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Signs of a Healthy Brand

Branding, and the art of it, is a quite often misunderstood and misinterpreted area of business marketing and development.

Many people assume that they take their new or existing company to a branding or advertising agency, get a new logo and, ‘hey presto’, there’s your brand. Well, it is – and it isn’t.

Confused? Let us explain.

If you are dealing with a credible branding outfit, well before an artist puts pencil to paper, several things will have been addressed. The journey should begin with a strategic session to allow the agency to understand your business, where it is at and where it wants to go. This will include analysis of performance, personality and ‘present and desired state’. It will also take into consideration your target market demographics, marketing budgets and your overall financial situation.

A strategic session will challenge your team to have a good, hard look at itself. It will ask questions about your approach to business, what drives you and where your strengths and weaknesses lie. The information is collated and a comprehensive and honest document is produced that ultimately becomes the brief for the artist.

He or she will know whether or not the design is aimed at a particular market segment, if it needs to be emotive, where it needs to appear, how it will need to change for digital and print formats, if indeed it portrays an honest representation of your business and takes into account your corporate culture.

Will it inspire your sales team to get out there and communicate the design with pride? Will it invigorate, or reinvigorate your entire team and increase inquiry?

Conversely, if you get it wrong by not undertaking strategic analysis, will it lead your customers to a poor experience? Will you end up with a great logo that poorly represents your business and its capabilities?

Ultimately, your brand isn’t your logo, it is you and your business. A logo, and the way the design filters throughout your business and its assets, should be a ‘mark’ of what your customers can expect.

Branding and Marketing is an area that McKinley Plowman spend a considerable amount of time discussing with our clients. So much so that we have created an internal marketing agency – ‘Brand Plus’.

Knowing our clients’ businesses intimately, we believe that we are perfectly positioned to offer strategic and financial advice in this incredibly important facet of every operation.

We recently re-branded ourselves. Part of our ‘post strategic session’ outcomes was to develop a positioning statement, or slogan, that honestly and succinctly told the market, and our existing clients that our range of services catered to almost every financial need in a person’s business and personal life.

We developed ‘Partners for life’. We believe in it and we believe that it tells a story. Our entire team is behind it and committed to making it an ongoing statement of fact.

If you would like to find out more about branding or rebranding your business, or just a chat to find out more about Brand Plus, click here or contact us at (08) 9301 2200.

written by:

Nigel Plowman

Prior to forming McKinley Plowman, Nigel specialised in management consulting and international accounting, enjoying success in Australia and in the United Kingdom. His extensive experience in management consulting, international accounting and innovative tax structures has been a major driver in the success of McKinley Plowman as well as the many businesses he has steered towards new levels. Nigel is dedicated to fast-tracking his client goals with cutting edge tax and business strategies. He is a member of the CPAs and the Taxation Institute of Australia and enjoys developing tax strategies that work well here and around the world.