Why Your Company Needs Branding: About the Who and the Why

Suppose your company manufactures air-conditioners. You have a solid product; in fact, your technology is top-notch, and you're offering your products at a more-than-reasonable price. Your goal is to capture market share in the United Arab Emirates. Should you engage the services of a marketing agency in Abu Dhabi?

Yes, you should. The right marketing agency can certainly help you grow and nurture your share of the UAE market. That said, there's a preceding step you must not skip before that, and it's working with a branding agency.

The Power of Branding

Have you ever heard of this saying, which is based on Ralph Waldo Emerson's words? "Who you are speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say."

Your company's identity is a huge part of what makes it attractive (or repulsive) to target customers. If your marketing message says one thing but your identity, what you stand for, suggests or outrightly says another thing, your marketing is not aligned with your branding. No wonder you're not selling.

For instance, suppose a resort says it's pet-friendly, and it welcomes guests bringing their pets for rest and recreation time. One of their ads shows a happily smiling mom and dad, walking along the beach, with two children playing tag and fetch with the family's golden retriever. Another version shows a young woman on a sunbed, gently petting an adorably drowsy corgi lying down on the sand with head on her paws in a lion pose.

Excellent branding, especially if pet parents are one of the targeted market segments.

However, what if the company CEO is caught on record giving one employee a dressing down because they brought a pet to work? That will significantly undermine the company's identity as a pet-friendly establishment. The pet-friendly ads will now look and feel hollow; no one would believe their message because the company has revealed its true identity in that public scolding.

Indeed. Who the resort was spoke so loudly, its target market could no longer hear what it was trying to say.

This applies to any business. First, understand your brand because who you are (or who your customers believe you are) is going to determine how you can effectively market your business. This is why, before hiring a marketing agency, it's important to start with a branding agency.

Why Start With a Branding Agency?

A branding agency has one job: to define a client's identity, its "brand." Putting it simply, this entails:

• Who and what is your company?

• Why does it exist (what is its purpose)?

• What does it stand for?

• Where does it stand?

• What value does it offer?

This may seem a no-brainer. Of course, a company knows who and what it is, what its purpose is, and what its values are, right? This is far from a given, however. In fact, undertaking the systematic branding process may reveal that a company doesn't actually know the answer to the above questions or that what it knows to be true is wrong.

For instance, Burberry was originally a luxury brand. The company knew this to be true.

It had the breakaway trench coat. The check pattern (introduced in the 1920s), which was on the lining of this trench, became a globally recognized symbol of luxury. This mark became an integral part of its visual identity.

However, overuse and the uncontrolled flood of counterfeit products bearing the check pattern diluted its value so much that it undermined Burberry's luxury brand heritage.

Without a brand-aware CEO, however, Burberry might have plodded along on its ruinous path. It might have continued to believe it was an aspirational brand and would have ultimately suffered total and irreversible brand oblivion.

Fortunately, company leadership realized that the check (and the company name) had lost its shine. They acknowledged how people now thought of the brand.

Remember, your brand is not what you say it is. It's what they (the public, particularly your target market) say it is.

This awareness was crucial to Burberry's recovery. Only after realizing how far the brand perception has sunk could the company implement marketing campaigns designed to restore the check pattern's (and Burberry's) identity of luxury and exclusivity.

This is the answer to the question: Why hire a branding agency before you engage the services of a marketing agency? You must first understand who you are (especially in the eyes of your target customers) before you can:

• Craft the right marketing message and launch effective campaigns to sell your products and services.

• If your brand is perceived negatively, use marketing to change your customers' perceptions of you and restore your brand to its former glory or to what it should be.

Discovering, Determining, or Designing Your Brand

Returning to the earlier example, what if you are an AC manufacturer wanting a share of the UAE market? Before you sign with a marketing agency or give a social media agency in Abu Dhabi the go-ahead to create social media content for your company, first talk to a branding agency. First, clarify who you are, what you are, your purpose, your values, your distinct market positioning, and your unique value offering.

Only a defined identity can lead to a clear and aligned marketing message.