Building Success Through Branding and Culture with Leonard Grape

Sean: If you are given just one question to ask them about their brand, what would it be?

Leonard: That’s a good question. One question that I’ll ask about the brand is. Maybe I’d like to make it a compound question. What I’ll probably ask is where you see your brand in the next five years and what perception and emotions you want to establish in the marketplace. That’s probably the question that I’ll ask.

Sean: What’s the implication? Why is that your chosen question?

Leonard: Because branding is really providing the management of meaning for a business. So ultimately the goal is you have a clear strategic framework that will guide your branding development because the brand is a long-term play. So what you want to happen is what type of perceptions people have towards your brand. A good example is when we talk about Starbucks, you know, it’s not just an expensive coffee, but you know that it’s actually a good service, a nice interior, a good place, a warm company, those types of things. And those are perceptions and emotions that you want to have towards your brand.

We’re currently working with a startup brand that’s more into the various industry, but the perceptions and emotions that we want to establish for them are really one. They’re not the typical fertility program. They’re warm, but at the same time they’re experts people can trust them and they understand the sensitivity of the issues. So those are, I think, the core elements of good brand clarity. When you understand in a nutshell, what’s your value proposition? What’s your perception in the marketplace, and ultimately, what do you want your target customers to feel and think about you over the long term?