Strategic thinking

Here is how this article ends…

‘That, my friend, in summary, is why branding exists, why it’s important to your organisation and it blows my mind. The rabbit hole might be dark but there is a light at the end of the tunnel.’

It really does blow my mind.

Read on if you’d like some answers.

Information is out there about how we remember things and how we make decisions. You would imagine that it would be the Food of the Gods to people working in branding. In the end, branding is about creating memory structures in the mind of your customer which encourage the decision to purchase your products. There are lots of bits and pieces involved but that is the nut in the nutshell.

So why do so many seem to ignore it?

My aim is to arm you with a sense of caution when branding and marketing your pharmacy business. Try hard to discern the good stuff from the nonsense. Be aware that it’s not a level playing field and that to effectively employ either functions means understanding the bumps.

With all of the rapid fire, hustle and bustle of modern brand activation it is no wonder that people talk about pivoting a lot. The pressure to deliver growth on shorter and shorter timescales combined with the captivating but ultimately distracting communication options is causing many to lose track of what they are doing and pivot way too much and in the wrong way.

Let’s confirm what is is to pivot and then we’ll move onto when it’s helpful and when it really isn’t.

Having recently spent two solid days manning an exhibition stand I had plenty of time to think. Surrounded by around 360 other exhibitors’ stands my mind naturally turned to branding. The relative merits and slip ups were too tempting to ignore. Obviously it would be poor form to use specific examples of brand identities that fell short and likewise I’ll let you decide what might work best .

Instead here are some key observations about brand identity that became very apparent over the course of my time in the alternative dimension of a national industry show.