Trends in Branding and Marketing for 2021 — Consolidate or Deepen your Brand Identity?

8/8 Conclusion: Why Redefine your Brand Now?

This is the last of a series of articles in which we discuss trends impacting the world of business, viewed from the lens of branding and marketing, interpreting desk research specifically for 2021. In this article, we wonder: why redefine your brand now?

The ‘Trends in Branding and Marketing for 2021’ series of articles was created by SparQle CBS, as a research-based explanation of our vision for marketing and branding success in the years to come.

Next to simply desk research, we reached out to various expert professionals in the realm of branding and marketing, often at the forefront of the field.

The results of our research indicate one thing:

Businesses, Marketing and Brands will need to be much more human-centered and Purpose-driven to connect with stakeholders and have a significant positive impact in 2021 and beyond.

But why would you invest in your brand now? Why would you not much rather consolidate, and keep your efforts focused on whatever else you have on your to-do list as an entrepreneur, CMO or head of brand?

Conclusion: Why redefine your Brand Now?

In the past 20 or so years there’s hardly been a time — with the notable exceptions of September 2001 and 2008 — where it was more necessary or logical to redefine and refine our purpose as human beings. Or as an organization, to reinvent, solidify and reinvigorate our brand. To be humble.

To get back to basics.

To get our people aligned, inspired, and enabled to add their unique value to our brand. To keep your people happy, engaged, motivated. To keep making sure customers understand and feel why they should be connecting with your brand.

How else are you going to make sure your brand stays alive beyond 2021?

MarTech is not going to save your brand

Rather invest in technology? Sure, we get it. MarTech is awesome and when implemented in the correct way can make and simultaneously save you tons of money and time.

However: to make your brand more authentic or more human; to have your people be inspired or more aligned is not something that any technology can easily solve for. Nor any branding tool or project.

It is not the introduction of a new visual brand identity, a new logo; a brand book or brand style guide that’s going to be the magic bullet.

Neither is the simple introduction of new marketing or branding tools.

But tools like these can absolutely be of help.

These are the tools that can help your people stay aligned with and inspired by your brand, wherever they are working from and whatever may yet happen in the near future.

These tools will help you and your people keep on building your brand, even under tight circumstances. And they will help unlock the creativity, talents and unique passions of every individual working with your brand, to add to it — always on-brand.

Remember, tools are just tools, and while the tools that can help you achieve all of the above are available — the rest is up to you and your people.

Your Brand is built up by the connections people have with it

In 2021 and beyond, we have to go back to the basics. In marketing and branding that is the same: at the basis lies the connection.

For many companies, that means the following: strengthening your brand means redefining your Purpose (and thereby, possibly, redefining your brand as a Purpose-driven brand) — and redefining the connection of every single person inside or outside of your organization, to your brand’s core idea.

We hope to have inspired you with this series of articles, on how exactly to do it.

SparQle: Shine, Connect, and Grow

SparQle is an online Brand Identity Agency. We help people and organizations find their unique, authentic self — and make it SparQle. To tell their story from that unique identity and to connect online. To help you Shine, Connect, and Grow.

Would you like to know more about our services or what we can do for you?

Check out our website or go ahead and connect with us right away.

Read the rest of the “Branding and Marketing Trends for 2021” series here on Medium: