Branding & brand strategy
The Schwung brand model builds a brand in four layers: from brand essence through identity and positioning to activation in the market. One clear foundation that you use for corporate, internal and recruitment communication. Sometimes from scratch, sometimes as a mirror on what is already there.
What is the Schwung brand model?
The Schwung brand model is a phased approach that builds a brand in four successive layers: Head & heart (essence), Talk & image (identity), Action & strength (positioning) and Brand activation (start & growth). Each layer builds on the previous one, so that strategy, design and execution come from the same foundation instead of emerging separately.
The model works for you if you want to tell sharply how your organisation makes the difference, want to stay relevant to your audience, or want to find and retain good employees. The condition: daring to look in the mirror and daring to make choices.
What is a brand essence?
A brand essence is the ultimate summary of your brand, often in a few words. It expresses your organisation's reason for being and forms the anchor point from which brand, people and work set off. This is the inside of your organisation, what drives you and makes you unique, before a single image or campaign has been made.
- Brand strategy
- Brand architecture
- Golden Circle (workshop)
- BHAG / audacious ideal (workshop)
- Core and brand values (workshop)
- Corporate story
- Slogan
What is a brand identity?
Your brand identity is the visible and tangible side of your brand: how you look, how you sound and how you behave. It makes you recognisable and distinctive. When wordmark, logo, visual language and tone of voice are aligned and laid down in a brand guidelines manual, you become credible and consistent, across channels and over time.
- Visual identity
- Wordmark & logo
- Visual language
- Behaviour
- Tone of voice
- Brand guidelines manual
What is brand positioning?
Brand positioning is steering the perception around your brand within the right audience. Here you turn the internal story towards the market need: you connect the brand essence to what the customer seeks rationally and emotionally, look at the competition, and translate that into a sharp brand promise and proposition.
- Brand positioning
- Brand promise & proposition
- Personas (workshop)
- Customer journey (workshop)
- Digital strategy
How do you bring your brand to market?
Brand activation is every experience, campaign or expression that brings your brand into direct contact with your audience and contributes to a loyal community around your products or services. You do not do brand work for show: it has to convert, increase turnover and build brand value.
- Concept
- Campaign
- Design
- Web development
- Online marketing
- Content
What is recruitment communication?
Recruitment communication (employer branding) is the same brand model, applied to your employer brand: making clear why someone chooses you as an employer, and translating that into a campaign that wins candidates over. Indispensable in tight markets such as healthcare and the public sector.
We work from brand core to an employer value proposition (EVP) and a recognisable campaign concept, all the way to the careers website. The difference rarely lies in the work or the salary, but in the brand.
How do you make your employer brand attractive?
By looking for the difference in your brand rather than in the role. What makes your organisation unique as an employer? That story, drawn from real employees and translated into a campaign, wins candidates over. This is what we do:
- Employer brand & employer value proposition (EVP)
- Campaign concept & slogan
- Labour-market activation & channels
- Job marketing
- Careers website & onboarding
An example from practice: De WAUW van Thebe doubled the application conversion, and the employer brand of GGD West-Brabant.
Frequently asked questions about branding
What is the difference between branding and a logo?
A logo is one part of your brand identity. Branding is the complete foundation beneath it: why you exist, what you stand for, how you sound and how you position yourself. The logo is accumulated recognition of that foundation, not the starting point.
Which organisations does the Schwung brand model work for?
The model works for organisations that want to tell more sharply what sets them apart, want to become more relevant to their audience, or want to find and retain better staff. We work a great deal for organisations in the public sector and healthcare in Brabant, and we apply the model to corporate, internal and recruitment communication.
Do you also do employer branding and recruitment communication?
Yes. The same brand model forms the basis for your employer brand.
Can Schwung work on location?
Yes. With Schwung on location we come to your office and work independently or as part of your team.
Put them to Nick.
A brand challenge on the table? Sometimes the best first step is simply to call. Then we look together at which approach fits.