Mana 1. nv.
Supernatural or divine power; to give mana to, to make powerful; miraculous, divinely powerful, spiritual.
A Polynesian cultural belief is that everything – people, animals, inanimate objects – contains Mana. Mana
is a supernatural force that resides in all things. Mana conveys the spiritual essence of a thing, its sense of
magic. Something with Mana has influence, power and efficacy – the power to be effective.
At Mana: Brand Marketing and Design, we believe that your brand has its own Mana, as it reflects your
energy, your passion and your vision for your business. Your brand is as much about who you are as your
product or service. In order for your brand to be effective and powerful, its essence needs to be identified.
Branding is this process of discovery. It involves working to understand, appreciate, acknowledge and use
intuition to uncover your brand essence and values and how they could potentially evolve not just as the
visual and verbal expression of your brand, but as an emotional experience for your customers and
prospects.
Mana engages with clients in a process of collaboration and co-creation. We do not decide your brand but
rather help reveal, or uncover, what is already there.
I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free. — Michelangelo
Mana takes the time to get to know you, your company, and your product or service through meetings,
visits, and information sharing. Ideas emerge from these exchanges. We are looking to find the authentic
core of your brand, its essence. We then create strategically guided visual and verbal design solutions that
communicate your unique brand value to current and potential customers in an emotionally relevant way,
using words, images, color, symbols, and principles of design. These different elements are refined and
focused until the right brand expression is manifested. When you say, “I love it! That’s it! That’s my brand!”
Then your brand expression takes on its own life and carries its individual Mana.
Mana can be your guide and navigator on this path from brand creation to expression.
To learn more, visit www.ManaBrandMarketing.com or call 808 345.0734
for a complimentary initial consultation.
What is a Brand and What is Branding?
Consumers now have more products and services to choose from than ever before and there are more
ways to investigate, research, interact with, and purchase those products and services in the new interactive, instantaneous, international marketplace. As businesses try to find ways to stand out this crowded, cluttered, and confusing global marketplace, the tools and processes of Brand, and Branding are essential in order to convey the unique value, benefit, and relevance of your products and services to customers and prospects.
Brand:
Brand is the core essence and value offered by your company’s product or service to your customers. Brand is more than any specific feature or benefit. Brand is about your promise to your customers. Most importantly, Brand is about the way people experience your product or service and their emotional connection to it.
Branding:
Branding is the entire process involved in creating and embodying your brand visually, verbally, and
experientially across all touch points of interaction with the consumer. It can encompass design in all media, ranging from traditional (print, radio and TV) to online (Internet) and physical space (retail). Branding aims to establish your product with a significant and differentiated presence in the market that attracts, creates, and retains loyal customers.
Why is Branding Important to Your Business Success?
A brand conveys information not only about you, but also your company, its products, and services. Your
brand has the power to create a first impression for the consumer and that first impression can differentiate and position you well above the competition.
Today, a successful brand must be:
• Recognizable and relevant to consumers.
• Desirable, credible, and approachable.
• Communicated in every relevant touch point for a company’s business ‘ecosystem’ both internally
(staff, employees, contractors) and externally (partners, affiliates).
• Communicated in every relevant customer touch point across the physical to virtual world.
• Authentic and embody a true reflection of who you are and how you do business.
• Able to deliver a consistent experience of satisfaction and customer delight.
Your brand becomes the shorthand for your offering.
Apple, the golden arches of McDonald’s, the Nike swoosh, and Starbucks’ mermaid all signify the quality, the products, services and experience you expect to receive. When you purchase from these companies, you know what you are getting: The brand stands for something you recognize and trust.
Creating YOUR brand identity and expression is one of the most important investments you
can make for your business.
How Do You Build a Powerful and Sustainable Brand?
Landor
“Products are built in the factory, but brands are built in the mind.”
Walter Landor, founder, Landor & Associates, global brand and design consultancy
Powerful Brands
Brands may be made in the consumer’s mind, but truly successful brands must also connect to the heart.
The way to assure that connection is to start from the essence and work outward:
1. Identify your brand essence and values.
2. Use strategic insight and research to understand the target audience.
3. Develop a core brand identity and branding system that expresses the brand visually, verbally,
and experientially in a way that will connect with the target audience.
The process of branding involves discovery — a search to uncover and understand the essence of your
brand promise, as a sculptor chisels and carves on the outside to uncover what is already inside the stone.
Truly successful brands connect with, establish, grow and maintain an emotional relationship with the
customer that is beyond any specific price point, feature, function, or benefit. A successful brand transcends objectivity and becomes personally relevant and enriching to the customer.
The branding process needs to answer this essential question:
How does my business/product/service provide an experience that connects to my customer’s deeper life,
not just an outer “lifestyle?”
Sustainable Brands
For any brand to withstand the test of time, it must connect with experiences that are relevant and
compelling to its customers. Some brands become so embedded in our lives and our vocabulary that they
become verbs, like Xerox, FedEx, or Google.
When people use your brand name as a verb, that is remarkable. — Meg Whitman – eBay
To assure the success of your brand:
1. Ensure that your brand stands for something that is compelling and simple.
2. Make it easy for potential customers to understand and appreciate how your brand fits into their life,
either by solving a problem or creating an opportunity for a new experience.
3. Build your brand on a simple idea that serves as the foundation, and then execute the verbal, visual,
and experiential aspects of that brand consistently across all points of customer interaction.
