How good branding directly affects good profits

When Apple announced its financial results for its fiscal first quarter ending December 2014 they made impressive reading. They showed a revenue of $74.6 billion and a quarterly net profit of $18billion - phew!

The results had apparently come from all time record revenue in terms of the iPhone and Mac sales as well as a record performance on the App Store.

So OK, most of us are not quite in that league but I do think there's something I can share with you as a piece of marketing insight in terms of how they set themselves up to succeed at this level.  This is all about branding.

Brand Vision

No, this is not the logo (although that's admittedly iconic and clever) but about that part of branding called "brand vision"

If brands (companies) are to succeed there needs be a vision to give the business a sense of direction. Not only does this provide a guiding beacon in terms of product or service development, it enables staff to appreciate what role they should play and, when unforeseen challenges happen, it helps managers identify strategies that will help them stay true to their long-term plan thus enabling the brand to stay constant.

Apple's brand vision is a brilliant example - especially as it underlines the fact that a vision statement must be true to your brand not your products. Here's the vision that Steve Jobs created in the 1980's

"Man is the creator of change in this world. As such he should be above systems and structures and not subordinate to them"

Let me further explain. Imagine if this company vision had been based on Apple's product portfolio at the time. There's have been no room for expansion into iPhones and Apps - two significant contributors to these record returns - because there wouldn't have been a clear brand vision

Yes, it's an exceptional vision from the exceptional leader of an exceptional company but I think giving yourself a stretching brand vision is a great, easily achievable, jump off point for sustained success. What do you think?

If you are interested in this post you might also enjoy my post on brand positioning