. With an over-flooded market of goods, services, and personalities, buyers will purchase from you because of trust and perception.
Your brand identity will do the selling. Now, it is your product team’s job to deliver on the promises the voice has made.
Marketing and Storytelling.
Human beings are wired for stories. We derive meaning from understanding a person’s or organization’s story.
Microsoft as the underdog, Or Metaʼs electric rise to stardom. We love a good story. Here is where brand identity is found, in the story of your brand.
Marketing messages can do a lot of things. But it cannot replace a good story. All good stories are marketing, but not all marketing is a good story.
Some messages seem underhanded, while some feel shallow and full of empty promises. A brand’s story relies on resonance and the ability to deliver. A brand that cannot make good on its promise will not find its identity because it is based on false promises. But truth without a distinct voice will fall flat on the audience’s ear.
Marketing teams must deliver the message with creativity, passion, and a deep understanding of their “productˮ and audience.
To understand what works, use a growth marketing approach. Experiment, analyze, create, and reiterate.
As David Ogilvy says, tell the truth, but make the truth fascinating.
Brand voice and identities are an organization and individual way of showing their personality and explicit truth. It is a platform to attract and engage with the right buyer.
However, the line of cultural relevance and customer sensitivities must be considered. What kind of cultural impact does your brand want to make?
Believe it or not, every organization and individual has the power and accessibility to become an icon. The trick is to find the correct audience and the right voice.
Create an identity with your brand positioned to say something unique to you.