Is Your Brand Really Your Logo?
If you believe your logo, colours, and fonts are your brand, keep reading. And if you already know there's more to a brand than what people see, this may give you a few ways to explain it to others.
And if you've never done a brand touchpoint audit, I'll show you a simple way to uncover where your brand experience may be breaking down.
Often, people think that a brand is what they see. Logos, colours, and typography may form part of your brand guidelines, but your brand goes much deeper than that.
A brand is shaped by what people SEE, FEEL and THINK about your business. In simple terms, your brand is the impression people form through every interaction they have with your business. And that impression reaches far deeper than the visuals that represent it.
Think about this.
When someone interacts with your staff, how do you want them to feel afterward? What do you hope they will tell someone else about that interaction?
That is your brand at work.
When someone sees something your business created, like a social media post or a print ad, what do you want them to think or feel about your business?
That is your brand at work.
When someone walks through the front door of your business and is greeted with a smile and a hello (or not), how does that person feel?
That is your brand at work.
All those moments shape your brand.
And this is where organizations can run into trouble. Marketing may be working hard to create familiarity, trust, and recognition, while other parts of the business are unintentionally creating a very different experience.
A member, customer, or client may see one version of your business in an ad, another on your website, another when they interact with a staff member, and yet another when they call in for help.
Internally, those may feel like separate departments or interactions. To the person experiencing them, they are all part of the same business.
That's why a consistent brand experience that builds trust isn’t created by one department alone. It takes a coordinated effort across every touchpoint.
Marketing supports the brand, absolutely. And EVERY SINGLE PERSON in your organization does too.
What role does marketing play in your brand?
From the marketer’s seat, we understand how important it is to represent the organization in a way that builds familiarity, trust, and recognition.
We do this through consistency, because consistency builds familiarity, and familiarity helps create recognition. And when the experience lives up to those expectations over time, trust grows.
We also create guidelines that help the organization look and feel familiar whenever people encounter it. This can include:
· Colours
· Typography
· Imagery and photography style
· Logo use
· Layout and design standards
Tone and voice matter too. When someone reads copy that represents your business, it should sound like it is coming from your business, not from Tom or Sally who happened to write it. Your tone and voice help create that consistency, regardless of who is doing the writing.
But marketing can only do so much on its own.
If employees don't have a shared understanding of how the brand should feel in practice, the experience can quickly become inconsistent from one department, channel or interaction to the next.
That is where a brand touchpoint audit can be incredibly useful.
What is a brand touchpoint audit?
A brand touchpoint audit is a review of every point where someone interacts with your organization to determine whether those interactions consistently create the experience you want people to have with your brand.
How to conduct a simple brand touchpoint audit
Go through every touchpoint in your organization and ask whether it creates the experience and impression you want people to have of your business. Really think through each touchpoint in areas such as these:
· People
· Physical environment
· Digital
· Communications
· Marketing
· Service experience
And dig deeper than the obvious things.
Think about the front desk, the way your phone is answered, your out-of-office replies, your voicemail, your website, sales conversations, emails, social media, onboarding, and follow-up.
Every one of those moments contributes to the impression someone forms of your business.
I like to keep the audit simple. For each touchpoint, ask two questions:
1. What do we want people to feel at this touchpoint?
2. Does the experience we're providing today create that feeling?
Then dig into the answers.
Where are you creating the experience you want? Where are there gaps? And where might one part of the organization be communicating something that another part of the business isn't delivering?
You don't have to do this alone, and you probably shouldn't.
Collaborate with people across your organization. Brainstorm the touchpoints together, then talk about how each department and its employees are living out the brand.
· Do they understand the experience you are trying to create?
· Are there gaps?
· What can be done to address them?
Once you know where the inconsistencies are, build a plan to improve them and then act on it. Because we all know plans without action are a genuine waste of everyone’s time and energy.
The brand isn't owned by marketing.
Marketing supports the brand.
The brand is shaped by every single person in the business.
And the more consistently everyone understands and delivers the experience you want people to have, the stronger your brand becomes.
Keep on being amazing,
Lyanne Campbell
Marketing shouldn’t feel like guesswork.
If you’re tired of feeling invisible in your organization, you’re in the right place. My goal is to help you create a clear, strategic marketing presence that works - so you can stop scrambling and start leading.
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Need hands-on help? As a nationally recognized marketing strategist and Chartered Marketer, I’ve helped businesses transform their marketing from a cost center to a revenue driver. Whether you’re looking for marketing guidance, to be part of a marketing community, or to get in on a mastermind group, I’d love to connect. Let’s make your marketing work smarter, not harder.
To your success,
Lyanne
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