Brand is a hot topic for tech companies. It’s not all that surprising, given that tech companies have now taken over the top brand charts. Last year, six of the top ten global brands reported in Interbrand’s Top 100 Global Brands were technology-led businesses. So, what makes a successful tech company? And what role does branding play in all of it?
It’s worth rewinding to five years ago when branding wasn’t the main priority. Getting the right product aimed at the right consumer was the thing that mattered. Technology companies were successful based on the answers to the below questions:
- Is it different?
- Is it better?
- Is it changing something?
If the answer was ‘yes’ to any of the above that would have been enough.
But fast-forward to today and things have changed. It’s no longer business-as-usual in the tech sector. Suddenly there are seven other tech companies offering the same thing. How do you win the odds if there are others doing the same thing for a better price? What happens then?
The tech world needs more meaning
We’re finding ourselves in a situation where having a product or service alone isn’t enough. Just like traditional products had to have more than just a great taste or usage, tech companies need to add more value.
Simple? Sort of.
The issues flare up when we start thinking about how to give tech companies ‘meaning’. For consumer products it was a walk in the park. They had a physical connection to the people buying their product. It fed right into their lifestyle, it had human interaction. With tech however, there is none. In fact, the whole purpose of a tech company, you could argue, is to remove complications that arise from having something done by a human.
Yikes.
So, how do you inject humanness into something with no humans in it? Well, that’s where a well thought out brand strategy becomes very handy.
Creating a purpose-driven strategy
By truly understanding the needs and wants of people who will use your service or product, you are better able to see your business from their perspective and pinpoint the purpose your company serves.
Six questions to help define a purpose-driven strategy:
- What exactly are you trying to achieve for your customers?
- Why should you be their first choice?
- What are you changing?
- What do you want people to think of you?
- What would the world miss if you went out of business?
- In the future, you’ll be known as the people who…
The answer to these questions provides the platform upon which an effective purpose-driven brand strategy can be built. And this strategy informs not only why you exist, but from a creative perspective, it’s what guides your whole look and feel.
It’s what makes your brand mean something.