In less than 3 minutes you can read the following primer on “Strategic Brand Identity”. As you do, you will quickly begin to see the difference between a graphics partner who understands your business and one who only understands their own.
Why should you care about your brand identity?
Well, whether you realize it or not, your business began building a brand identity on day one. The real question is, what does that brand identity communicate; to your customers, to your employees, to your prospects? Does it communicate the heart of your business; the deep, dyed in the wool passion that, whether last week or 100 years ago, was the burning conviction which resulted in the birth of your company? In most businesses, the answer to this question is a resounding "NO!”. If your business is in a state of “disconnect” then you are LOSING SALES because your message is cloudy.
What is “brand identity”?
In essence, the word "brand" means to "mark for the purpose of establishing ownership" and the word "identity" means "the totality of what makes something different or unique". So, the foundation of "brand identity" is “a mark which establishes ownership of something unique”.
What is Strategic Brand Identity?
To be strategic about something is to “create and execute a plan which is aimed at a specific goal”. Imagine a family vacation with no idea where you are going, where you will stop along the way or what the destination will ultimately be. By contrast, a well planned vacation will be one with a specific destination, plans for stops and even attractions along the way. This may come as a shock but many businesses begin with little or no strategy and create little if any strategy along the way. What’s even more shocking is the number of businesses which will create a strategy but never take the additional steps necessary to connect that strategy to their visual image with clarity. A business which is being strategic about their growth will know who they are, where they are going, and why they want to go there. These core values form the foundation for successful businesses to create the visual identity, with clarity, which communicates those values. This is Strategic Brand Identity.
Why is Strategic Brand Identity so important?
Is it possible that your company has some degree of disconnect between your guiding principles and your visual identity? Perhaps even a better question would be how closely have you compared your mission and core values to your visual image? The connection between your strategy (Strategy = mission + core values) and your identity is EVERYTHING to the growth and success of your business. I know it might sound like a crazy analogy but picture this: A swimsuit model gets a job modeling suits for one of the hottest brands in Miami. When she arrives for her first shoot, she is wearing a huge winter coat, boots, a scarf, and earmuffs. Unwilling to remove them, she is quickly demoted to being a spectator as another model enters the shoot. If you don't catch ANY of the rest of this primer, I beg you make this connection: Underneath all of the winter packaging, the first model IS a swimsuit model. However, because she refused to sync her visual identity with her marketing agenda, she lost the opportunity. Every business works the same way; YOUR business works the same way.
The connection between your strategy and your visual identity is paramount to your growth and success. For nearly four decades, Sun Graphic Technologies has been helping businesses maximize this connection by helping to strategically shape their brand identity and communicate more effectively to consumers, employees, and prospects. Whether your company is a large retail corporation or a small service business we have the knowledge and experience to help you grow and we are ready to put that experience to work for you! Our experience, your success.
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