A concept makes a better brand
- Aug 3
- 8 min read
Develop a brand that is based on more than what you offer
Products and services come and go. A brand should last. That's why many of the strongest brands aren't built solely around what they sell, but around a bigger idea that gives people a reason or an idea to easily remember them, connect with them and choose them when needed.
This is the power of branding. But for many small businesses and start-ups, branding is often seen as nothing more than a unique name they can register and a logo above the door. Because they believe their offer is better, even as a newcomer in an already highly competitive and established market of competition. Oftentimes the offer is no better and no different at all, but creating some form of meaningful differentiation for your customers to recognise and value to set yourself apart from others, is something you can do in your branding. And that is with a brand concept.
Some people call it a brand concept, others might even describe it as your north star to follow and be guided by, which is a nice metaphor for how you can utilise the central idea that holds your brand together.
This is something I’ve endeavoured to do with as many clients as possible that I’ve worked with, who have seen the value in developing a brand that is based on a concept and not just a product or service. So here are three examples of brands I’ve developed that were based on a simple but unifying concept that tied each brand together with the breadth to accommodate change in their offering over time.
Figurs
As my most recent example, this newly reinvigorated accounting business was one my client wanted to start up again after years away from it since co-founding and operating a business college. The accounting business was previously called Open Book Business Solutions and it had no real brand to lean into when engaging with clients and relied solely on one-on-one engagement with clients for their accounting needs.
So to give this business venture a shot at success with a better brand, we looked at their offer and experience, their potential clients, the needs of those clients, their location and competition. During these strategy discussions two themes emerged:
Business accounting + training, as more than what accountants offer
Helping clients figure out their finances
Combining the experience of teaching business and finance through their private business college to not only train teams on better financial management, but also training individuals to upskill and join or partner with businesses to manage their finances exposed this “more than accountants” positioning for their brand.
While “figures”, “it figures” and “figuring out” became the basis of this brand concept that translated into the name ‘Figurs’ and was integrated heavily into the brand messaging as it became a word that stuck in many conversations we had together when developing the brand at each stage that it felt like a natural no-brainer for the brand to have as its concept as a connection point to being thought of as more than accountants when needed.
This concept further played out in the form of developing the Figurs logo, with the ‘g’ in ‘Figurs’ becoming a subtle figure eight ‘8’ shape. Additionally we developed a logomark symbol and brand mascot with the help of some alliteration to create Figgy the Figurs Phoenix. Figgy was developed as a natural extension of the Figurs name, but he also represents something bigger. As a phoenix, he symbolises the positive transformation that can happen when you figure out your finances, helping turn uncertainty into confidence. This symbology of a phoenix rising from the ashes as a metaphor for business transformation when your figure out your finances added further depth to the brand story told about how Figurs help its clients, rather than just some good looking bird in matching brand colours.
So with this concept in mind it becomes clearer to shape messaging, visuals, client targeting, and future offers around being more than accountants to help you figure out your finances, as it figures to count on Figurs. See, it writes itself in one on-brand bundle because of a concept that shapes the brand.
Saweet Way
When this client came to me we had no name, a rough idea of initial products, a need but more importantly an overarching idea in mind to have as the backbone of this new product-based brand. Which was improving metabolic health. See, many founders start new businesses off the back of personal experiences that transform their lives and they want to share that goodness with others.
I’ve seen this with another client of mine Raw C that started out with coconut water because of its naturally raw benefits that they enjoyed and wanted to make that accessible for everyone. Which I might add has transformed into a globally present brand after 13 years of backing the benefits of coconuts. But back to Saweet Way.
As a tie-in to improving metabolic health they also held the exclusivity in the Australian market of a new natural sweetener called allulose that is 70% the sweetness and 87% less calories than white sugar, while appearing and acting the same way as white sugar granules. Meaning it can be used just the same as white sugar to add sweetness with far less compromise to your metabolic health with a natural form of sweetener that has no funny aftertaste.
So nothing else like it on the market essentially and proved to be the most differentiated offer I’ve had the chance to work with and form a brand around. That said, this wasn’t just about an allulose product either, as they could easily expand into a whole range of products and even by extension form a media arm of this brand to further promote the core purpose of the brand to help customers improve their metabolic health.
