Scott Saunders | Many businesses today find themselves running around in circles. They invest time, money, and toil into the business and never really reach the audience they want to and take the business where they want to go. This is where the importance of brand comes into play.
Going somewhere starts with a destination. Off in the distance you see the customers you want your business to attract and the audience you want your brand to reach (and if you’re already reaching that audience, then your goal is reaching MORE of that audience). Brand is how your business speaks to your intended audience – through visual communication and customer experience. The shortest distance between you and your goal is a straight line and your brand will get you there if you remember that the strength and power of any brand is in the details.
But most businesses fail to tend to the details of their brand. In short, they cut corners. They focus on the bottom line of investment and where to cut down expenses. They chose to go with the cheaper option, the cheaper vendor or more inexpensive materials. Some may invest in a strong visual brand but then decide to manage their own visual communication afterwards and the brand’s integrity and strength starts to lose ground because it lacks polish. Others feel that brand isn’t that important and it gets shoved to the side, ignored, or dragged behind.
If you have ever opened an Apple product, you know the attention to detail in just the packaging alone. From the matte finish on its snug sturdy boxes to how a customer breaks a seal or removes protective films from the product. Getting a product from Apple means getting a first-class experience before even engaging with the product itself. And the value the customer has from that experience adds to the association with Apple’s brand and the loyal relationship that the customer has with Apple. The fact is that Apple didn’t need to invest the time and money to develop and design the finite details of unboxing their product – but they did. And that is the point. It is the attention to detail in their branding that has made them one of the most powerful brands on the planet.
In short, cutting a corner will give you a curve. That curve means you are deviating from the straight line that will take your business where it wants to be. Cut enough corners and you will have a circle. It should, therefore, be no surprise that by cutting corners on your brand a business finds itself moving in a circle. Never getting anywhere and never reaching the audience it fully wants to reach and retain as customers. Yes, not cutting corners means more investment in the brand, but the return on investment is invaluable if it gets you where you want to be.
