1. It’s not all about design!

Sure, great design is important but it isn’t all there is to a great brand campaign. We’ve all heard the mantra a hundred times, and we get it. You need to look as spectacular as you know your brand is.

But, good branding doesn’t start or stop here. the Authentic Brief makes use a super successful, tried and tested method – and it’s based on the six senses.

2. Smell is one of your most powerful branding tools

There’s something very comforting about a smell we like. Think about your favourite person, your favourite place… or even just about the smell of fresh linen.

The feel-good factor we get when we faced with a familiar smell is undeniable.

Good news: this can be used to your advantage, even in branding! One popular clothing label, for instance, makes sure that all their staff wears the same perfume. That way, the smell instantly conjures good vibes that are associated with the specific brand. Genius, right?

3. Make sure the people always look the part

Our minds associate certain aesthetics with specific things. For brands, the same applies to colour.

Many of the biggest brands are associated with specific colours.

Everyone knows about “Facebook blue” and “McDonalds yellow”, for example. You don’t need to be the biggest social media platform to make good use of this tactic.

Many Maltese companies, some big and some small, have benefited from excellent branding advice from the right people and used a similar technique. Just like one of Malta’s biggest telecommunications agencies, known for owning the colour orange. Guess what? Their CEO wears a dash of orange every day, even if it’s just his socks!

As soon as clients and business connections spot the little splash, they’ll automatically associate that person with the brand. Now that’s simple and effective.

4. Sounds like good branding!

If our sense of smell can be powerful then so can our hearing, right?

Think about the way some songs will instantly whisk you down memory lane, back to your first kiss, your first argument, the summer of ’69, your first rave… OK, we’ll stop before things get too emotional.

The point is, nothing triggers the memory just as much as a good, or bad, earworm. Branding gurus know this. It’s why we hear the same repetitive jingles we either grow to love or hate (or both at the same time).

Craving a certain fast food item? Try not humming about how much you’re loving it, we dare you. That, my lovelies, is what great branding is all about.

5. Feel it, literally

Do you ever enter a car and just fall in love with the steering wheel or the kind of materials they use in the car? Well that is done purposely.

Try touching your phone and then another brand. Do you notice the difference?

Or when you go to a shop and they give you some free goodies. They have now unconsciously entered your home.

This is exactly what brands want – they want you to interact.

This is all about going the extra mile.

6. The sweet taste of branding victory

If there’s one thing us Maltese love as much as anything free, it’s a good snack or something sweet to munch on.

It’s easy to see how this works, and it can work for you, too. If you do something as simple as placing a tray of chocolates – or apples, if you’re on a health kick – at the reception area of your offices. There’s a reason every nannu still prefers to visit the bank in person – and that reason is the bowl of sweets sitting next to the chained-up pens.

7.  The 6th sense – that je ne sais quoi

Pardon our French, we just couldn’t resist showing off our continental skills. Je ne sais quoi literally translates to “I don’t know what” and it refers to the “special touch” you add to your brand – the unique factor behind the magic of your business.

Branding is all about the elements put together, from the experience to the design. A brand will be much weaker if their brand ambassadors (employees) don’t believe in what they are doing.

Branding is super important and takes a ton of planning. What this means is that branding doesn’t only mean design. But it also means understanding your target audience and how to engage them with the brand.

In fact here’s an example, if you work in the real estate industry, the Authentic Brief would like to hear from you. Click here to fill in a 1 minute survey.