PragmaGraphic

Following their advice to Steal This Idea, I’d like to introduce you to “Invisible Branding” as described by Neutron LLC, the well-known brand consultants behind The Brand Gap and Zag. While graphic design and other visual expressions can be important elements to brand perception, they are certainly do not define a brand alone, and Invisible Branding, as Josh Levine of Neutron explains, reveals that many less-tangible actions go a long way to define a brand.

This reminds me of an important principle about cultivating and communicating a brand: live the brand first. That is, creating a brand identity is not only defining who and what your company is and what promise you offer to your prospects, clients or customers. It’s not only creating visual and verbal expressions of that identity and promise. It’s taking actions to ensure that your brand identity and promise are delivered at every touchpoint, especially those person-to-person touchpoints that are created between executives and employees, and between employees and customers.

Neutron (as usual) does an excellent job of articulating this idea, but I believe this approach is well-practiced by today’s leading design, advertising, and marketing firms. At Martino Flynn, we adamantly advise clients to make sure to deliver on their brand promise before they make the promise to their customers. And I see similar approaches taken by our colleagues here in Rochester, NY. James Wondrack of Wondrack Design leads off his company’s website with “Translate your strategy into actions that attract, demonstrate value to, and keep customers” and focuses on the ways a company communicates with customers and employees, and on ways that these communications can be redesigned and improved. Brand Integrity states that “Great brands are built by ‘doing’ not just ‘saying.’” I couldn’t agree more.

My point? Though well-planned and well-executed design and communication programs are important to cultivating a successful brand, the research and big-picture strategy behind those communication is the crucial foundation upon which these tactics are built.