The most powerful story a customer has about your brand is the one they write themselves. Fair or unfair, logical or illogical, accurate or inaccurate ... just as it is human nature to make up narratives about our own lives, customers will do the same about the brands they interact with. Wal-Mart is evil, Wal-Mart has the lowest prices! Nike is a design utopia, Nike is the biggest abuser of sweat-shop labor. Pixar is formulaic, Pixar is a bastion of creative freedom. Apple innovation is unprecedented, Apple is just a sophisticated fast-follower. Chances are you have a story about at least one of these brands. Branding gives you the power to control the formation of these narratives. 

So what is “Brand”? I believe it’s a collection of related experiences that when taken as a whole makes up your brand story. It lives in the minds of your audience, and it’s up to you to give them the right clues to write their own story. “To brand” is to control the design and release of the activations that create these customer experiences. While it’s true some brands are able to create the brand image they desire in an ad-hoc manner, and some brand experiences are of course out of your control, for most enterprises the way to project the desired brand image is through a strategic foundation. Such a structure goes by many names, but I call it a Brand Platform. 

Before you can tell anyone else why they should believe and invest in your brand, you need to know who you are in the first place. Discovery is the first step in that process. Some parts messy, mostly guided, but always open and honest, this is the time to get everything on the table from internal to external, qualitative to quantitative, objective to subjective and review it in a team environment through robust debate. Definition is taking everything that came out in the Discovery phase and crafting a tool that gives your team the focus and clarity necessary to communicate your brand to the world. These first two steps result in the Brand Platform. The third step, Design, is using the Brand Platform to inform and inspire the creation of brand activations that communicate the critical elements of your brand story.

Every project will proceed differently and functions in unique conditions, but it’s important to hit each of these steps on some level for successful branding to occur. Furthermore, these three steps are often part of an initial branding or re-branding effort, but it’s important to continually consider these steps throughout the life of a brand. 

Proper branding creates relevance, clarity, distinction and compulsion for your product in a world stocked with endless options and persistent distractions. Whether it’s a logo, product design or a Tweet, each brand activation is an opportunity to give your audience the clues they need to write the brand story you want them to believe. Each brand activation creates a connection between your product and customer, so the more fine-tuned your brand platform is the more likely you will be able to first gain, and then retain the attention and allegiance of your desired customer.