The brand platform, the foundation of your corporate identity

The brand platform is a profitable tool that forms the basis of a global communication strategy. It must be consistent with the company's organization and deliver the keys to reading the company's perspectives. This platform is mainly built around a vision and a mission. The vision will justify the mission.

The branding platform, yes, but when?

Building a brand platform cannot be improvised. It is a reference document that is created according to the company's activity and helps set the course to achieve its objectives. The best time to build a platform is, of course, at the creation stage and then during the phases of re-energizing the company. It is therefore the result of a strategic will of the managers.

What are the benefits of the brand platform?

The brand platform is the best way to inscribe a brand in the minds of a target audience, starting with the company's employees who must make it their own. A strong brand gives meaning to the company's corporate purpose. Keep in mind that an individual is always more committed to an approach that has been taken the time to explain it to him or her and that he or she understands.

It provides a clear and concise guideline that forms the common thread for every future communication action. It creates a strong identity capable of generating interest, commitment and trust.

Formalize your brand identity

Formalizing one's platform is not a simple writing exercise. It is above all a contribution work involving the whole company, from the general management, through the support services and of course the production. The brand platform is the result of a shared and accepted vision.

The brand platform is the result ofbrainstorming workshops during which the company's players, whatever their position in the organisation chart, will ask themselves what the company is, what it is not, what it would like to be and how it intends to achieve this.

If the vision most often emanates from the leader(s), the translation of this vision is the result of collective work.

A platform that results from individual work and is pushed unilaterally from the top down is unlikely to be successful. On the contrary, if this work is the result of collective reflection and translates the proposals into action, it can initiate the first stages of appropriation.

The work of reflection should shed light on the following points:

• The vision: What is the course for the years to come?
• Ambition: What are our goals?
• The mission: What is our raison d'être?
• Values: What are the principles on which the company's culture is based?
• The promise: What is our added value?

This workshop work will produce recommendations that will help set the guidelines for :

• The visual identity : The logo, the naming (if it is necessary to engage a brand creation) and the graphic charter,
• The signature: It supports your identity and clarifies your message,
• Positioning: the promise you make to your customers and what differentiates you from your competitors,
• The speeches and your messages: It is important to define the tone you are going to use and the nature of the messages you are going to deliver. Both content and form are part of building a brand,
• Deployment on your communication media: A brand platform is a living document. It is not intended to remain archived in a drawer. On the contrary, it is essential to translate it into all your communication media.

A unique brand image, the result of this strategic reflection

Your brand image will be the result of this initial strategic thinking. It does not only consist in having a nice logo and some advertising elements. It will be expressed through your visual identity, but also your daily behaviour towards your employees, customers, suppliers and partners.

A brand platform deals with both know-how (missions) and interpersonal skills (values).

Many business leaders do not see the point of revising their communication strategy and do not see any major changes in their business after redesigning their websites or commercial documentation.

The reason for this is that they often do not have unity in all these communication levers. Their Facebook or LinkedIn pages send one message while the sales people send another. Prospects and customers do not feel they are in contact with the same person, which disturbs the overall understanding of the message and limits the phenomenon of adhesion and therefore commitment.

The brand image is the result of a coherent communication that you activate and contributes to the construction of the feeling of your public. The graphic charter must be correctly declined, your positioning coherent. It is by respecting this that your brand will become a real lever of commitment and will serve your notoriety and the development of your sales.

The long-term objective: building a strong brand

A strong brand is an intelligible brand, for which promises can be linked to actions. This concretization of the promise contributes to the development of Trust and consequently to the influence of your brand.

Your Brand must have its own personality and inspire Confidence so that your customers are comforted in their choices, loyal and that the commercial benefits are aligned with your development objectives.

This exercise of developing your brand platform is a founding act that must be done carefully if you want people to want to listen to your story and buy into it.

Always keep in mind that a Brand is alive. It must constantly reinvent itself to meet the new aspirations of your customers.