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“Your premium brand had better be delivering something special,
or it’s not going to get the business.”

— WARREN BUFFETT

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The way a Branding company understands “What a Brand is” and the way your average joe understands “What a Brand is” are two very, very different things. Many companies and business owners are usually shocked to discover that the company and/or logo they have, IS NOT at brand at all.

Think of a brand as a human being. You can look at their face and body and still have no idea who they are inside. You can have a judgment about them but, it still doesn’t tell you WHO THEY ARE.

Inside of their mind is a series of beliefs.  Inside is what they value, what they can offer you, and who they are. They have thoughts and ideas about how to do things, how to live life. THOSE internal THOUGHTS are what we mean by a BRAND.

 

A brand is an intangible asset. Often the business owner underestimates the power of beliefs and brands and the ability to draw clients and customers to the business. This is an honest mistake. Brands are religions. Brands are countries. Brands are political parties and their systems.

The following text boosted Sweet Janes ice cream store in Astoria, Queens to grow 200-300% over a two year period. Her customers became lovers (of the brand).

 

Brands give purpose and meaning to otherwise bland commodity-based businesses. FACT: You can buy ice cream anywhere but you can only buy Sweet Janes in Astoria, Queens. The ice cream was made on the premises.  

A real brand is a religion like Christianity or Buddhism. A brand can also be a country like China or Australia. A political belief is also a brand like a conservative or a democratic. These all have specific images that appear in the mind regarding each and there are beliefs associated with them. Secondarily, they have the logos and symbols which are the designs. The designs come after the brands and are secondary. The brand is intangible and it is a belief, period.

Just slapping a logo next to a company name is also like an old western movie. Think of the old movie sets:

 

The truth of these old movies are like this:

A brand is something much deeper than a logo or website. It gives us a slice of a reality. A reality we can truly believe in or not believe in, agree with it NOT agree with.

 

We hear the word “Brand” thrown about all over the place today and there are a lot of misconceptions surrounding its meaning. This page seeks to clear up some of the common misconceptions of a brand, what IR is and what it does.

This article goes into A) a brief history of branding as it meant a century or two ago. B) What a brand means according to most branding companies today. C) Some Branding advancements developed by prestigious think tanks, concepts taught at Harvard Business School, used at Stanford Research Institute (SRI) and at the Rand Corporation. D) Finally, what BinkNyc Culture has contributed to 21st Century Brands regarding branding, graphic and web design, communications strategies and the fine art of advertising. E) We’ll also delve into recent findings with neuroscientific research and scientific observations with EEGs, eye-scanning and neurological brain scanning techniques: MRIs.

This can all be summed up into two words: Cultural Ecology or BinkNyc Culture.

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The first 2 things you may be asking:

1. Why in the hell would I want to pay $30K to do a full Branding Campaign when I already have a good business up and running?
2. What will a Brand—ID do that I do NOT already have? I have a logo, business cards, a great website with all the information there. We just need to do more sales.  

These are both very valid points. Let’s explore them.

You might say: “Our company is doing well and we have a great tagline which clearly states what our business is and does. We don’t need nor want to spend any extra money. To be quite honest, we think this whole Brand—ID thing is a whole lot of bullshit.”

Bull shit? Bravo! 

[ Ironically Branding, as the original term and definition meant had its roots in marking your bull with a branding iron. 😀 ]

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I would like the opportunity
to answer these two statements above, one-by-one. 

First off, a good a Brand—ID campaign draws people in like moths to a flame. The big-league major brands we see today know and use this. Donald Trump’s path to the White House is a sparkling example of a highly effective Brand Campaign (with a good brand, success is assured).

 

If you used ALL the techniques you learned and have read about in marketing and advertising and multiplied that power by 4-5xs, you would arrive at Branding and what a brand can do.

Secondly, a logo, business card, catalog, brochure or website is NOT BRANDING. These are Design elements used to sell your products, services or company. There is a huge difference between DESIGN elements and what BRANDING is and does.

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So, what in G-D’s name is a Brand?

A BRIEF HISTORY

Branding as it was originally defined was indeed a logo back in the 1500s. It was an insignia made from shaping metal, heating a branding iron and applied to the ass of cattle. It was used as a sign of ownership—a brand.

This was back in the rockin’ 1500-1800s, here’s what brands looked like:

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This is a photo of a Brand as it is still perceived today.

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So, what in G-D’s name is a Brand as it applies today?

A 21st Century Brand is the things you can’t hold and touch. A Brand is an intangible yet highly marketable asset. It is:

• Confidence
• Passion
• Belonging
• Action
• Conversation
• Security
• Your Values
• Your Attitude
• A Lifestyle

What gets branded?

• Services
• People
• Politicians
• Places
• Religions
• Countries
• Products

A BinkNyc Brand—ID

• Guarantees a promise and quality
• Provokes a deep desire
• Instills natural affinity and rapport
• Engages people through an eXperience

Your Brand is an impression or eXperience your client/customer is left with long after they leave the conversation, advertisement or interaction. It is like opening up a person’s skull and directly branding a red hot tattoo right inside of their brain. It is ALWAYS about leaving your client or customers with a remarkable, powerful message and memorable impression. A logo or website doesn’t leave these impressions but it could and it should.

