What is Branding?

Branding

Brand names refer to the term, design, symbol or any other feature that identifies a seller's goods or services. These are often distinctive to any other brand.

The objective of a brand is to attract and sustain the interest of customers and other stakeholders by delivering a product that is always aligned with the promises of the brand.

Brand is about; strategy, logo, marketing, advertising, identity, trust, design and value.

To understand what your company branding consists of, consider; logo, colours, typography, hierarchy, photography, illustration, iconography, data visualization, interactive elements, video & motion and web design.

Brand positioning - the way you differentiate yourself from competition and how consumers identify and connect with your brand.

Brand Story

Consumers often crave a genuine connection with brands. An effective way to do this is by telling a brand story.

Telling your brand is crucial for marketing. Evident through statistics, 52% of marketers frequently use stories within their branding and character-driven stories caused people to donate 56% more money to charity.

Brand stories intend to grab attention of the consumer, or to elicit an emotion, engage with people. This includes all mediums of storytelling.

How to tell your Brand Story

Know the story of your own brand; Articulate the message that you intend to send with your brand. Understand who your brand demographic are and what they want.

Brainstorm brand story ideas - Who are you as a brand? What does the brand do? Who is the brand doing it for? Why is the brand doing it? How is the brand going to accomplish this? What does the future look like considering all this?

Vet your ideas - Why do you want to tell your brand story, in particular? What value does your brand provide to your personas? What will your demographic take away from your story?

Choose the correct format for your brand

Create a narrative - story structure, problem/solution, before/after.

Add your branding - personality, voice, tone, visuals, etc.

Share your brand story and look for more ways to grow & experiment

Below is media.work's production with Hamilton Watch. It effectively insinuates an effective brand story without a line of dialogue and product in sight.

Watch 'media.work' x 'Hamilton Watch' production

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Further Reading

Panel Forge (tutorials)

Toon Boom Storyboard Pro (tutorials)

Moulin Rouge

Heart of Darkness

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Reflection Segment

"The branding of my business idea is something that I completely overlooked earlier in the course. Of course I recognize that a company's branding is important. I thought that the course covered the desirability, viability and feasibility of a pitched business function. Not the business itself. It seems I have a lot of work over reading week to do. Not only do I have to conduct more research and manifest creative visuals, but I also have to try and create an identity for my business."

"Take the production of 'media.work' x 'Hamilton Watch' for example. The sequence tells a story of sophistication and charm without ever saying a word or displaying a product. In my opinion, it still is an effective means of advertising. The sequences has a very strong personality. It speaks to the behavior of the potential customer to seek more information. This insinuates the importance of a high quality brand story."

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Citations

The Branding Journal.2021.What Is Branding?| The Branding Journal.[online] Available at:<https://www.thebrandingjournal.com/2015/10/what-is-branding-definition/>[Accessed 27 October 2021].  Media.work.2021.Hamilton Watch – 

Media.Work.[online] Available at:<https://media.work/project/hamilton-watch>[Accessed 27 October 2021].

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