Thoughts

Brand names dissected

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.

The importance of customer experience

Brought to you by Gavin Birchall

In an increasingly competitive market and with new challenges to pharmacy profitability popping up every week, it’s time to focus on what you can control. Surely it would be madness to focus on anything else?

Recognise, understand and manage your customer experience to give yourself a sustainable competitive advantage that will help you satisfy and delight your existing customers and win new ones.

Branding basics

Brought to you by Gavin Birchall

Branding and brand identity are often confused as being the same thing. In fact, brand identity is part of branding which is name for the overarching process by which organisations influence customer choice about which brand they use.

A brand is the customers experience of an organisation.

Branding is the process by which an organisation influences the customers experience through a wide range of actions.

Brand identity is a set of tangible, sensory assets that characterise the customer experience.

Three reasons not to invest in branding and why you should overcome them

Brought to you by Gavin Birchall

There are so many urgent issues to deal with when a. starting a business, b. running a business or c. rescuing a business, that branding (and often marketing as a whole) is an area that is neglected. When faced with the workload associated with a long list of plans detailing actions to get the myriad parts of the whole operation working smoothly and profitably you could be forgiven for letting branding slip to the bottom or off the list completely.

Or could you?

Build your pharmacy brand on solid foundations

Brought to you by Gavin Birchall

Your brand isn’t your visual brand assets. That is your brand isn’t your logotype etc. It is the sum of how people experience your organisation based on every interaction they have with it and arguably other providers of the same or similar products. It exists in context with everything around it. That isn’t to say your visual brand assets aren’t important. They are! They are critical and are a code that identifies your work amidst the hustle and bustle of life. They help people attach the experiences they have with the organisation providing them.

Now we have that sorted out we can look at why you might be trying to build your brand without any building blocks.