That said, “Improve your metabolic health with a natural sweetener” isn’t exactly an attention grabbing headline to lead with from a brand perspective. Instead, when developing the positioning and name for this brand, I considered what this brand offers that means something to a consumer to allow them to have what they want without compromising their health to the same degree processed sugar does. As a result, I landed on the phrase “Keep it sweet”, which not only became the tagline but became the concept for the brand. And what is the feeling of keeping it sweet? “It’s saweet!” that slang way of emphasising the awesomeness of something, not to mention adding the A in sweet with allulose as another little nod to tie everything together.
However, to meet name registration requirements we couldn’t just name it Saweet, so we thought about how you would describe the use case of choosing and using one of their products, and that was “keep it sweet the Saweet Way”.
As for the logo, it has a mix of elements to communicate the feeling of the brand. The first was to look like a colourful treat brand and further extend the keep it sweet messaging by saying “make life colourful by keeping it sweet the Saweet Way”. This treat branding style also influenced the fat cursive wordmark for the logo. The next was to add a little smile beneath the two ee’s in Saweet that make it look like a smiling face and eyes. And finally the word WAY being integrated into the crossbar of the 't' in the wordmark, to make it look like a street sign pointing to SAWEET WAY like the name of a street to follow.
All in all this brand concept came together to help subtly communicate and reinforce to consumers to encourage them to keep it sweet with a better alternative to sugar, and no need to turn to dull alternatives that just don’t make treats or drinks as colourful…like a vegan, sugarless cake…sorry!
Evening Clay
This brand I developed was much closer to home for me, quite literally as it was one I developed with my wife for a jewellery business she created. What started out as a creative hobby during covid turned into a handmade polymer clay earrings business sold online and at market stalls.
Now that was the end result, but the brand we developed started with the name first. And it was born from a really simple observation that she would mostly make these at night when our kids were asleep. Even with our second newborn, my wife was still at it making them, sometimes while nursing our daughter. So the name came quite naturally to call it ‘Evening Clay’. This became the brand story for consumers to connect with, especially for those with kids to appreciate the value beyond seeing them just as a $40-$50 pair of earrings.
This was extended to the logo with a crescent moon shape and a round moon shape represent 'evening' and an ‘e’ for Evening Clay. But we weren’t stopping there. As many of her earrings were designed with the same crescent moons and circular studs as a connection point to the brand.
Many small businesses like my wife’s, often start out with nothing more than a logo and typically their own name in the business name or something clique like Polymer Palace Jewellery. This is why consumers find it hard to buy into anything more than just the product and price tag in front of them. But if you communicate a little more substance as a concept that lifts the business up beyond just what it sells, you create greater perceived value.
Which is something we experienced at many of the markets we did. That when my wife was able to connect with customers walking by about the Evening Clay brand story a greater level of appreciation was revealed and you could see it on their faces, as their initial reactions changed from “they look nice” to “wow that’s quite inspiring as I could never have found that time to do something like this after I had my kids”.
So whether these handmade earrings were worn in the evening or during the day by customers, this Evening Clay brand was built on something more than just the product in hand, but by the concept and story that went into making it. Which is something that many famous brands around the world have done, like Rolls Royce, Hermés, and the good-old Australian made brand, Akubra that make our iconic version of cowboy hats like you see Crocodile Dundee wearing in those movies.
Give your brand a shot at a brand concept
There are many ways to develop and tie in a concept for your brand and the best ones I believe help shape business decisions when it comes to your offering, your team and who you want to attract to buy into your brand.
From these examples I’ve shown, it doesn’t take much to take a simple idea and creatively extend that out to all facets of your brand and business for customers to be captivated by and connect with, to see a greater level of value in choosing your brand over another - which is what we call brand equity, essentially the price your customers are willing to pay for your brand above the substitute, and that could be based on price, time and even distance to get it that quantifies this value over and above what you offer.
That is the value of a brand and you can give your brand a shot with better branding to develop a brand that creates better business success.
Comments