Marty Neumeier’s book, The Brand Gap, is a fantastic guide for anyone who wants to improve their branding. This article will go through some lessons from the text and provide examples of how you can translate them into practice to reduce confusion when building one’s brand identity! So the following are lessons from The Brand Gap by Marty Neumeier
1. What’s a brand?
Don’t be fooled by the simplicity of this first lesson, as it contains the biggest obstacles preventing us from improving. Brands are not logos, taglines, or colors – those things are just manifestations of a brand. To improve as a brand, you need to know what your brand is. To answer that, you need to ask yourself, “What purpose does my product or service fulfill in the lives of the people who buy from me?” The best brands provide a solution to people and meet human needs.
2. Brands exist in an ecosystem
One can not live without the other: customer and brand. The relationship between them is symbiotic, and if one disappears, the other will not survive. As a brand, you need to understand that you don’t exist in an isolated environment; your world is full of competitors who may be trying to take away some of your customers at any given time – no matter how small it might seem for you. On the other hand, customers have a choice of brands and can switch from one to another in an instant. It is therefore essential for you to know your competitors.
3. The brand matters more than the product
This third lesson becomes apparent once you think back to how much time and money companies put into their marketing campaigns every year. What do you believe a company’s major emphasis is if they spent that much money on a product that didn’t matter as much as the brand?
Although it might be easy to understand why many companies put so much effort into marketing campaigns, this may come as a surprise for those who are new to the business world. For example, when one thinks of Apple, they don’t necessarily think about the quality of their products. Instead, they might be more likely to think about their sleek designs and cool marketing campaigns. In fact, many people have been known to buy a product from a competitor just because it came in a nicer package!
4. The brand is the path to differentiation
What is the point of becoming different from your competitors? Well, as Neumeier puts it: “The whole purpose of building a brand is to be predictably and consistently different.” After all, it would be rather pointless to try and stand out if you were just like everyone else. Therefore, the best way to achieve that goal of differentiation is to know what you stand for.
5. Know yourself, know your space… and work it
It can be quite tough to understand oneself and one’s industry initially, especially when so many other people are doing things the same way while using similar vocabularies. However, as time goes on and more research is done, you will eventually catch up to the big dogs. Once that happens, all of your hard work and dedication will pay off, and you can finally own your space!
6. The brand is the point of departure
If you ever start a business or take over one from someone else, you will likely face many challenges along the way. As a result, it might be tempting to veer from your initial plan and start making compromises where you shouldn’t have to just to get things done faster or easier. To avoid having this happen, keep in mind that you can always revise your brand, but you should never forget where it came from. The worst thing that can happen is that your company loses its identity or mission all together!
7. Brands are not complex; they are simple
The steps to creating a trustworthy and robust brand don’t necessarily have to be complicated. On the contrary, to build a good brand, you need to do a couple of simple things. First, take a stand for something and then communicate that clearly with your consumers!
8. The brand is an experience
The best brands are the ones that create powerful experiences people never forget about. The strongest brands have been part of people’s lives and even give people an identity. For example, there are soccer fans who would never support another team for the rest of their lives simply because they’ve been supporting one specific team for so long!
9. Building a brand is like building a reputation
You can only control how your company or product is represented in the public eye to a limited degree. In other words, you can’t control other people or their opinions of your business. However, as Michael Jordan once said: “I can accept failure. Everyone fails at something, but I learn from my mistakes and keep trying until I get it right.” Therefore, the only thing you can do to build a strong brand is to ensure that your consumers always have a good experience.
10. Build from the inside out
You need to love it yourself for customers or other people outside of your company to get excited about what you are doing. In other words, before you start focusing on how you will market or sell your product, you should spend some time brainstorming the kind of company culture that is most suitable for your brand. It is said that when it comes to building a successful business, one single memorable experience is all it takes to turn customers into your biggest fans!
Conclusion: The Brand Gap by Marty Neumeier
Brands are the key to a successful business, and branding starts with customer experience. This book offers nine lessons to help you create a solid brand strategy for your company or organization. If you’re looking into improving your marketing efforts, this is an excellent resource for building brands from scratch (or even improving your existing ones).