What Makes a Great Brand and Why? – Business Branding Photographer
Starting a brand or in our case being a business branding photographer means you must research other competition, historic brands, and always ask what makes them a great brand and why?
We work with our clients to make sure they stand out while building a brand reputation that attracts their ideal clients. In this post we wanted to go over some of the most influential brands in the world, why they’ve had success, and what to learn from it. We love branding and the first thing to building a great brand is love what you are doing.
Loving Your Brand
See for instance, Ralph Lauren, he loves what he does.
“The clothes that I design and everything I’ve done is about life and how people live and how they want to live and how they dream they’ll live. That’s what I do.”- Ralph Lauren
He started one of the biggest fashion houses in the world, and his name is recognised all over the world. His designs, imagery, color choices, are ones you can recognise without even seeing the Ralph Lauren typeface or horse logo written in navy across them. He uses similar business branding and photographers so his style is consistent throughout his different labels. Ralph Lauren is that powerful, it has the “all american dream” written all over it. What’s so powerful about a brand like Ralph Lauren is that is allows people to express themselves.
Defining Great
Defining what your brand’s meaning is (your core message you want to show the world) defines a great brand. Even Coca-Cola had a mission which has been defining their brand for 125 years. They want “To refresh the world… and inspire moments of optimism and happiness…” which they do with their niche marketing, ads, visuals, and packaging which changes due to events, seasons, and their “make a difference” motto. The Coke logo is the best known trademark in the world. The Coca Cola logo has been the same since 1941. Their marketing has changed, but the classic Coca Cola bottles stay the same and are actually coveted for. They’ve created a historic brand, that is the most recognised brand in the world. They’ve defined what they wanted to stand for since 1887. Defining who and what you stand for, is huge, just look at what messages come to mind when you think of Coca Cola.
Knowing Your Audience
Knowing who your audience is everything when it comes to branding. One of the best brands to do this is Apple. Apple has always had commercials and campaigns that appealed to a hip audience of ages 18 – 35. Even though people of all ages buy Apple products their branding is tailored to that target age group. Targeting who your branding will be sold to, will help brand your company. 
Apple has a simplicity set branding usually with their products photographed in the same styles against all white with their black logo. Their packaging is minimalist and sophisticated, which appeals to a millennial crowd. Apple knows their audience so well, it even made a campaign that made their buyers photographers. For the “Shot on Iphone” Campaign Apple crowdsources its customers photos to “display on billboards, bus stops and train stations, and it remained minimalistic, featuring a photograph, with the words: Shot on iPhone,”. Apple knows its audience, what it wants, and how devoted they are to the Apple brand.
So You’re Just Starting
If you don’t have one the biggest companies in the world and branding still seems like a pain. Then take things we learned above like loving your brand, staying authentic, defining what you want your brand to stand for, and knowing your target audience. Use these to brand your business for success, figure out what you stand for and who, to develop your colors, logos, messages and imagery.
If you need a business branding photographer with over 15 years of experience that can tell you the ins and outs of branding.
Book a Call with Los Angeles Business Brand Photographer Sandy Grigsby.