Kiterocket is hosting a round table series at SEMICON West and Intersolar North America to provide an in-depth look at crucial marketing best practices for the semiconductor and solar industries, including branding, social selling, and PR/social media in Asia.
Andrew DePoy, Kiterocket’s Director of Brand & Creative Strategy, will host the “What’s in a Brand?” roundtable on Wednesday, July 11, 2018, at 10 a.m., and on Thursday, July 12, 2018, at 9:30 a.m. Today, he shares a sneak peek at what makes a strong B2B brand.
Click here to request a seat at the table today. Spots are limited.
Branding: Strategy vs. Action
Do you understand your brand in relation to, and in the context of, your industry? Defining a brand and planning a brand strategy is vital to branding success.
Think about the two differently—there’s brand, and then there’s branding.
Brand is the foundation and strategy. Branding is the action: making the materials and sharing the brand’s message.
Many companies make the mistake of jumping right into the action first. They make logos, ads, graphics and messaging without having a focused brand strategy. Brand strategy should not only guide visual and verbal executions; it should:
- Stay true to “who” you are as a company
- Provide meaningful service to customers
- Differentiate you from your competition
Brand strategy should measure up in these three areas and provide the guidance and direction to correctly act on branding, giving organizations a successful roadmap on which to build.
A Brand’s Perception and Story
A company’s brand story plays a large part in how it is perceived now and in the future. The story must be carefully considered to discover what about the brand is true, meaningful and different.
A brand is a cluster of perceptions, past and present. To define your brand, you need to decide what about your history and heritage should be brought forward and what about it should be left behind. Involving senior leadership and people who have been around the company a long time will help with the brand story and brand development, as will auditing outside perceptions.
During the round table, we will discuss best practices and ideas for brand workshops and sessions to discern this information.
Make Brand Strategies Aspirational
Every brand challenge is different. Still, no matter the task, no matter how you frame it, a brand strategy should always be aspirational.
Corporate brands need to align with the company’s vision and mission. A vision is aspirational by nature, as it’s something the company is trying to achieve or attain.
Whether you’re rebranding because your brand has aged, and things have changed, or you’re just tweaking to add nuance, there’s a similar approach in any instance.
Creating a brand that is based on who you want to become as a company, even if it doesn’t fit perfectly with what you are today – is what you will work toward. When aspirational branding is aligned with business strategy progress, you realize a multiplying effect and will soon start to grow into the company you want to become… because everything is aligned toward achieving that goal.
Learn more about brand perceptions at the Kiterocket Experience Branding Round Table at SEMICON West and Intersolar North America. Click here to request a seat at the table.
