Interconnectedness is an essential aspect of good branding. No element—visual expression, verbal expression, brand platform—should exist in a vacuum.
A big part of the reason why is tied to the nature of branding. In a very real sense, branding is storytelling done through words, images and experiences. Your brand is the story of you—your company, your product, what makes you unique, the difference you make in the world. That story, if told well, will be cohesive, compelling and memorable.
Take a moment to think about brands you admire. What do they have in common? One answer is that they tell a consistent story from end to end. They look a certain way. They have a distinct voice and personality. They evoke a particular set of emotions. The experience they deliver fits into the brand world at every touchpoint.
What ties it all together?
That kind of unified presence is possible only when there’s connective tissue that runs throughout the brand, including the parts of the story you never see from the outside. In our own work as a brand consultancy, Tenet Partners applies this principle every day.
From initial research and brand strategy to differentiating attributes, architecture, vision, mission, values, personality, positioning, promise, naming, logo development, visual system, photography, messaging, employee engagement, launch, execution and ongoing brand management, there’s a clear through line. Everything is connected to everything else.
Connectedness should drive your branding initiative
Decisions made upstream ripple throughout all that follows. There can be dependencies, such as the need to ground messaging in brand vision, mission, positioning and promise, or using brand personality to guide design and tone of voice. For this reason, order of play matters. For best results, the fundamentals should be firmly in place—or at least well on the way—before digging into the details of what the public winds up seeing.
For managers looking to undertake a branding initiative, it’s useful to look at the project through a holistic storytelling lens even if the task at hand is limited. Is it necessary to start from scratch? Certainly not. But success hinges on your team’s ability to take the full scope of your brand and business into account. Do some aspects of the brand need to be preserved just as they are? Can—and should—they be modified? Is starting with a blank slate the right way to go? These are fundamental questions.
Why look at brand this way?
If the branding project is something relatively simple such as a logo refresh, a holistic mindset may seem like overkill. But this interconnected way of thinking about brand is very powerful. It grounds the brand in objective data from the outset. It connects brand to business strategy to serve a real business purpose. It tells a clear, compelling story that leverages the brand’s place in the market, resonates with external audiences, inspires employees, and delivers results.
It is, in short, far more nuanced than the clichéd, oversimplified perception of brand being little more than a cool logo, memorable name and catchy tagline.
In the end, taking the time and effort to ensure that it all hangs together makes for a memorable, differentiating brand that drives tangible business results. And that’s what success in branding looks like.
