I’m often asked what a business needs to do to be successful. To connect with its target audience. To cut through, in other words.
Well, a business must package itself in a way that creates a groundswell of interest and a momentum that makes it impossible to ignore. It needs to articulate a compelling proposition and a lighthouse identity – clearly standing for something and articulating it in a way that really grasps the imagination.
The business thus requires a vehicle that encapsulates the potential of its possibilities and sets the scene – and thus the tone – for it to go out and do business. Something that does the pre-work before the website, or the location is visited. A vehicle that will really stand it apart. It needs to paint a picture in stakeholder’s minds of just what it is that it stands for – and then also engender a trust in what it will actually deliver.
That is about more than creating a logo. It is about building a Brand.
Strong brands have fans rather than customers. People become aware of them and what they stand for without ever looking for them – they take on a momentum all of their own. One person becomes a believer and then tells others. These people become brand evangelists. This is fundamentally what we need to achieve.
Yes, we need to create a stunning logo, but that is just the tip of the iceberg. We must build a powerful identity system around it and then wrap it in a compelling brand story. And most importantly of all we need to build it on the solid foundations of a clear, stated reason for being and a set of values that underpin everything that the brand does.
The more complex the issue, the simpler the solution. You should be able to write the essence of each brand on the palm of your hand. If you can’t it means that you haven’t ‘got it’. And if you haven’t got it no-one else is likely to either – whether that’s customers, media, influencers, investors or employees etc.
Therefore a key measure of success for us in our roles as brand creators is getting the Brand’s essence distilled onto one A4 sheet of paper – a concise, compelling template for the brand – one that will articulate its (four) key constituent elements. This will mean that the business will move forward intrinsically understanding what is right for the brand and what isn’t.
If you’d like to know more get in touch.
Paul Thwaites
Founder, ZUT Brand+Identity
paul@zutalors.design