This post is an excerpt of our Branding Rules eBook.
Branding means so many things to different people that it has become nebulous. It’s called the “secret sauce” of marketing, but what does that mean?
“Secret sauce” might mean sriracha to some, Tabasco to others, or the intangible and often unidentifiable ingredient that we all seek and/or covet.
We cleared the confusion by gathering 14 branding experts and asked them a question: “If you could impart only one piece of advice about branding, what would it be?”
We compiled the results, added illustrations by Gapingvoid’s Hugh MacLeod, and created the 2014 Branding Rules eBook to provide a resource filled with timeless advice to guide your business’s branding efforts.
Here is advice from Chris Lester, the co-founder of CHIEF Brand Strategy.
Chris Lester of CHIEF echoes C.C. Chapman. He says that powerful brands come from within, not from without:
Marketing is constant change, branding is continuous stability – follow your heart to build your brand follow the data to market it.
Powerful brands come from within, not from the market. They’re built from the characteristics that make your product, service or work unique, your personality attractive, and your perspective distinct – the things that define your culture and make your clients love you. Your brand shouldn’t be a reflection of market data; it should be a reflection of you.
Your marketing, on the other hand, should be constantly shaped and reshaped by market data and community engagement – relentlessly seeking, responding to and connecting with the audiences most attracted to your brand.
