Brand = resonance. Agree or disagree?
I've been thinking about this a lot this year, and I'd love to know what you think:
These days, you can ask 100 people what “brand” is, and you’ll get 100 different answers. To some, it’s an Instagram account. To others, a cool logo. It’s often even used as a synonym for “product” or “company.” (E.g. “Kim Kardashian launched a new brand today.”)
Because branding and brand marketing isn’t as tangible as, say, hard data in growth marketing, it can feel intangible and unclear what the deliverables are — what are we actually investing in by investing in “brand”?
It’s a lot simpler than it seems: A great brand is a brand that achieves resonance with its target customers.
How to use brand to achieve resonance with customers:
Establish an emotional connection
Have a unique personality to stand out
Clearly communicate differentiated value
Use attention to detail that surprises and delights
Stay consistent to build trust over time
Use language your customer understands
I go into this in detail in an article for The Subtext and this short video:
I also created this framework to show how different elements or deliverables of brand strategy contribute to each aspect of resonance - any I'm missing?
I’d love to dive deeper into this by looking at how individual brands create resonance through this approach… what do we think? Is that of interest?
Other brand bits and bobs:
Love this branding of Heyday canned beans (spotted via
’sThis Connecticut rebranding article got me thinking about my favorite state branding: Michigan’s Pure Michigan campaign, singlehandedly responsible for me realizing Michigan is beautiful and the Cider House Rules score is fantastic. I’d love to work on a tourism/place branding project some day.
I so admire this artist’s years-long focused project drawing a map of the world and its animals. Shows the rewards that come with dedication over time and attention to detail.
Some work I did for Pareto is now live! I love working with purpose-driven clients— Pareto was created to help you maximize your wardrobe through feel-great basics and go-anywhere outfits. It's not about more clothes, it's about more wear.
Ahead of their Outfits feature launch — where you can view shoppable curated outfits to go with all their Pareto Pieces — we worked together on:
- Category positioning + differentiated value
- Value proposition
- Brand personality
- Messaging hierarchy
- Key phrases
- Copy bank
- Homepage copy
If you're a woman looking for more go-to outfits (saving time and energy, which is in short supply!), I highly recommend checking out what Olivia and Jessica are building at Pareto 🤗Speaking of resonance, I want to shout-out someone who’s been talking about this much longer than I have, but related to storytelling and content: Jay Acunzo. I love his work, and he’s inspired some of my thinking on this subject.
Housekeeping:
If you’d like to receive my very silly “5 Things I Loved This Week” newsletter that goes out most Fridays, just make sure you’re toggled on here (https://brandbybrandy.substack.com/account). I share 5 pop culture recommendations (books, movies, tv shows, music, podcasts, etc.)
Want some brand help in 2024? Let’s talk!