Brand Strategy Before Brand Identity: Imprint Engine (Branding Series, Part 1)
We’re building a new series on how to create a powerful brand strategy and brand identity. Over the past few years, many distributors and suppliers have reconsidered their brand strategy and brand identity, and for good reason, many of us have emerged from the pandemic with somewhat of an identity crisis. This series will highlight stories from some of the most inspiring strategists and their companies, plus tips from their experience as they reinvent, refresh, and promote their brand.
Mike Schwandt knew he had a problem. As the SVP for Brand Strategy at Imprint Engine, he was charged with orchestrating a rebrand for one of the hottest and fastest-growing distributors in the industry, so he thought he would begin where most of us would, with clients.
But he hit a roadblock: too many disparate buyers. Everyone from HR to marketing to purchasing to accounting partnered with Imprint Engine, and each represented different industries. With a wide range of customer types posing different needs, he knew he needed to find something that each of these buyers shared in common, to center on a brand strategy that would work.
Here are a few highlights extracted from my extended interview with Mike on how he and the Imprint Engine team approached a solid strategic brand position that eventually led to a dynamic and vibrant brand identity.
With so many different buyers, how can you create a singular brand positioning statement that resonates with all?
Bobby: So, Mike, if I understand the problem you walked into, it was this: “Hey, we have all these different roles and titles that buy from us that –on the surface– don’t seem to have a lot in common. But if we look beyond company type, industry, and buyers’ titles, we might be able to string together the one thing they do have in common: the psychographics of each buyer.”
Mike: We did. Because, in the end, 85% of all purchase decisions are emotional; even if they'll tell you it's a rational decision, that’s bullshit. The 15% of their decision-making that is rational is just helping them make sure they can trust their gut.
Bobby: How did defining a common psychographic help?
Mike: Finding the emotional characteristic that ties people together means you can speak more clearly to an audience, and so that's what we did. We focused on this psychographic: Let's make sure we're working with brand champions because we want to work with the people who aren't just trying to find a vendor to do volume (because those who are only interested in volume clearly don't care about what their brand looks like out in the wild with just logo slaps). Those that we work with are people who actually have the long-term success and growth of their company in mind. They have the skills and position to lead initiatives around that, and they really understand the importance of what building a brand looks like internally. Essentially, that's it, looking for people who care that much about their own brand because we care that much about it.
How does discovering a common psychographic help uncover your purpose, or, your core belief?
Bobby: So, how did discovering your clients’ shared psychographic lead to learning what kinds of problems were you looking to solve? And how did this inform your brand positioning strategy?
Mike: We looked at the kinds of unique problems that we at Imprint Engine can speak to. These buyers don't want to get burned by vendors who over-promise and under-deliver; they want partners rooted in transparency and honesty. But overpromising and under-delivering are what we keep seeing in this industry. Plus, many of these customers are literally managing their merch across multiple vendors. It can be a very hairy job, especially because, most of the time, that's not their real responsibility, and they don't have time to micromanage vendors and hold hands. We focus on doing that for them, with quality, at a global scale, without sacrificing service - because those two things don’t need to be mutually exclusive. We had to uncover the root issue.
Bobby: What was the root issue?
Mike: What they really wanted is just a partner they could count on to do the right things, right. Discovering their psychographics (how they think and feel) and then combining it with the root issue led us to our core belief.
Bobby: What’s your core belief?
Mike: Our core belief is this: That great products come and go, but great experiences live on. There will always be new products, but if you can deliver an experience that meets people at the moment they need it, that's gonna be an impression that lasts.
Bobby: Can you unpack “great experiences” a little more?
Mike: So, great experience means a great experience every step of the way. Not just a final product: a gift or a branded item. A great experience means the whole thing, the whole buying process. In getting a gift [a promo item] there’s no friction; if there’s friction in getting a gift, you didn’t get a gift, you got a chore. The process of working with us as a vendor needs to be as fun and exciting as the end result (receiving a gift) or at least as interesting as receiving a gift, and above all, super simple, no matter what.
Bobby: So, to clarify, products come and go, but great experiences speak to the process from beginning to end. It encompasses everything (including the gift) but not just the gift itself?