This is why good brands are dangerous in the right or wrong hands. After a definition is added to a brand then and only then should your logo be created and branded. A brand is a shared belief or ethical-moral value.

A Brand does have to be very clearly defined. This clear and concise message should be conveyed from every person within the organization.

Have you ever thought to plan for your brand? We have for years. Controlling this type of messaging and eXperience is what a Brand—ID is and does. We like to use a metaphor to describe our Brand—ID system. It has four logical part to its construction. When we build a company or house or building, the construction is done the same way each and every time.

Building a business is like building a building.  First, you lay the foundation by planting a basement in the ground. By laying in a solid foundation, you now have the groundwork which has predictable and measurable results. No one starts a building with building a rooftop. This is a Brand.

In fact, even if you only took an empty lot and laid in a foundation, this can still be sold. It can be sold for a higher price than if you didn’t dig a hole and put in a foundation to begin with.

Let’s continue…

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What is a Brand?

A Brand is your gut feeling about something. A Brand is also your reputation, how you want to be perceived by your customers/clients. When it comes time for sales and interaction with clients, it works exactly the same way any other company works except it happens automatically and unconsciously.

When we meet or we form initial impressions about a person place or thing, it becomes set. You want to make exactly sure WHAT THAT IMPRESSION is and how you are being perceived. In time, the impressions change as you get to know the person better but there is truth to First impressions are lasting impressions.

With Brands that share our ideals, values, and lifestyle, we want to learn more and share more.

Everything you do and say influences your Brand—ID, and reputation. Each and every interaction is another chance to build your Brand—ID or not.

Both positive (+) and negative (-) interactions build a brand. The old expression: “All press is good press.” is absolutely true. “No Press” is the only bad press. We all like pleasure but, it is usually juxtaposed against some kind of pain. When you know how to resolve someone’s pain, you become a pleasure to work with. We were taught that negative interactions are negative but, the science and math says that both, negative and positive experiences are what build firm and memorable eXperiences in our minds.

Did you get all that? 

okay.

A Brand—ID is also your company abbreviated in shorthand.

What is your BinkNyc Culture Brand—ID?

It is your brand personality, ecological culture, market segment, how you handle and address customer service, your values which are a sense of perception and ince you have all these items in a package, you can strategically shape the company.

Brands are more based on actions rather than through the thought, word or picture. It is also the eXperiences that are delivered through interactions you have everyday.

It’a commitment, a promise or pledge, what you stand for, your passion and driving focus.

This should align with your segment audience. Sometimes is it “Great rates”, or “Lower fees”, “convenient location”, “helpful people”, “We’re local”, “ We budget”, “Premium service”.

 

Did we get there for you?

Yes, so what in G-d’s name are you selling me?
We are so happy you asked.

Our NYC Brand—ID is a 25-35 page instruction manual that identifies and speaks directly to your segmented customer. People believe in and love different people.

People who believe that everyone is their potential customer are idiots. I can’t be kind about this. Target Markets fluctuate from city to city, state to state, region to region, and nation to nation. Demographic were okay to use in the 1940-50s but not no more. 😀

A full Brand—ID

— National Campaign ($75K)
— Regional Campaign ($45K)
Choose one: 1-Northeast, 2-Southeast, 3-Northwest, 4-Southeast.
— New York City Campaign ($30K)

— Just a Brand Lexicon and a Brand Metaphor ($7.5K)
— 5 e-mails and a Neurochemical copy written landing page for ($3.5K).

Here’s a link for the full package: > Brand—ID.

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We can tell you a few things that you don’t know that you did not know (compliments of the house). Here are 2:

ONE:

Age, Gender, Race, Religion are NOT Target Markets. These gauges are merely Demographics. This is the way advertisers did marketing in the 1940s through the 1970s. Demographics are completely outdated in today’s cultural ecology.

In the 1970s, 80s and 90s, techniques in advertising, branding and communications drastically and dramatically changed.

Mood boards which design firms charge good money for and call “Branding” is like putting a band-aid on a shotgun wound. It doesn’t work bery effectively but, it is a novel start in the right direction.

TWO:

Below are some good ol’ American logos.

As you look at them, many things happen in your mind. These ‘happenings’ are embedded in the subconscious and emotional brain. You can’t describe them directly, they just kind of happen. This is your limbic brain but it doesn’t understand language.

1. The logos above are recognizable.
2. More importantly, a logo comes with a memory, an eXperience and a touchpoint that has a eXperience already attached to it. That eXperience, my friends, is what a Brand is and does.

Why would you hire us for this?

There are a few reasons you should:

• We’ve been doing this for 25 years and are still learning more.
• Ask these people: ( case studies )
• See these companies: ( clients )
• Talk to this organization: ( 4A’s )
• Ten minutes ago you may have believed a Brand was a logo, a website, and your business card. Now you see that it is something else, something deeper and something much greater. It can’t be described in words.

This is one reason why you want to call us. If not, it’s okay. Get someone who does know what a brand is and does.

If business has been slowing down for you over the last couple of years, you could blame the economy or you could blame the competition. These are both valid reasons and both can be overcome.

Either way, we help level the playing field and show you more than 50 things you didn’t know about Branding and its fantastic power.

Brand power is created through eXperiences. Once it is applied to your service or product, you can close in on the competition with ease.  Try it, you’ll like it. 😀

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See if you “qualify” first.

Thank you.

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