Branding Agency VS Advertising Agency

Should I go to an advertising agency or a branding agency?  

In a recent article by brand agency group Whisper they state that:

"Branding is smarter than advertising. Branding is demonstrating, advertising is explaining. Branding engages your customer to lean forward and pursue you. Advertising pleads with and chases after customer. Branding is a seduction. Advertising is stalking. Advertising is a shout. Branding is a whisper. Brand strategy works even when the brand is not advertising."

We have met clients who have told us that they have gone to Advertising agencies, Design agencies and even to PR agencies who claim that they are doing "branding". In many cases the agency throws in some logo or packaging design and these clients happily accept this thinking that this is branding. Sadly in many cases they end up up unhappy when they realise that their brand is not really being "built".

For a start, the concept of Branding encompasses so many more things than just advertising or PR, there is brand audits, brand platforms, strategic planning, brand architecture, brand identity development, internal branding to align employees to the brand, pre- and post-purchase branded customer experience, touchpoint alignment and finally the tip of the ice berg ... strategic brand communication which utlises tools such as events, DM, PR and yes ... advertising. Bingo ...Advertising and PR is a tool for branding and nothing more. And if used carefully it can help in brand building but it is not branding!

The reaction of these agencies to Branding as been interesting with some agencies trying to realign their offerings to make themselves sound more "brand" focused. But the key thing is this: Strategic communication agencies be it PR, Advertising or Design are good because they focus on their core specialty that is; building the brand through the use of focused communication tool. They should be focused on what they are good at and leave branding to brand consultants who can provide maximum value for building your brand by providing strategic brand advice across a spectrum of strategic solutions and thus creating a multi dimensional brand experience both internally and externally. Think about it. :-)

Contact us for more information on how to run a full scale multi dimensional branding program : jerome@thebrandtheatre.net 

Internal Branding WORKS!

We recently ran an Internal Branding campaign for an IT company that looked at Internal alignment of the brand through our  proprietary Brand Inside process which encompassed: 1. Internal Brand Research of over 300 employees 2.  Building a sustainable and relevant internal brand platform 3. Communication of the brand  through over 20 specialist brand workshops such as Brand leaders (CEO and senior managers), Manage On Brand (junior managers), Brand Champions (elite strategy group), Branded Customer Experience (Customer Service Staff), Sell the Brand (sales team), Write on Brand (Marketing), Recruit On Brand (HR) and Live the Brand (rest of the staff) and 4. Lastly we also worked on an internal communication campaign to build the brand through the intranet, newsletters, posters, staff events and other strategic promotional tools.

This is what the CEO had to say:

"We realised that only 20% of the brand is about things such as logo, stationery and brochures. The other 80% is about behavior. To create a powerful external brand you need the internal brand to be firmly in place. Employees bring the brand to life. They are our brand ambassadors. They are our brand guardians. And they will be the reason for our success. By embarking on a full scale internal brand alignment program we are on our way to Brand Leadership and success."

We love to help you build your brand through our Brand Inside internal branding process. Contact us at jerome@thebrandtheatre.net for more information and read on for our special offer for your internal branding campaign.