What does it take to build a great brand? The journey starts with understanding your identity, your business, and what sets you apart from others.
Equally important is knowing what people associate with your brand name. These questions lie at the heart of brand building, which varies in definition but consistently revolves around creating a recognizable and distinctive presence in a crowded marketplace.
Building a Brand Beyond the Surface
Khensani Nobanda, Group Marketing and Corporate Affairs Executive at Nedbank, likens a brand to an iceberg. “The part above the water is what everyone sees: the advertising and so forth. But the bulk of the iceberg, below the water, is the product, service, and experience you get; that is the real brand,” she explains.
Nobanda stresses the importance of a cohesive narrative across all customer touchpoints. “Every touchpoint a customer experiences with Nedbank – the entire ecosystem – has to build a narrative for the brand to ensure it grows in the future.” She emphasizes the role of every employee in embodying this narrative, stating, “I always say there are 26,000 brand ambassadors for Nedbank. Our job as leaders and as marketing is to help them understand what the narrative is, why the narrative is that way, and how that narrative can help us deliver better.”
Agencies play a critical role in the brand ecosystem. Nobanda views the agency-client relationship as a partnership. She encourages agencies to stay informed about their clients’ performance, noting, “In the past, when our financial results came out, none of the agencies would call to say, we’ve read your results, it looks like this is what’s happening, how can we support you? The only way you as an agency can get more money is if the brand you work on makes more money.”
Clear Briefs and Strong Partnerships
Marketers and business leaders need to provide clear, concise briefs to their agencies to foster great ideas. Abey Mokgwatsane, Chief Marketing Officer of Investec, highlights the importance of a tight brief that solves specific business problems. “The best thing that marketers and leaders and businesses can do for agencies is be very clear about what problem they’re solving,” he asserts. Mokgwatsane believes that simplifying complex issues and making them exciting is key. “Business leaders take the complexity and make it simple, then the agency takes that simplicity and makes it exciting.”
Mokgwatsane advises brands to focus on consistent value delivery rather than constantly striving to be current. “As a brand and a business, you shouldn’t try to be consistently fresh; you don’t always have to be current. What you should be is freshly consistent: find new ways of maintaining your core business ethics.”
Chemistry and Communication
Nando’s exemplifies a brand that values bravery and curiosity, traits embedded in its core values. Jessica Wheeler, Marketing Director for Nando’s South Africa, underscores the importance of strong agency relationships built on good chemistry and communication. “Bravery is one of our core values as a business. When it comes to our culture and behaviour, being brave and curious is central to how we do things,” she explains.
Wheeler acknowledges that not all brand work will see the light of day, but maintaining strong, long-term relationships with agencies ensures ongoing collaboration and innovation. “From an agency point of view, it can get a little disheartening, but because we’ve got these long-term relationships and partnerships with our agencies, they know this and accept it.”
Building a great brand requires a clear narrative, a deep understanding of your business and its unique value, and strong relationships with both internal teams and external agencies. By focusing on consistency, clear communication, and strategic partnerships, brands can create lasting impressions and drive meaningful engagement with their audiences.
Concluding All Thoughts…
Building a great brand requires more than just eye-catching advertising—it demands a deep understanding of your core identity and unique value. As Khensani Nobanda suggests, a brand is like an iceberg: the visible part includes marketing efforts, but the bulk lies in the product, service, and overall experience. To succeed, brands must create a cohesive narrative that is consistently reinforced across all customer touchpoints and embodied by every employee. Agencies play a crucial role in this ecosystem, and maintaining a partnership where they stay informed about client performance can significantly enhance the brand’s effectiveness and growth.
Key to this process is the delivery of clear, concise briefs to agencies, as highlighted by Abey Mokgwatsane. Marketers should simplify complex business problems into actionable insights, allowing agencies to develop innovative solutions that align with the brand’s values. Consistency in delivering core business ethics is more valuable than constantly trying to stay current. Brands should focus on being freshly consistent, finding new ways to maintain their core principles while evolving.
Finally, fostering strong, long-term relationships with agencies, as Jessica Wheeler from Nando’s emphasizes, is vital. Building these relationships on bravery, curiosity, and good communication ensures ongoing collaboration and innovation. While not all initiatives will immediately succeed, maintaining robust partnerships helps sustain creativity and adaptability. In summary, a great brand thrives on a clear narrative, strategic agency partnerships, and a commitment to consistent value delivery.
