Brand understanding meets people understanding

BACK TO BASICS – BRAND BUILDING BY VHUG

13. June 2024
4 min reading time
Insights

Fed up with the unemotional brand "potatoes" of the 2000s? Fed up with the purpose hype afterwards? And not in the mood for months of resource-consuming brand processes for the drawer? We feel the same way. Brand management starts with a clear goal. Our goal: to bring brand and common sense back together.

Anyone involved in brand management and development is often immersed in a world of its own, which creates more confusion than clarity. Countless brand models, highly complex brand processes and lots of buzzword bingo lead to the feeling that you can't really get anywhere without a 6-semester study of the Sinus-Milieu or similar. In an effort to master the fascination of brands in all its facets, you end up with increasingly complex models and attempts at explanation. From my own experience as chief strategist of a successful brand agency, I can only confirm this. And before you know it, human understanding and brand understanding are drifting apart. The key to success lies in simplicity.

Back to basics: 5 must-haves for successful brand communication

Spoiler alert first: what you are about to read will probably not surprise you. And that's a good thing. After all, these are fundamental principles that were described in a similar form in Aristotelian rhetoric over 2000 years ago, without losing any of their topicality.

So what makes brands the heroes of their environment?

1. inspiring DNA: Every strong brand has a clear drive, a mission that drives it. It's about having a clear vision of what the brand stands for, what it believes in. Customers and employees alike want to identify with a brand that pursues a clear and higher goal.

2. trusted values: A brand's values are its moral compass. They define what is important to the brand and how it acts. Customers trust brands that live and communicate their values authentically.

3. your uniqueness: Real USPs are rare. And yet every company, every brand is unique in its own right. In its strengths, its ways of solving problems. What topics does the brand want to address? How does it differentiate itself? And why should customers choose it? The clearer the answers and arguments, the more successful it is in convincing customers.

4. emotional power: Emotions play a crucial role in brand communication. Strong brands create an emotional connection with their customers by making promises that appeal to the emotions and trigger positive feelings.

5. customer story: Ultimately, it's all about the customer. A successful brand understands its customers and addresses their needs, desires and problems. The brand story becomes the customer's individual hero story.

All well and good. But what comes next?

Brand Building by VHUG

Brand communication should inspire and excite. This also applies to brand development. As little as possible, as much as necessary. As a creative agency, we think in terms of results. Our learning is simple:

Keep the strategic brand process as lean as possible. Of course, we can't do without an analysis phase either. But to be honest, most companies (especially the German ones) have a clean slate here. There is usually no lack of information and insights. But a human perspective and realism are more important. Human and brand understanding - you need both. And that is exactly what we focus on. Whether in the generation of insights, in the central Hero Brand Workshop with the most important participants in internal brand development or in the presentation of the brand strategy results.

Von Helden und Gestalten provides this in the form of a compact and inspiring brand heat map. It bundles the brand story and central brand elements. This brand map is not just a strategy document, but later becomes a real guideline for the entire brand communication with the components of the creative concept. It serves as a reference point for everything that defines the brand and how it presents itself to the outside world.

In a world characterized by complexity,
it's time to get back to basics.

Our 5 must-haves for successful brand communication, a lean brand process and brand map documentation offers a clear and simple package to get to the heart of brand fascination and inspire customers. Let's take your brand to the next level together. Make it the hero that inspires and moves.

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