Media Branding Strategies: How to Build a Brand That Actually Sticks

Media Branding Strategies,  At some point in their existence, every media company reaches a stage where the question no longer becomes what should we create, but rather why would you choose us? The question of what content to create is generally avoided by every media company, but it is at this point that it becomes why would you choose us?

That is the question of branding. And it is not so easy.

I have been witnessing media brands grow, falter and even vanish over the years. The ones which survive are not necessarily the ones with the largest budget, or most flashy design. It is them who have decided who they are and who they are not, how they will communicate both of these ideas in a consistent, unified way across each and every touchpoint. Media branding is that in a nutshell, but implementing media branding is where the problem lies.

The meaning of Media Branding.

There is one thing we ought to clear up. Media branding does not only entail a logo or color scheme. Those are tools. Branding: This is the image in the minds of the people about your outlet when you are not in the room. It is what one is referring to when they say that they trust The Atlantic or Vice has really lost its edge. Those are brand impressions, and these are constructed over time, and they are created in the course of thousands of interactions.

In the case of media organizations, in particular, branding is an interesting boundary of editorial identity, visual design, audience trust, and business model. They can not be divided. The brand architecture of an investigative journalism outlet that requires subscription will be fundamentally different than the brand architecture of an entertainment-oriented YouTube channel – although both of them may create video content.

Aesthetics should not be the starting point but Editorial Identity.

My greatest flaw identified among the younger media brands is that they rush to visual identity without having editorial identity figured out. They take months to pick fonts and construct style guides as the real voice, values, and editorial stance is still unclear.

Editorial identity will provide answers to such questions as: What do you think? How do you do something that no-one has done, or do you do familiar things differently? What would you never put to press? Who is the reader, and what does he want of you, which he cannot get elsewhere?

This has been going on years by The Economist. Its brand is based on a very particular worldview – classically liberal, globally-minded, confidently opinionated and evidence-driven. All the stories, all the headlines, even the omission of bylines on the articles all reinforce that identity. You know perfectly what you have when you take it up.

There is No Compromise When it comes to Audience definition.

Good media brands are familiar with their audience in an uncomfortable manner. Not 25 to 54 adults – it is not a community but a demographic. I am speaking of knowing the very feel of the life of your audience: what they read before going to sleep, what vexes them, what they are ambitious over, what they already know.

Axios established its brand on a highly targeted audience: time-starved, information-overloaded, and busy professionals who needed to be smart in a hurry. That is why the format of Smart Brevity, which is a bullet list, bold headings of the topic sentences, and short explanators is not a mere style peculiarity. It’s a brand promise. Each genre of the stories is adjusted to the life of that reader.

Uniformity in all Channels.

These days, your brand appears everywhere at the same time in the disjointed media environment – newsletters, social media, podcasts, video, events, maybe a print product. The problem is that it is necessary to have a consistent identity in all of them but still to make the format as it is in each platform.

It is not about being rigid, and the solution is to have a clear core identity that is intelligible to your team to interpret it intelligently in each format. Consider the way The New Yorker does so. The tone varies throughout their podcast, cartoons and 10,000-word features, but the sense, literary, curious, a bit wry, is always there.

Trust as the fundamental Brand Asset.

In the case of the media, the brand is trust. And this is not an old platitude, it is a structural fact. When media organizations lose their credibility, it is more of an existential rather than a PR issue.

Development of trust is a process and requires conscious decisions. It involves coming out clean regarding corrections, telling the truth regarding what you are not knowledgeable about, and having a clear editorial ethics policy which you actually adhere to. It is not allowing business to taint your editorial judgement in obvious manners.

The Brand Should be Strengthened through Monetization.

The way you earn money is an indication to your audience. A media brand that engages in such deceptive native advertising is secretly compromising its credibility. A membership model, in its turn, a membership model is the model that perfectly aligns incentives, your income directly depends on whether or not you are valuable and trustworthy to the readers.

Civic journalism as a nonprofit model was the foundation of the Texas Tribune brand, and strengthened the identity of the organization as a public-interest, not a commercial organization. It is not a monetary choice but a branding choice.

If You Change You Change Yourself.

The brands must develop. Audience is evolving, platforms are shifting, cultures are going. But the sense of evolution must be like growth, not identity crisis. The most successful media brands update their visual image, increase their geographical boundaries, or even test the new form, preserving the values in their core.

When Rolling Stone stepped out of the music industry into politics and culture, it seemed to be a logical continuation of its countercultural genes. Going to video without a plan because it was the in thing in 2016 – that was identity crisis disguised as adaptation.

FAQs

What do we mean by media branding?
Media branding refers to the process of creating a unique, recognizable identity of a media organization – in terms of editorial voice, visual design, audience trust and experience across platforms.

So why is editorial identity important to media branding compared to visual design?
Since the audience eventually attaches itself to a view, rather than a brand. Visual design will help in recognition whereas editorial identity will help in generating loyalty and differentiation.

What is the way of media brands to develop audience trust?
By being transparent in editorial and its editorial accuracy, having good ethics policy, making transparent corrections, and not compromising its content through commercial interests that are easily noticeable.

Will small media brands be able to compete with large through branding?
Absolutely. Niche brands that have a strongly dedicated audience are usually more successful in engagement and monetization compared to the broad brand. Competitiveness is specificity.

What is the frequency of having a refresh of a media brand?
No set time, but refreshes need to be a product of real audience or strategic changes, rather than trends. The essence is what must be constant even in the changes of aesthetics.