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BY MARTY NEUMEIER

Invisible Branding

These days when CEOs and corporate marketers talk about investing in brand, they’re probably referring to traditionally visible touchpoints such as product design, advertising, or web experience. That’s great, but what they, and most people, don’t realize is that branding is much more than just the stuff you can see.

LIQUIDAGENCY.COM | SOURCE: THE DESIGNFUL COMPANY BY MARTY NEUMEIER

Invisible branding refers to those stakeholder touchpoints that have little or no visual presence in the market, but can have a huge impact on your company’s reputation. The list includes items such as CEO vision, employee training, pricing strategy, customer relationships, and sales force communications. Each of these items are an essential part of a company’s brand, but because they’re not visible, business leaders often overlook them.

LIQUIDAGENCY.COM | SOURCE: THE DESIGNFUL COMPANY BY MARTY NEUMEIER

LIQUIDAGENCY.COM | SOURCE: THE DESIGNFUL COMPANY BY MARTY NEUMEIER

VISIBLE BRANDING INVISIBLE BRANDING

collateral

advertising

partner communication

photography

web presence

positioning advertising

action advertising

point of sale

user experience

CEO vision

employee training

pricing strategy

customer relationships

customer wins

sales force communication

sponsorships

public relations

vendor selection

How important is invisible branding to your company? The short answer: it depends. If you’re a company like Apple you probably have bigger fish to fry (hello, tech support?). But, if you’re a B2B company, invisible branding is everything. Why? Most B2Bs operate without the advantage of consumer-style marketing—their reputation is staked one hundred percent on invisible branding.

LIQUIDAGENCY.COM | SOURCE: THE DESIGNFUL COMPANY BY MARTY NEUMEIER

Find more Marty Neumeier ideas to steal at liquidagency.com/blog

LIQUIDAGENCY.COM | SOURCE: THE DESIGNFUL COMPANY BY MARTY NEUMEIER