A brand is much more than a logo or a vague buzzword – it’s everything. It’s an underlying strategy and concept, with a viable USP and understanding of your positioning in the market. Once you’ve defined that, all the classic identifiers of brand solutions – whether it’s the tone of your social media to your packaging and copy – can be worked upon. Make no mistake: kickass branding is a way to ensure you keep your customers on board from infinity to beyond. Make it compelling enough and your branding will be rocket fuel for your business.

This goes against a long-held notion by many small businesses who think brand marketing is best left to the big boys. In fact, small businesses need to focus on branding too. Even at the early stages, brand marketing is crucial for your growth, helping to create customer loyalty, build financial value and attract top talent. During COVID-19, it’s more important than ever – in this period it is imperative that you increase loyalty and capitalise on your opportunities to increase awareness, while also planning for the long term.

DCMN takes brand building very seriously. In addition to our Brand Solutions team, it permeates through all our departments, from our producers of knockout creative concepts and ads over at Creation and Production, to the data wizardry being conducted by our Insights team, all the way to the strategic knuckle dusters of Sales and Growth. So instead of our brand solutions team explaining why brand is important, we spoke to three of our other team members about why brand is important – both for DCMN and for your company.

We’ve got the goods to get your brand strategy razor sharp and ready for market. Reach out to us at hello@dcmn.com if you’re interested.

Anke Heyser Ramos, Head of Creation and Production

Anke Heyser of Creation and Production

Why is brand important?

“For us, brand is important to have this holistic view on our clients, as we work with lots of startups and digital clients that don’t necessarily put brand strategy first. It’s important to make them see how useful it can be if you know what your brand stands for. This helps to translate any message they want to include in the communication, whether via a TVC, OOH, or online. What many companies don’t realise is: having a clear brand might actually make them even more successful!”

Does a well-defined brand help with creation and production?

“Having a solid base of what a brand is and how the brand works always makes the process of making a creative campaign faster. Then you avoid having to mindlessly search around for the right message.”

“But the most beautiful way to work with a client is to have a blank canvas, from which the Insights team do the research. The brand team then translates this into branding workshops with the client, finding out about their tonality and the values they stand for. This input then goes into creation and production and we write solid, strategic creative briefs for them.”

What’s special about how DCMN works with brands?

“When we work together with brands, our entire selection of non-media solutions – Insights, Creation and Production and Brand Solutions – joins forces to guide them holistically through the process. And what I love about the way we work is that we are very hands-on. We cut out all the marketing bullshit and try to connect to what the client really needs. This is something we present in an efficient, clear, straightforward way.”

Kornelia Wroblewska, Senior Insights Manager

Kornelia Wroblewska of our Insights department

Why is brand crucial to DCMN’s client work?

“If you have a strong brand, it makes it possible to connect to the consumers in an emotional way and create long-lasting relationships. It is very important to us as a company to support our clients with their brand building, as we believe only with a strong brand they can really grow – and become the market leaders of tomorrow.” 

How does the Insights team contribute to the brand strategy of clients?

“As the Insights team, we support our clients with different kinds of tailored solutions that can be helpful in the process of building and strengthening their brand: from target group analysis, through value proposition testing, creative testing and brand tracking.”

What role does brand solutions play for digital companies in comparison to performance?

“I have the feeling that more and more companies understand, that ‘brand’ shouldn’t be seen in opposition to ‘performance’, but that both kinds of marketing are needed to achieve long-term success.”

What’s the last big branding project you worked on?

“An example of a brand we have holistically helped in the last months is Yunar. With workshops run by our Brand Solutions Team and several projects with the Insights team, we were able to support the growth of this digital brand that offers a modern and digital solution for all loyalty cards and programs.”

Eric Vissers, Senior Marketing Consultant

Eric Vissers of our sales department

What is brand?

“Brand is not something that is necessarily visually in front of you, but it’s visually in your mind. It’s a long term relationship of trust you are building with a client or potential audience that hasn’t thought about you before that moment. If you do it correctly though, you will be the first one they go to when there is a certain problem. That’s what I tell startups – it’s a marathon, not a sprint.”

What separates brand and performance?

“Branding is not about performance. Performance is just a pillar which brings audiences to the conversion stage, while brand tells you about the bigger picture. Vice-versa, established brands don’t understand this! You need to approach performance from a branding perspective, as there is only that much in the lower funnel. Think broad and long term – and then you’ll really crack it.”

Do you think companies are prioritising brand solutions right now?

“Not really. What confuses me is that lots of businesses are currently discussing getting rid of the CMO – but the CMO is the one person who brings everything together. From insights to the communication strategy, to building a solid foundation from A-Z! How can you develop a brand without a CMO?”

Now could be just the right time to finetune your brand strategy. Reach out to us at hello@dcmn.com if you’re up for a sharpening.