If you look around you, you will see that we are inundated by brands. Things that were only products and services until recently now want to be brands. Why?

As we all know, the major reason is that a brand resonates with consumers. It is not just a product name – it is a series of emotional responses evoked in the consumer. A brand is a best friend. It is the cool guy on campus. It is the thing we all aspire to become one day. People do not buy brands because they need them. They buy brands because they want them – brands express a person’s character and individuality.

“People will buy Nike because that is who they are – not just any random pair of sneakers. People buy Coca-Cola because they know it and trust it.”

But how does your regular product become a brand? Sadly, it is not just a matter of declaring your intentions. A board of directors cannot mandate the change, nor can a creative director simply propose a new logo. A brand is much more than that.

Looking at your products and services, what you are offering the consumer, and how these can be elevated to the status of a brand is exactly what Notapipe Brand Consulting proposes to do. Branding is not undertaken just for fun – it is a process that has the ultimate goal of exponentially increasing awareness of your products and services, of building loyalty and trust, creating a following, and of course increasing sales.

To many people, brands are sorely misunderstood. A brand is a combination of logo, color, typefaces, trademarks, images and names. It has specific attitudes and values. A brand has associations and brings out emotions, feelings. A product may have a “brand name”, but that alone is not a brand – the real brand exists only in the minds and hearts of the consumer.

Notapipe Brand Consulting is not an ordinary branding agency. There are many aspects to building a brand in the context of your business, and we work with you through each step until we arrive together at your final goal and introducing your new brand to the world.

Our approach is holistic –

• We work with you to analyze your current market positioning and where you want to be;
• We create your brand’s story – its history, its anecdotes, its likes and dislikes;
• We write the branded content which tells the stories;
• We propose new solutions for the brand’s logo;
• We create opportunities for brand communication;
• We work with you to ensure that your new brand attains its place in the crowded world of branded products.

This is no small job.

The fact is that your product probably already has a following of sorts. People may have already bought your products (and I continue to say products but I mean also services or anything else you propose to the consumer) and have become loyal because they like the way it looks, performs, or works for them. But for unbranded products, that loyalty is weak – if a better product comes along, they may switch.

With a brand, the consumer invests emotionally and is more likely to stick with your product because he or she identifies with it, feels something positive about it, and perhaps even loves it. And we are more likely to forgive the minor flaws and mistakes of those we love.

If we don’t care, we move along.