Does you brand burn bright?

Has your business changed since its visual identity was established? Does it still reflect who you really are and what you

do?’ really

MANY TMCs are feeling the effects of corporate account realignment as those with global footprints pick up accounts previously held by local boutique agencies. This can have a massive impact on TMCs on the wrong end of the realignment. But it also presents an opportunity to re-assess target markets and review your brand strategy. That doesn’t mean dashing off to a designer for a fresh logo and expecting new clients to roll in, but stepping back to look at the big picture.

“Your brand isn’t your logo, your product, service, even your business name,” says Resource’s business identity specialist, Tiffany Gouge.

“That’s branding, and it’s simply a visual representation of your identity and customer promise. Your brand is more than that. It’s what your business represents in the minds of the people that count: your target market,” says Gouge.

When was the last time you reviewed your visual identity? Does it tell the right story? Is it consistent? How developed is it? Is it simply a logo? Are your colours defined? What about fonts? Do you have a brand guide?

These are important questions. So too are considerations about the evolution of your business over time. Has your business changed since its visual identity was established? Has your target market changed? Does it still reflect who you really are and what you really do?

Take Virgin Australia - an airline that launched as a cheap, cheery challenger, Virgin Blue. Save for the Virgin logo, it’s now virtually unrecognisable from the one that first took flight not even 20 years ago. It has evolved from a domestic, low- cost, opposite-of- Qantas positioning (red aircraft body with white tail, for goodness sake), to a full service and perks, premium international carrier comfortably positioned as an alternative to the Flying Kangaroo. Along the way, it changed its name, its identity, livery and language to articulate its customer promise.

“One of my favourite quotes about branding is that it is ‘only branding when you deliver what you promise. All the rest is misleading advertising’,” says Tiffany Gouge.

The earliest brands were marks left by charring. The word itself comes from Old English for ‘burning’. As the corporate travel market shifts and changes, is your visual identity burning brightly?

Are you leaving your mark?