Does brand even matter anymore?

We exist in a day and age of performance-precise marketing, where decisions are made every second based upon micro portions of data, and pushed out to seemingly desperate browsers baying for your products. As a graphic design man and boy, I find myself more often than not questioning, does brand even matter anymore?

The answer is of course a resounding, hell yeah!

Many years ago (far too many), I trained as a humble graphic designer in the hoppy atmosphere of Newcastle college basking in the shadows of Newcastle Brown Ale brewery. I remember the words of my lecturer who would tell me to ‘draw without looking at the paper’ and ‘the idea is all that matters’.  I’ve held this ideal close to my heart ever since – the idea part, not the drawing without looking bit (although you should try it).

Fast-forward to my polytechnic years and the idea was always to the fore. Always. It hard-wired in me the importance of knowing at the very core of all concepts and brands you create, the logic must be unequivocally sound and beyond reasonable doubt. I prided myself in the glory of the big idea, the smile in the mind as they call it. It’s a joyous thing to realise that concept and know with confidence it really works. Of course in those heady, snake bite and black swilling days, this single-minded approach was a luxury. It can tend to lack commerciality and your idealism can blind you to what really matters. Money and die-hard belief. But it remains more valid to this day than ever.

I know it’s a dirty word, but as a brand business owner, clients come to you when they want to make more of it. To them the smile in their mind is seeing how their business and purpose is transformed by the work you do for them. Perhaps more noble than that, they may feel they are making the world better, but for the most part, they essentially want to be better themselves. Which is why they get into it in the first place.

After ten years of running a brand business, I’ve slowly seen it transform from an ideas-based boutique to a full service digital agency with social media planners, performance marketeers, developers and more than a few die-hard creatives who love to make things look great.

Now where was that idea I waxed about a few paragraphs ago? Oh, it’s still very much there. It exists as a means for our clients to know what they stand for. When done right, and I mean really really really right, it can give a business and its individuals a reason to be, a banner to fly high as they plunge into the war for customer attention. It’s a bit like a full face tattoo and marriage. You really have to be committed to it. You have to get it right first and foremost. Don’t try to fluff it or prettify a logo without knowing deep down in your core, what you stand for is right. What you’re offering is relevant and always will be, and more importantly will be desirable and believable.

Belief. Yep, the big idea needs an element of bravery and belief. Some of us use research (though that can often marginalise the big life changing thought) and I’m sure it gets you to a solution of sorts that everyone will like and no-one will truly love. But the belief is the thing that changes everything. Believe in the big idea deep down, show that to your fans and potential fans, then make them believe it too. Then you have to live up to those heady heights of ‘you promised and you delivered’ . Belief my friends means everything, and how you get there is by the big idea. It’s never left me, that singular thought, and it will always remain.

Now let’s fast forward to today and tomorrow. There you are armed with this life and business changing concept. Ahh, then you’ll need those clever guys in performance marketing and web design to put that big idea in the eyeballs of your fans and future fans. But do me one solid. Never ever lose touch of that big idea. It will bind all you do, how you think, how you operate. Make them believe you. In a sea of vanilla brands all fighting for browser space, promising the world, maybe just maybe your unique looking, sounding and meaning brand will stand head and shoulders above them all and not drown in that vanilla sea.

The playing field may change and is always very busy, from print to digital to wherever we go next (please don’t make it AI chip’s implanted in the brain) but big ideas that your customers or guests really believe in will prevail no matter how busy that playing field is.

Sounds simple. Just don’t draw without looking at the paper, build a brand without belief or operate farm machinery in the same manner. You’re not going to love the results of any of those options. Trust me.