4 – Review & Finalisation

Optimising your Brand Definition.

Why this is important

It is hard to get everything right first time – especially if you are working on your own. Your Brand Definition must be as good as possible because it is what will drive your business forward for years to come.

What you need to do

If you are following the steps you will have left your draft definition alone for a few days. Now is the time to look at it afresh, review it and see what improvements you can make.

Read it through carefully and ask yourself the following questions:

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  • Does this accurately sum up what your brand is about?
  • Does it sound right – credible, achievable, interesting and motivating?
  • Do the Vision and Mission reflect the aims of your company?
    • Can you improve the way they are written – making them shorter or more focused? (Remember ideally, they should be no more than 15 words long)
  • Do the Values fully represent the way you believe your company should operate? Are they clear enough? Will they help your people (if / when you have staff) know how to behave and operate?
  • Is your Proposition realistic / believable / unique?
  • Is the Personality giving the right tone? Does it make sense when you think of it in terms of communications such as your website, presentations, ads, social media and so on? Will it help you write and design effective marketing material?
  • Are all your Reasons-to-believe relevant and true? Can you add more? Are some more important than others? Have you included some aspirational ones? Are they all equally relevant to all your target audiences or are some more relevant to different groups than others?
  • Overall, does your Brand Definition fit together as a whole – eg the Mission working with the Vision? The Values supporting both? The Proposition summing up the benefits you offer?

Activity

Make any improvement to your draft Brand Definition in Worksheet 4 – Review & Finalisation.

Outcome

Optimised / final Brand Definition.

The way a company brands itself is everything – it will ultimately decide whether or not a business survives.

Founder Virgin Group
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Many ‘Reasons-to-believe’ will be existing factors that support your brand such as:

  • Xxx number of queries dealt with within 24 hours
  • All our staff have xxx qualification
  • We won the 2018 award for xxx
  • Xxx languages are spoken by our staff
  • We champion diversity and inclusivity throughout our organisation by…
  • We are committed to improving the skills and capabilities for all our staff through our comprehensive xxx training scheme
  • Being open and welcoming is important to us which is why we run a new staff induction/mentoring scheme
  • We are committed to improving our customer service which is why we have introduced a new evaluation and monitoring initiative
  • Improving our products and services is important to us which is why we have invested in R & D allocating an annual budget of £x / with a team of xxx…
  • We invested £x in company training last year
  • We invested £x in training of young people (not necessarily in our organisation) last year
  • We foster inspirational thinking by…
  • We challenge the status quo by…
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Warm
Trustworthy
Timid
Risk-taking
Brave
Loyal
Optimistic
Enthusiastic
Charming
Impulsive
Empathetic
Straight-forward
Simplifies
Explanatory
Intellectual
Clever
Serious
Friendly
Forthright
Outspoken
Funny
Ironic
Deep
Introverted
Self-sufficient
Extrovert
Outgoing
Calm
Passionate
Gregarious
Sociable
Daring
Honest
Reliable
Cool headed
Collected
Pragmatic
No nonsense
Sensible
Approachable
Timid
Opportunistic
Thoughtful
Considered
Level-headed
Interesting
Pioneering
Early adopter
Fair
Confident
Adventurous
Creative
Independent
Strong
Straight talking
Witty
Smart
Sharp as a button
Kind
Shy
Generous
Sincere
Team player
Assertive
Flamboyant
Artistic
Thorough
Practical
Non-judgemental
Relaxed
Assured
Straight thinking
Good listener
Understanding
Courageous
Clear-sighted
Nothing’s too much trouble
Unfazed
People focused
Reserved
Capable
Quick witted
Adaptable
Quick-learner
Up for challenges
Embraces the new

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Apple iPhone: The Experience IS the Product

At the heart of the Apple offer is the perfect marriage of function and form – products that are intuitive to use and look sleek and attractive. It’s proposition sums this up – a beautiful product that really works properly.

Uber: Get there: Your day belongs to you

Offering uber convenience – summing up its offer of one tap and a car comes directly to where you are, knowing where you want to go and no cash required.

Budweiser Beer: The Great American Lager

Great tasting everyday beer for American families.

CrazyEgg: Website Behaviour Tracking at an Unbeatable Price

CrazyEgg is an analytical tool allowing users to see how people are interacting with their website via heatmaps. Their proposition communicates their unique benefits – no other service provides more functionality and insight for a better price, with as little hassle.

LessAccounting: Bookkeeping, Without the Hassle

LessAccounting’s offer is built upon simplifying accounting and bookkeeping, which most people find an annoying and time-consuming irritation. Its proposition communicates this directly.

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Easyjet

Safety: We never compromise on safety.
Simplicity: We cut out the things that don’t matter to keep us lean and make it easy.
One team: Together we’ll always find a way.
Integrity: We stand by our word and do what we say.
Passion: We have a passion for our customers, our people and the work we do.
Pioneering: We challenge ourselves to find new ways to make travel easy and affordable.

Innocent

Natural: Only the freshest, best quality ingredients – absolutely no nasties.
Entrepreneurial: We never give up trying.
Responsible: We strive to do business in an enlightened way and aim for neutral or (better still) positive environmental impact.
Commercial: We make a profit but aim to do that in a sustainable and ethical way.
Generous: We fully appreciate our staff, customers and suppliers and aim to share our success by helping change lives for the better.

IKEA

Togetherness: We trust each other, pull in the same direction and have fun together.
Cost-consciousness: We constantly try to make more from less without compromising on quality (so that as many people as possible can afford our products).
Renew and Improve: We are constantly looking for new and better ways forward.
Give and Take Responsibility: We believe in empowering people because giving and taking responsibility is how we grow and develop as individuals.
Caring for People and Planet: We want to be a force for positive change.
Simplicity: We are informal, pragmatic, straightforward and down-to-earth – bureaucracy is our biggest enemy.

Royal Mail

Be positive: Because it leads to better things faster. We go out of our way to help each other and give our customers the best service possible.
Be brilliant: Because we always want to be the best. Millions of people depend on us every day, so we pride ourselves on knowing our stuff and are always exploring new innovations, technologies and products to stay ahead.
Be part of it: Because it’s great to be part of something that matters. We appreciate every one of our customers and our staff because together we are stronger.

NB Companies often keep their Brand Definitions wholly or partly secret. So, in these examples of Vision, Mission and Values we have adapted and amended their published words where appropriate.

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Easyjet

To provide our customers with safe, good value, point-to-point air services. To effect and to offer a consistent and reliable product and fares appealing to leisure and business markets on a range of European routes. To achieve this, we will develop our people and establish lasting relationships with our suppliers.

Innocent

To supply health-conscious adults and children world-wide with 100% natural, delicious, healthy and sustainable food.

IKEA

To offer a wide range of well-designed, functional home furnishing products at prices so low that as many people as possible will be able to afford them.

Royal Mail

To be demonstrably the best and most trusted Postal Service in the world.

NB Companies often keep their Brand Definitions wholly or partly secret. So, in these examples of Vision, Mission and Values we have adapted and amended their published words where appropriate.

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Easyjet

To be the best low-cost airline in the world making flying as affordable as a pair of jeans.

Innocent

To show the world that you can build a successful business that cares about more than just profit, and to leave things better than we find them.

IKEA

To create a better everyday life.

Royal Mail

To connect customers, companies and countries.

NB Companies often keep their Brand Definitions wholly or partly secret. So, in these examples of Vision, Mission and Values we have adapted and amended their published words where appropriate.