How brand and identity impacts success

If you’re looking for a fluff piece about the shape of your logo or what colour pallette to use for your website, then you probably ought to go look elsewhere. 

What we’ll be covering off in the next 800 words or so is how your business’ brand and identity goes way beyond the motif on your browser window, but how they reflect values, ethos and purpose. We’ll look at how this identity is perceived by clients, prospects, and the general public, and the critical and profound impact it has on your success.

First thing we need to establish is, if your brand and identity is not actually your fancy logo or ‘brave’ colour choices across your website or literature, what exactly is it? The most straightforward answer is that it’s what's left in the room after you leave. It’s that tricky little why you do what you do, to paraphrase Simon Sinek, that sticks around. In its essence, it is what people fundamentally connect with - it’s your values as an organisation, your ethos, your beliefs. It’s a little frivolous for me to discount logos and colour palettes as insignificant; they are a visual identity - but not the heart of what a brand actually is. 

Let’s take the example of Nike whose vision statement is; ‘to bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete* in the world’. The asterisk explains Nike’s consideration that, ‘if you have a body, you are an athlete’. Nice, right? It puts inspiration, inclusivity and innovation together in a tidy couple of lines. 

But how does this manifest in their values? Let’s have a look at how they break this down: ‘Our mission is what drives us to do everything possible to expand human potential. We do that by creating groundbreaking sport innovations, by making our products more sustainably, by building a creative and diverse global team and by making a positive impact in communities where we live and work.’ Now we can see how their values, ethos and beliefs start to translate into their brand and begins to shape Nike’s identity. Their well known slogan of ‘Just do it’ and the ubiquitous swoosh logo tie together an identity of ambition, drive and innovation. Nike’s sponsorship deals and elite athlete roster further reinforce this brand positioning and identity. 

The question we should be asking ourselves at this point, if we want to understand how our own brand and identity (driven by our purpose, values and beliefs) can impact success, is how do we define success? 

Look back at the Nike example ‘creating groundbreaking sports innovations’ great for Nike, great for the customer, a mutual success. Brands that can identify and elegantly articulate customer mutual benefits within their identity naturally resonate with their customers. Think Nike, Google, Ella’s Kitchen or Innocent Smoothies. All have an alignment of internal goals with customer requirements or aspirations. 

In order to define success in this bi-lateral context, it’s useful to refer to a good old 2x2 matrix - which actually gives us four contexts, but bear with me. Draw out a 2x2 matrix, at the top of the columns label ‘Internal’ / ‘External’, and the rows as ‘Objectively’ / ‘Subjectively’. Now think of how you define success, it might be financial, make £1m by 2020 - so that would go into the objective/internal box. It might be ‘to be the most trusted brand in children’s food’ - this would go in the subjective/external box. 

The idea is the better you can articulate the external/subjective measures of success within your brand and identity the more there is for customers to connect to - on a subjective level. They feel more connected to your brand if their values aligns to yours. By emphasising the subjective ambitions rather than objective, we move our customers away from logical thinking into emotional attachment. How many times have we done something because of our hearts rather than our heads? This is the power and impact of brand and identity.

To wrap up, ultimately - regardless of industry, sector, product or service - as humans, we connect better with people with whom we share values, purpose, ethos or aspirations. This rings true in relation to customers and businesses. If your business can overcome the logic litmus test and create an emotional connection through brand and identity with your customers, they are more likely to choose you over competitors, less likely to be deterred by price, more likely to remain loyal to your brand. 

Finally - remember what your brand is: It’s what is left in the room after you leave. It’s what people think of you, how they remember you, how they tell others about you. It’s so much more than a fancy logo and colour scheme.