The importance of having a recognisable brand

Oct 6

4 min read

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Giles Etherington, founder of award-winning brand consultancy, Brand Satellite, has launched the ‘Brand Mindset Quiz’ – a free quiz designed to help small business owners assess how ready they are to build a lasting brand.

We had a chat with Giles to find out how business owners can manage their brands more effectively, why he developed the quiz and what he’s planning to do with it next. Here’s what he told us:

“A recognisable brand is really important for any business. But what do I mean by a brand? Let me try and clear that up first.

You have your ‘brand’ and your ‘branding’. Your ‘branding’ is the visual side of creating a brand. It’s everything you do that your customers will see – your logo, the colours, typefaces and imagery. Your branding helps your potential ideal clients recognise your business amongst the thousands of marketing messages that they see every day.

Your ‘brand’ is what they then think and feel about you, once you have their attention. It’s the emotional and psychological connection your clients have with your company, products or services. As human beings, we make decisions dictated by the emotional part of our brain. If you can connect emotionally with your customers, they are more likely to ‘buy into’ what you are offering.

The benefits of a recognisable brand

When considering the benefits of having a recognisable brand, I use three words: clarity, confidence and courage, applied as follows:

First, be clear about your target audience. Creating a brand will help you to identify and analyse your ideal clients. Understanding who they are, and why they should be interested in what you have to offer, is an extremely valuable exercise. If you are clear about who you help and you talk to them directly (rather than trying to talk to 'everyone'), in a way that resonates, they are much more likely to listen.

Second, be clear about the messages that will connect with your ideal clients. From writing copy for your website to producing marketing materials, consistent on-brand messages will help grab the attention of ideal clients. It will also engage with them in a way that connects with the emotions they are experiencing during the decision-making process, turning leads into clients.

That clarity will give you the confidence that you are saying the right things to the right people, in new business meetings, in elevator pitches at networking events and in posts on social media.

Confidence is infectious. If you have more confidence in your brand, potential clients will have more confidence in your brand too. They are more likely to trust you, buy into what you are offering and pay more for your services. And, best of all, confident, loyal clients are more likely to become advocates for your brand, doing the hard work of selling your business and your brand to new clients for you.

Clarity and confidence transform into courage – to get out there and talk about your vision with passion, to do things differently – and to consistently ‘show up’.

Misunderstandings about brand management

I’ve been working with small business owners for nearly 20 years. So many of them have amazing ideas, passion and drive, but they don’t always have the mindset or the clarity needed to turn those ideas into a brand that lasts. I still believe that there is a general misunderstanding about what a brand really is.

When I first set up Brand Satellite, 13 years ago, and told people at networking events that I was a brand consultant, the most common response I got was: “I already have a logo.” Fortunately, this perception about what a brand is, is changing. But many small businesses are still not giving their brand the attention it needs.

So, not thinking about your business as a brand is potentially leaving it overlooked.

The psychology of brand management

When you think about your business as a ‘business’, you tend to use the rational part of your brain, giving people rational reasons why they should buy your products or services. If your competitors are thinking the same way, the chances are that you aren’t differentiating yourself from each other.

From your clients’ perspective, you both offer the same thing. And, if you are perceived as offering the same thing, the decision will inevitably boil down to price. You are entering a race to the bottom.

But, when you think about your business as a ‘brand’, you will be engaging with the emotional part of your brain, and you can start to tap into the emotions your customers are experiencing. When a customer buys into a brand, rather than from a business, price is much less likely to be the deciding factor.

The Brand Mindset Quiz

I have designed the Brand Mindset Quiz as a ‘nudge’ – to get small business owners to start thinking differently about their business.

During the beta-testing of the quiz, the overwhelming response was: "I need to start thinking about my business as a brand more." That's exactly why I designed this quiz. If every business put thought and energy into creating their brand, then many more of them would still be around to celebrate their 10th anniversary.

It’s aimed at my target audience: purpose-driven, service-based, small-business owners. That’s why I talk about clients, rather than customers. But any type of small business owner will benefit from spending 10-15 minutes going through the thought-provoking questions. It will get them thinking about their business as a brand.

Once I have collated enough responses, I intend to write a white paper about the brand mindset of the UK small-business community. If we can get ‘brand creation’ higher up the agenda when starting a business, then every business will benefit.”

The Brand Mindset Quiz is available at https://brandmindset.brandsatellite.co.uk/