Your brand's biggest asset - every single brand has one

Whilst searching for or trying to take advantage of the latest trends; whether its consumer or social media, brands unintentionally lose sight of their most distinguished asset: 'who they are'.

Do not take for granted the great power that lies within the identity or DNA of your brand, for it is here that your greatest potential to be the most valued brand lies.

Your brand's identity should be where your journey to building a differentiated brand begins, it is with your brand's identity that inspiration should be sparked. What the brand is, what it believes, what it stands for and indeed why it exists are key to establishing your brand within the market.

Ideally, a really great brand that knows its identity and therefore its strength does not really compete, it eliminates the competition by creating new markets or industries. Most brand are capable of doing so.

Diagnose your brand's struggle

If your brand is struggling, whether with market share, sales, brand awareness, share of mind, etc., your first place of analysis should be your brand. You may find that your brand's identity or DNA is not clearly defined, it is confusing or not understood.

This is critical, especially if you have already invested in advertising or any other brand awareness-building activities. The obvious knee-jerk reaction to finding a solution is, more often than not, to increase media and advertising budget, but I caution for a more important introspection.

Markets are saturated and competition is forever on the increase, trends do not help you distinguish your brand for the long-term, instead, they make you relevant for a moment, and then you are left with the desire or no choice to continue to find more trends - this becomes a cycle that over time, may very well be hard to get out of.

Invest in your brand's identity

It is expensive to keep up, and inexpensive to be yourself. So find your brand's identity and invest in it. In the long run, your brand will not need to chase and follow trends, it will be the trend.

How?

Spend time and money investigating in ways to strengthening your brand's identity and DNA. Instead of exhausting efforts on social media or even mass media trying to scream louder than your competitors, the better use of your resources will be to spend your energy on finding opportunities that put your brand in relevant spaces. To that, you need a clear understanding of your brand's identity. A clear brand identity equals a clear vision for your brand.

How do you know you need to workshop your brand's identity?

Ask three 'key' people in your company or agency that are hands on with the brand on a daily basis about your brand's identity; for example, ask them about the brand's personality or the positioning of the brand. The consistency or lack thereof of the answers given will give an indication to where the fundamental problem may very well lie. If three key people who are constantly working on the brand provide three different answers, then it is no surprise that your brand is struggling.

To that experiment, ask people who do not work on the brand the same questions you asked the former individuals. Again here, the level of consistency or lack thereof will give you a good indication of your brand image. If you brand identity does not match with the brand image, there's a disconnect.

Albeit, there are a lot of variables that may lead to the struggling of a brand, but a clear identity that is consistently matched with the brand image is a good litmus test that may direct you to the real or root cause.

Your brand identity is your biggest asset. Invest in it. Take care of it.