Brand Marketing is…what?

If you’ve heard the term “Brand Marketing” and thought, wth is that anyway? You’re not alone. The world of marketing in and of itself is overwhelming. There’s Digital, Social Media, Outbound, Inbound, Advertising, Influencer, Content, Event, Video, Print, Direct, SEO, Growth, Performance, Acquisition…and so on. Many of these overlap, and work in tandem with each other. With so many, it basically feels like you can slap any word in relation to promotion and/or perception and call it a marketing tactic. We’re not here to talk about all of them though, we’re going to focus on the latter: perception. When we sought out to hone in on how we could help businesses, we always came back to brand because 1. we’ve had over a decade of experience in it, and 2. we’re good at it.

Ok, but what do we mean when we say brand? The simplest way I can think of it is to think of yourself and your identity. Your identity is informed by your story, by your look, your energy, what feelings you give someone, who you’re in community with, where you show up, what you buy, what you think. It’s how you choose to be perceived based on who you believe you are. So, when it comes to a business, brand is it’s identity, encompassing all of the aforementioned things: story, look, energy, feel, community, presence.

Now if you combine “brand” with “marketing” what do you get? In the most simple of terms, Brand Marketing encompasses all initiatives and efforts that shape people’s perception of your brand based on who the brand thinks they are, which then helps the brand create connection and community with likeminded people.

I already listed out what helps shape that perception:

• Story

• Look

• Energy & Feel

• Community

• Presence

Therefore, everything that helps develop and form the above, is what we work on. If you’re reading this and wondering, what exactly do those things look like in terms of execution? I’ll break it down for you even further:

• Story

  • What is your brand’s story?

  • Forming your brand’s core identity: mission, vision, values, pillars

  • What are your brand’s origins and how do they connect to the above?

• Look

  • What does your brand look like?

  • Forming your brand’s visual identity: logo, type system, color story, visual story

  • How does the look connect to the story and tell the story through evoking aligned feelings?

• Energy & Feel

  • How does someone feel when they encounter your brand both digitally and irl?

  • Through your initiatives, is your brand evoking feelings and emotions that relate to the story?

  • Forming your brand’s voice and tone to evoke energy that lines up with your story

  • Forming your brand’s content marketing to tell your story

• Community

  • Who is your brand in community with, and who do they seek to be in community with?

  • How does your brand stay connected to it’s community in authentic ways?

  • Forming the homes and structures for your brand’s community

  • Forming connections through strategic influencer marketing to expand and cross-collaborate with aligned communities

• Presence

  • Where does your brand find itself, and where do (the right) customers find your brand?

  • The art of delightful surprise—is your brand innovating, creating, collaborating, so as to delight your community and keep a strong presence?

  • Forming strategic special projects with the right brands, organizations, or public figures to surprise, delight, and stay present

And so, to wrap this up in a nice bow, as a brand marketing agency, we specialize in:

• Brand development

• Content Marketing

• Community Building

• Influencer Marketing

• Special Projects

Brand Brief

Now, on to our BRAND BRIEF—this very newsletter you’ll be receiving every week from here on out. Expect everything about the above, think of it like cliff notes, but brand marketing. We’ll sift through all of the most interesting, exciting, and fun brand marketing initiatives and activations that we found (and/or executed) over the last little while, and dig into why they were such hits…or misses, what we loved, what we didn’t, how we might do things differently, and even new ideas for brands we love!

Stay tuned, and we’ll be back next week with the official first Brand Brief. In the meantime follow us at @schemaagency on IG, @schemaagency on Tik Tok, or send us a hello at [email protected]