Brand Engineering:
Your brand is your everything.
In a noisy complex world, we need clarity more than ever. With ever shorter attention spans, your
business needs to cut through with a succinct, compelling, and unique brand promise: a simple
statement of what your brand stands for.
Applying lean principles to branding we deliver real commercial value that pervades the
organisation from the inside out.
your brand. Everyone involved needs
to understand what your brand stands
for and what it means to their role. Your
brand will bring your people together
and help build belief right through the
organisation. Engaged employees can
often mean the difference between
success and failure.
STARTING WITH THE RIGHT REASONS
LET’S BE CLEAR
Branding can have a significant impact
on your people, sales, growth and
business performance.
B2B branding in the engineering space
is no different from any other when it
comes to communicating effectively.
The traditional definition of a brand is a
name, sign, or symbol used to identify
products or services of the seller(s) and
to differentiate them from goods of
competitors.
It’s clearly not enough anymore to
operate with this narrow viewpoint.
Your brand is your everything, from your
people, products, place of work, your
culture through to your tone of voice. All
have a cumulative effect on how your
customers perceive and experience your
brand. It is through these touch points
that they build a relationship with you
rather just conduct a transaction.
BRANDS ARE BUILT FROM THE
INSIDE OUT
Brands are built on relationships and
trust: between your leaders and your
people, and between your people, your
customers and partners. Your people are
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PECM Issue 23
Starting a branding project includes
finding the right reason, commitment,
and strategy; analysing brand equity; and
uncovering insights and opportunities.
Fundamentally, there are two reasons a
business needs branding. Either a new
product or company has been created
or there is a desire to change an existing
brand to better reflect new business
objectives (most often called a “rebrand”).
There must be a solid business reason to
change, or refresh, a brand and a brand
idea. Without a solid business objective
and brand idea, the judging of brand
change becomes purely subjective.
Suffice it to say, when you embark on a
rebrand it is critical to ensure that you
are rebranding for the right business
reason, and if there is a desire to alter
some visual or verbal elements, a clearly
defined brand idea is essential for
guiding this change.
making tough decisions about the
market you are in. Get this clear and your
nearly there.
Who is it intended for?
The more specific and targeted the
answer to this question, the better.
What is the benefit to customers?
A company should be able to articulate
clearly, in a few words, the unique aspect
that differentiates its product from the
competition and provides a benefit to its
customers.
Start with the right focus: Customers
One of the most important first steps in a
branding project is to create a framework
that identifies and compares all possible
interaction points where a customer
experiences the brand.
Uncover insights and identify
opportunities
As an agency, the process of creating
a new brand or a rebrand always starts
with a situation analysis or brand audit.
This process can uncover issues that you
can exploit to your business advantage.
NAMING IS CRUCIAL
Follow these signposts and you won’t go
wrong:
Naming is increasingly an important
element to a brand’s success. Ideally, a
name should be the pure encapsulation
of the brand idea and, along with this
audacious goal, should meet other key
criteria:
Start with the right business strategy
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Good branding cannot save a poor
product or business.
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What are we selling?
In a very practical sense, selling involves
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business or product is about