Mike: Absolutely. A lot of times, there could be an amazing front-end experience, and a lot of companies do that really well, but maybe there are back-end experiences that are tough, from production to QC to fulfillment. We wanted to bring as many things as we could in-house so we could have more control and deliver on the whole experience.
How Do psychographics + your core belief inform your brand strategy?
Mike: We came up with our brand strategy (our strategic position) using three different tiers of our service:
Long-term partnership with our clients based on the client’s mission, vision, and values.
Building brand experiences for our clients that say we get you, ‘I see you’, and eliciting emotional connections around that.
Tech-driven consistency in quality and service across every touchpoint in every project.
Unlocking these three tiers of service led us to our brand positioning statement: Creatively Reliable.
Bobby: Oh, damn, that's good.
Mike: It means we're solutions-oriented across every department with ideas that go beyond products. We’re creative stewards to our partner brands, but reliability is key. I like how the phrase “Creatively Reliable” encompasses more: We're creative in that we can come up with good ideas, but we're gonna keep working to make sure that in the end, our reliability comes through, even if we had to do it the weirdest way to make sure that we delivered. And this then informs our next step: our brand identity, which is really about expanding our brand into new visual territories, which we’re still finalizing, but it fits the themes of creativity, adaptability, fluidity, passion, and simplicity. But also, strength and rigidity when it comes to customers being confident in our service. We haven’t unveiled it all yet, but when we do, we want our expanded visuals and graphics to further emphasize that “creatively reliable” positioning.
Bobby: What I love about this is how it not only speaks to your clients but speaks to your team. Your brand position and brand strategy is a mission-oriented position statement that not only informs the market about who you are, but tells your team how to act, how to perform for a client, what to value, and through what lens to make their decisions. It’s the ultimate expression of a solid strategy when it not only informs your prospective audience and clients but actually enhances your service through your team’s work. It’s an external message and an internal message.
Mike: That’s exactly it. We stand for what is important to us, we work hard for who we serve, and we know why we do it.
What’s the biggest mistake people make when they begin their brand positioning journey to recreate a brand identity?
Bobby: Do you feel like most people work on their brand backwards? In other words —cart before the horse— they work on brand identity first, ahead of brand strategy, when in actuality, what they should start with is their brand position and then let that inform the brand identity?
Mike: Yes. Because creating a brand strategy and a solid, differentiated position is hard, but creating a brand identity is the easiest thing to do. When you think about how easy it is to go get a logo now –and there are AI generating logo makers everywhere– there’s fiverr, there's Upwork, you can go find the talent right away for brand identity, but a lot of the times companies don't put the effort into building the foundational positioning first. Then all you're getting is a logo. And a logo is not a brand. A brand is the collection of experiences that someone has when they work with your company or come into contact with your company, and every single experience grows that perception of the brand.
“A brand is the collection of experiences that someone has when they work with your company or come into contact with your company. every single experience grows that perception of the brand.”
Mike: It’s hard to know what your brand is before you just publish it in the market, but luckily, Imprint Engine has had 10 years of experience now for me to go and reference past clients and consider reviews or testimonials. Having direct client conversations is a great way to unpack the shared collection of experiences our clients have had. And now, I want to make sure I reflect that in our brand work.
Last piece of advice?
Bobby: What would your final advice be to those who are about to begin a new brand refresh?
Mike: Get to know your audience and how they perceive you. Knowing at least how they perceive you will either tell you where you need to pivot if you need to change or to clarify what you want to amplify. If you hear similar positive feedback, are you reflecting that back in your brand?
Four lessons from Mike you can put into action:
Begin with your clients, first. Either they will inform your position by helping you learn where to change, or they will reveal shared experiences, but either way, you need to know how they perceive you.
Look for the common thread in your client’s shared experiences. Like with Mike and Imprint Engine, you’ll likely find it in the psychographic makeup each client shares.
Use your client conversations and your audience's psychographics (the shared traits they have in common) to help discover your core belief.
Unite this core belief with your service offerings. Your core belief is your why, your service offerings are your what.
Your core belief –your why– will help you unpack your brand strategy, which will then inform your next step, your brand identity.
Special thanks to Mike Schwandt for sharing his insight with us. Stay tuned as we bring more insights from the industry’s most powerful brands, more to come!