Brand Success vs Brand Growth
As brand designers, we want to see the brands we work with succeed. But what do we mean by success? And how is that defined?
For us, there is a big difference between brand success and brand growth. That difference is crucial when it comes to developing a brand’s strategy and its creative expression.
Brand success is about how it performs in terms of recognition and appeal. It’s how consumers see the brand, what they like about it, how it makes them feel. For designers, it’s the job of the design to reflect the brand idea and its personality in order to create that recognition and consumer appeal. Which in turn – hopefully – leads to a good sales performance.
Brand growth goes much further. From a design perspective it demands a deeper breadth of knowledge that needs to be clearly understood if the design is to help with meaningful brand growth.
As a Client of ours, CEO at Planet Organic, Peter Marsh, told me, ‘Lots of people love the Planet Organic brand and what it stands for. As a brand, it has been a huge success. But it doesn’t follow that just because the brand is loved, growth is assured. Growth comes from a whole set of other dynamics that the brand must respond to in order to realise its potential.’
Asking the right questions about the brand – or even the business that owns it – will determine how the brand strategy and creative expression can be developed so that it is well equipped to meet its more strategic growth aspirations of the future.
It’s important that we fully understand those aspirations which typically span:
overall brand ambitions – what is its vision? What role does the brand want to play in the future and how does it see itself delivering on this? This might mean that a significant change is required in how the brand should be positioned and creatively presented in the sectors where it wants to operate
existing products – it’s important to look at how consumers are buying your products so that they can be ranged accordingly. Can the way they are ranged and presented sell more products? A clearly defined product range architecture can not only help present products more effectively, both on pack and online, but also identify where there may be gaps in the offer
product developments – what new product developments are planned? How closely associated are these with what the brand currently offers – or are they quite different? New product developments should be looked at in the context of new trends, new behaviours or consumer lifestyles. This may highlight new opportunities which the brand is perfectly capable of developing
new consumers/customers – is the brand looking to appeal to a broader audience or trying to attract a new audience altogether? Going up market or even down market will determine how the brand identity is evolved
new channel sectors – are there plans to diversify into new channels or sectors? Will the brand need to work as a foodservice or wholesale brand? Or will new product categories mean that the brand needs to be given some new visual assets? These sorts of plans may identify whether the brand is able to make the stretch or whether a new brand would be better to invest in
new channels to market – will new channels become more important to the brand? If so, it will need to ensure it can work in those channels to best effect.
All these considerations are crucial to how the brand will be strategically and creatively approached in order that it achieves its success and growth ambitions. The important question to ask at the outset of any creative brief is whether this is a design exercise to help the brand simply capture the spirit of its idea or whether it’s to bring about a more strategic change to help with the brand’s growth potential.
Consequently, design briefs are becoming more expansive. In many ways, they are more difficult for Clients to write as they are no longer just a creative or design led brief but also look to capture the brand’s long-term vision. Indeed, we’ve found that the brief writing is becoming more of a joint effort.
But with this greater, more in depth knowledge, we can develop a branding and creative strategy that will enable the brand to properly deliver its vision for success and growth.
Looking for guidance on what is the right approach for your brand’s success and growth? We can help.
lawrence@wonderlanddesign.co.uk