We wish it was that easy, but it isn’t. You won’t find a formula for branding; there isn’t an E=MC2 equivalent and there never will be. It’s because every brand is different. While it’s true many companies require similar building blocks in shaping their brands, each has their own unique goals, expectations and target customers (who also have their own goals and expectations in a given brand). Simply put, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution for branding.
For over 30 years, we’ve worked with brands across industries, and every branding experience is different with unpredictable results. While we have yet to find a magic formula to provide us the answers, we’ve developed a structured process that helps guide our thinking and shape the experience to help us arrive at the best solution efficiently.
We call it Focused Creativity™. It’s a four-step approach that helps us ask the right questions, analyze our findings, form recommendations and craft strategies for our clients. The outcome of the process is always unique. Our recommendations and ideas are based on what we hear — we don’t make things up. Our process ensures that we design with a purpose and we’re not just creating a brand that looks pretty, but has meaning and value behind it.
In branding, it’s not about a formula, it’s about a process. A formula is used for something that has a predictable and conclusive answer or outcome. That is certainly not branding. Branding is an ongoing process because a brand is like a living, breathing thing that adapts, evolves, grows and can even be injured. A brand needs to be maintained and cared for in order to remain strong and deliver what is expected to its customers.
Branding isn’t a mathematical formula. It’s not as simple as 2 + 2 = 4. If anything, if you want to get mathematical, branding is perhaps most like pi (π).
- It has no foreseeable end.
- It’s ongoing.
- It isn’t finite
- It’s one-of-a-kind.
- It’s an important factor that influences other outcomes.
- And our understanding and application of it is consistently evolving.
You can learn more about THIEL’s process and Focused Creativity™ here and read more from our blog series: The 10 Myths of Branding here.
