Whether you run a law firm, investment firm, luxury brand, or consumer-packaged-goods brand, understanding the depth of brand intelligence is key to success.
What is Brand Intelligence?
Brand intelligence or branding intelligence, in the most reductive sense, is the information that guides brand strategy and design.
To understand what brand intelligence is on a fundamental level, we need to understand its key components.
Key Components of Brand Intelligence
This section breaks down brand intelligence into two ingredients:
- Brand Identity
- Brand Strategy
Brand Identity
When consumers think of a “brand,” they often mistakenly think of a company’s “brand identity.” This makes sense because a brand’s identity is how it effectively communicates with its target market.
It’s the tip of the iceberg visible to everyone above the water:
- Logos (word marks, letter marks, symbols, mascots, etc.)
- Color Palette (primary, secondary, and tertiary)
- Fonts and Font Pairings (serif vs sans serif, and iterations thereof)
- Messaging (tone, attitude, and personality)
- Packaging (box, bag, tape, sustainability of materials, etc.)
Brand Strategy
“Brand strategy” is what makes up the massive amount of iceberg hidden underneath the water. It’s what’s happening behind the scenes to make the identity so visible and compelling.
Strong brand strategy develops into what the brand identity will become. It requires an understanding of the following aspects:
- Brand Governance (management of the brand identity)
- Brand Experience (the feeling a brand has when you interact with it)
- Brand Equity (social value of the brand within the market)
- Brand Position (perceptions of the brand relative to competitors)
How Brand Strategy Informs Brand Identity
Now that the different aspects of brand intelligence have been laid out, we need to understand how they fit together.
How Strategy Protects Identity’s Efficacy
Companies tend to focus on the five assets of brand identity when considering a rebrand. There’s an odd assumption that all brands are one-size-fits-all. However, companies tend to learn the hard way that new brands or branding assets need specific attention and management as they change. Enter brand governance.
How Strategy Gauges Identity’s Impact
When a brand evolves to have a new logo or messaging, the target market’s impression of the brand will be affected. Two classic, yet very different, examples are from the 1980s: New Coke and when Pepsi separated its symbol from its word mark. When the audience noticed, brand experience shifted. One felt very modern and accepted. The other was met with great distaste, literally.
Sometimes the impact is positive; other times negative. When negative, quick responses are necessary. Coke did not respond quickly enough, so today, forty years later, brand intelligence agencies are still writing about it.
How Strategy Supports Identity’s Importance
When a brand expands into a new market and becomes more of a household name, it experiences a shift in brand equity that may require a shift in identity. A recent example is Nvidia. Originally known far and wide as a graphics processor manufacturer lauded by filmmakers and gamers, Nvidia is now at the forefront of the AI revolution due to the inherent capabilities of its hardware.
As a result, the world has watched the company evolve its identity in real time to respond to the shift in brand equity, including but not limited to more public appearances by its CEO and newsworthy upgrades to its factories.
How Strategy Creates Leeway for Identity’s Rigidity
When a company notices shifts in the market, it will look to see how its audience perceives it relative to the competition. Perhaps they need to pivot out of a certain price point for the perception of higher quality; maybe they need to target different consumer segments to enter a new or larger market.
Understanding brand positioning, also known as market positioning, provides clarity into how market segments can be crossed and what white space exists in the competition.
How Brand Intelligence Informs Strategy
Brand intelligence is effectively an understanding of how the market will react to a company’s brand strategy and, in turn, brand identity.
To have a strong identity, there must be a reliable strategy.
To have a reliable strategy, there must be an understanding of everything that can influence a brand both internally and externally.
Paying attention to what is allowed and desired within the market clarifies what a brand needs to acknowledge within its strategy. Pay attention to:
- Consumers
- Competitors
- Substitutes
- Supply Chains
- Governing Bodies
The Importance of Brand Intelligence
Having a keen understanding of the market, including consumers and competitors, is vital. What good is a brand identity if it accidentally clashes with the market’s expectations? Even brands that go against the grain do so consciously because they have strong brand intelligence. Liquid Death is a great recent example with its intense messaging and outstanding packaging.
In a market where brand identity is the result of carefully thought-out choices that are inspired by brand strategy, the strategy must be built out of an awareness of where the brand has been, is currently positioned, and is headed.
When everything is in sync, a brand becomes exactly what its target audience requires. and more importantly, desires.
Frequently Asked Questions
Brands that do not have any hard market data tend to be startups or new entrants. These brands are initially built in the image of what the founding team desires, as opposed to what the audience desires. Chances are, the founders have an understanding of their market based on previous work experience. That knowledge is the first instance of brand intelligence since it informs how they are going to build their brand and demonstrate it to their target audience.
When a branding company works to build a “brand experience,” it is a goal. Brand experience is part of strategy because it is an outcome that is desired by the brand itself. It is not as concrete as a font, color, or logo.
There is an aspect of experience that can be considered part of brand identity. However, experience is subjective. A single experience can be positive for one consumer, but negative for another, and it will shift depending on various factors that may be in or out of the brand’s control.
Develop Your Brand Intelligence With Valley
Our team operates on the foundation of a decade of experience developing brand identities and strategies for professional service providers and lifestyle brands across North America.
Our formula takes consumer insights, competitor insights, performance insights, and continuous brand perception monitoring into account when developing brand strategy.
When you understand your brand inside and out, you’re able to move more freely within your market without fear of losing equity or position to your competitors. Contact us today to gain an unfair competitive advantage.