A bit about brand
We often get asked to create videos and photography to help promote a brand. But what is a brand and what is its purpose? I have written this blog to help you understand a bit about branding and how photography and video can help.
What is a brand?
There are many statements out there that define what a brand is, my prefered definition is, a brand is how people perceive you, your business or your product.
Don’t confuse brand and promotion they are two different things. A brand is more about shaping how people feel about you or your product and promotion is about creating awareness. Just to confuse you, you can promote a brand and in fact, you need to.
Who can have a brand?
Anyone can have a brand, whether your an individual or a company. In fact, a company can have multiple brands, but they generally come under three categories.
There is the company brand; this is related to the image of the company, it’s ethics, and what the company stands for.
Then there are the products; each product can have its own brand; this can be closely related to the company or completely separate.
Then there’s the individual brand, that’s you or others within the company.
How to create your brand?
When you are deciding upon your brand, it’s essential to do your research first. Find out the who what and when but most of all think about the why. Why are you doing what you do? This should be at the centre of your brand. Consider your values and beliefs and use these to further shape the brand. Then add the style and feel of the brand ensuring they are all aligned.
Be innovative and different from others in your sector so that you stand out from the crowd. New ideas are exciting, think about the colours and how they reflect you and your key messages, ask yourself do they stand out.
Promoting your brand.
The next stage is to incorporate the brand into your marketing strategy. This includes on your website, across your social media, within your PR and your advertising in fact almost everything you do.
So if a brand is about defining peoples perception, then how do you go about influencing that?
Depending upon what the brand is, there are lots of marketing avenues for you to consider. There is podcasting, radio, press release articles, social media, YouTube to name just a few, but you will need assets to help promote your brand across all of these, and this is where photography and video can help.
Photography:
Photography is a great way to attract attention, It’s an instant attraction, and people love to see creative photos. You can incorporate images anywhere, on a news feed, in an advert, on a website or in a social media post.
The image should be eye-catching, and it should tell a story. Storytelling helps to build emotion and emotion can shape peoples feelings. Oh, and People love a story.
The success of the image is all in how you construct it. The style, the colours, props, lighting but most important is the subject, it could be abstract, a portrait or even a lifestyle, there is so much you can do. Whatever it is should have a least some relevance.
Using a professional here will make a big difference.
Brand Video:
Brand Video is a video that shapes how your audience perceives you.
You can use various styles and themes, but the purpose of the video should be to shape the audience’s perception of you or your product and not directly sell, this is the job of an ad or promo video.
Again think about storytelling; this will enable the audience to connect emotionally with your brand—one of the emotions you want to build is trust, if people like and trust you, they will feel better about doing business with you.
We would usually recommend showcasing your brand video on social media; as an organic post or as a paid advert. Platforms such as YouTube, LinkedIn and Facebook along with others are great for promoting your brand video. You can also add it to your website or include it in a blog post.
It is possible to use the same production numerous times, across all channels, but it would need to be modified for each. Some warrant short versions another more extended, and then there is the crop ratio. Mostly it’s the same footage.
Teaser edits are a good idea if your video is longer and you want to draw people to it. A bit of a build-up.
Be Consistent.
Consistency is vital for a brand; if you have done it well, people will get to know like and trust your brand. If you keep changing it you risk losing your identity. You may also wish to protect it so that others can’t steal it, but this is out of my speciality so I won’t go there today.
In Conclusion:
I hope that this has helped to clarify what a brand is. There is a lot out there on brand and branding your business and a lot of people that specialise in the subject. For this blog, I have tried to keep things brief and straightforward.
In my next blog, I’ll touch on the importance of marketing and how this differentiates from a brand. Look out for that later in the month.
If you would like to discuss your companies brand and how to go about creating it, we’d be happy to help.
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