A brand concept is a system of values and characteristics that position a brand in the market in the most effective way. The goal is to create and convey the (marketing) idea of the product to the consumer. A clearly-worded brand concept serves as the basis for building creative, visual and verbal concepts – the ones we work with while developing a website.
We mention this because we often find that many people who ask for a site are not clear on their audience or positioning; so they order a site where "everything for all" is sold. For every business owner, whether at the beginning of their journey, reviewing their performance, or looking in new directions – this is where they should begin their website development project.
Knowing "who we are and what we do" is a good start, but it’s definitely not enough to create a site which would work towards a common vision. If you want to find your customers, position yourself in the market, and continually develop, the range of issues you need to think about is much broader.
It’s very rare that a client comes with a clear concept, described in a branding guide. More often we have to work with quite vague ideas about their positioning, values and niche – the main areas in a brand concept.
Niche
This is the area in which you specialise. The most important and simple rule is that the smaller your niche, the greater the chance of success. In an era of increasing specialisation and competence, not only is it important to define your market correctly, but also to find the narrowest niche which is not yet occupied (ideally) or is underutilised by competitors. We are continually surprised by how afraid most businesses are to narrow down their audience and abandon generalisation. But focusing on a smaller niche is the best thing you can do for your brand.
Positioning
Positioning helps you to show the main features and qualities of your product, talk about the problems it solves and reflect who it is intended for. It’s all about differentiation, identity and strengthening of position against a competitive background – which you can rely on to create the right brand associations. Here we often encounter “good quality” and “low prices”, which really has nothing to do with positioning. Our job is to highlight more remarkable qualities and features.
Values
These are the intangible benefits of the product that you broadcast through marketing – the feelings and emotions that someone experiences from it. This requires a good understanding of your target audience and its core values. The words used on a website convey your values, so we pay special attention to them if you entrust us with content writing.
All these points form a brand concept – but note that there are more, these are just the basic ones. We document these in a brand book (branding guidelines), which is essential when working with contractors to maintain a unified style (and not just visually).
In our experience, the vast majority of our clients come to us without this concept, or a clear understanding of their target audience; sometimes even of the product itself. But you won’t be able to build the right website without this knowledge, or manage further growth. So whether someone wants it or not :), when developing a corporate identity and then a website, we begin work with these questions. We analyse the answers and do our best to figure out the concept, which we later translate into imagery and text. We process disparate information into a clear value proposition, select relevant visuals (not just pretty pictures) and write text in an appropriate tone. This is a defining part of a project's success, despite taking place behind the scenes and being underestimated by many.
In a global market of abundance and diversity, the only way to stand out from the competition is to create a coherent brand concept. This is not just about a logo and corporate identity, but a system of values, image and stylistic characteristics, products, philosophy and company mission. The target audience immediately sees and falls in love with such brands... In marketing, it’s called customer loyalty – and they never think to ask "Why is it so expensive?" ;)
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