A Word or More on Branding

A word and more on branding

The powerful role of content in articulating brand strategy and messaging

We are all familiar with the quote ‘Content is King’ so it should come as no surprise that content takes center stage in shaping a brand. A film cannot deliver its message without an excellent script and a leader cannot rally their masses without a powerful speech. Yet, nine times out of ten, when you talk about a brand, its logo will pop up in your mindscape, and of course, its brand ambassador. It’s Hema Malini who endorses Kent RO systems, and LG’s smiley which strikes gold. And then, you remember the punchlines. A brand like Amul has used content to woo its audience through the years, capitalizing on current events, festivals, New Year and other seasonal surprises, along with its mascot the Amul girl. They got just a bit closer this 2020 December with ‘Get Claus to Butter’.

But that’s not all. The role of content in shaping the brand goes way beyond adverts, bylines and taglines. Good branding is about writing a script where the brand is the protagonist and creating engaging communication platforms for the story to be told. An advertisement markets the brand and copywriting creates brand awareness through nifty and relevant copy. Whereas, content writing actually shapes brand ideology and how we want an audience to think about the brand.

Content brings insights

Through content, we capture the core essence of the brand in a compelling way to engage with the consumer. The brand needs to stand out with an edge. This begins with gathering insights and creating a Problem Statement. Insights about a brand come after in-depth research about the market, competition, and understanding what the brand wants to achieve. And the way to find how you are different from the rest is actually through a measured process of analytical writing. We like to be as raw and direct as possible and capture the gut feeling of the brand. We move away from language jargons, and address real life pain points and problems. Content becomes the tool that can change the way we see a brand.

Doing research and drawing insights for a hypothetical gym brand

Content defines the ‘problem’

All brand stories, like films and novels, start with a quandary — the hero is confronted with a challenge which they have to overcome. In the brand journey, likewise, we must find the ‘problem’, which is the turning point. But what’s staring at our face as an obvious deterrent may not be the real roadblock. As American inventor Charles F. Kettering famously noted, ‘A problem well stated is half solved’. If the problem statement is not articulated properly, we might as well end up going down the wrong road!

Framing a problem statement in different ways results in intriguing results and insights, which gives us a comprehensive understanding of what the brand really needs to do, which may be quite different than what we think it should be doing.

Creating a problem statement for a hypothetical new-age gym

Content culls out the essence

Before we create a desired projection in the minds of consumers, we need to interpret the core essence of the brand. The first step to talking about a brand, is understanding what it wants versus what it’s realistically capable of doing. A crow can never be a peacock, so selling what the clever crow can do is the key proposition. Once we zero in on the true nature and purpose of a brand, culled out from its vision and mission, writing it down clearly helps define everything going forward. We do this through a ‘what, why and how’ argument.

What does your brand do? Why does it matter? And how does your brand go about it? Writing down crisp descriptors at every step helps to bring clarity to the argument.

For instance, the new age gym’s ‘What’ could be: We offer neighborhood fitness programs. It’s ‘Why’ could be: For healthier lifestyles. The ‘How’ would be: Through tailor-made programs that combine Eastern practices and Western workouts.

Content creates personality

Now we come to the most important part of projecting your brand: brand personality humanizes a brand by giving it character and tone of voice. Through this we can sketch out how the brand acts, behaves and talks,bringing it closer to the consumers through its persona. By being mindful of the target audience and their desires, this kind of communication can be a powerful magnet drawing people to the brand. By a clear choice of words like Edgy, Quirky, Adventurous for instance, we determine what exactly a brand stands for.

Content scripts the strategy

We come to that part of the story, where we ask ourselves why customers should invest in our brand? Content becomes core to convince our customers why they should prefer our brand. We define our unique positioning in the market and how we intend to make this appealing to our target audience. The strategy also looks at the future of the brand, its competition and how it can dynamically evolve in the marketplace.

People need to find time to work out in our gym. Indians are looking for more indigenous ways of working out. Now, we have to figure out how we are going to entice them to our product. This leads to our brand positioning. A wellness gym that caters to the needs of Indians by providing workout programs that can be adjusted to specific needs, time and place.

Content delivers the brand

As we have seen, bringing the brand alive starts on a firm foundation: authentic analysis, deep-research and well-articulated insights. This leads to a clear alignment of all the brand elements and goes a long way in determining a purposeful brand strategy. It becomes the blueprint for building the brand while staying true to its core purpose. Once your brand is out there, it evolves from the essence we infuse into it, across all platforms. From the start to the end, the role of content in articulating its purpose and character can change the course of the brand, propelling it in the right direction. By the end, a clear brand strategy sets the stage for all other stakeholders — marketing, advertising, the organisation’s team and their vendors: the brand in all its avatars speaks in a single voice.

Reach out our dedicated team at Lopez Design to know about our customized approach to authentic brand strategy creation with definitive content at [email protected]

Written by Sukanya Panda and Sujatha Shankar Kumar
Illustrations by Saumya Mittal

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