- Which came first-- the product or the organization? Sure, product stands out because it's front and center. Without a product or a service, most organizations wouldn't even exist.

But if organization means more than just a formal company, if it means that we're talking about the whole vision, history, testing, investment, and combined effort that went into making a product work, well, chicken and the egg, right?

But all semantics aside, how do you differentiate between branding your product and branding your organization? Where do the two go together, and where do you start to split them apart, or even completely separate them? This topic calls for a two part series. So today, I'm going to focus on product branding.

And if you want a short answer to my questions, the best way to navigate branding a product versus branding an organization is considering the audience and the relationship that they have with your company or product. You've probably heard this before, but I'll say it again. Your audience matters.

Knowing them, knowing their needs and interests, and knowing what relationship they have with your brand is the starting point. It's like turning on the oven before you bake the cake. This is especially true with product branding. But you'd be surprised at how many manufacturers and product builders don't think about their audience.

While all these manufacturers and even service providers that I've met are great at what they do, more than a few fall into the trap of not thinking about audience, marketing, or product branding at all. They think, I make cool stuff, or I do cool things. Why wouldn't people flock to the store and want to buy it?

How about because they don't know it exists? Or because they have no relationship with that product? Which means they have no idea it was fine tuned with them in mind.

If you have a product, you've got to tailor it to an audience. And the best way to do that is with a clear, targeted, and truthful brand expression. Over time, people build a relationship with your product, and by extension, your company's brand.

If we go back to our original question, what sets product branding apart from organizational branding, we see the wisdom in anchoring products within a larger organizational brand.

Don't get me wrong a single product that an audience knows, loves, and returns to again and again is a great thing. But few products and companies stay the same forever. Products change as companies grow. And when a product changes, so will its audience.

That means growing your company into a different sector or introducing a new product usually means building a new relationship with your audience. Not thinking about who your new product is for, how people will perceive it, and how anything new will reflect on your overall brand means going wherever the wind takes you, and possibly getting stuck as a single product company, where the whole brand is wrapped up in one product.

If your audience has a strong positive relationship with a single product, you might even be able to leverage that association with your brand as a whole and with your other products. One company that used this strategy is Jeep. Jeep has a strong name recognition, and it's closely tied to one product.

When you think of Jeep, you probably imagine their classic off-roading vehicle, the one that you can drive off the lot for around $50,000-- sorry, $60,000. But they also offer a $90,000 luxury version, the Grand Wagoner. Knowing that people associated its brand name with a particular vehicle, Jeep had to extend its reach to build a new audience, high earning executives looking for pricier off road capable vehicles.

Because of their strong brand association with a single product, Jeep was able to carry positive resonance with one product over to its organizational identity, and from there to all of its new products that are made for these wealthier customers.

While people might like Jeep for different reasons-- maybe because they're spacious and reliable, not so much because they're great for off-roading-- they're apt to see newer vehicles with the same loyalty and resonance that they have for the overall brand.

Even if your audience doesn't associate your organization with a single product, carefully branding each product so that it fits neatly within an organizational brand can be a powerful strategy.

On that note, have you heard of Salesforce? Salesforce is a great example of an organization that offers a variety of different business solutions, a lot like individual products, but all under one brand name. Whether it's geared toward marketing, sales, or even customer relations, each solution fits the particular need of its customer, while still being Salesforce.

Of course, you don't just build a brand like Jeep or Salesforce overnight. But if you pay constant attention to each product, its audience, and how it all fits their needs, while making a positive impression for your overall brand, then that trust and reputation that you've built will probably carry over to your new product.

On the flip side, not thinking about your product's branding and audience can quickly spell problems. If a product grows issues over time, you can get hammered. And both your product and your company's reputation will suffer. I'll talk more about building an organizational brand on the next episode.

But while we're on product branding, here's what you should ask yourself if your product is just getting started, or if you're rolling out a flashy new product that everyone's going to love. Question one-- who's the audience? Why this audience? What about their needs, interests, region, or desires primes them to resonate with this particular product?

Question two-- how will this new product reflect on your brand as a whole? Hint, it should be in a good way.

Question three-- how does this new product or solution fit into the larger story of your company? Does it harmonize with your values and your purpose?

And while you're on that one, here's question four. Will this new product make sense to audiences, given what they know and feel about your brand? How will this new product affect the perception of my other products? Will it seem like a stretch? Or could it potentially activate new audiences for the overall brand?

If your product seems like a wild stretch, then it might be time for a different conversation, launching a side venture, or even a whole new brand, instead of trying to shoehorn a product that sticks out from your other products like a sore thumb.

Well, that's a lot to chew on. But asking hard questions should do nothing but help your efforts to be a company that people resonate with, one who sells products and services that they trust. Thoughtful product branding means always considering the audience as well as the bigger branding picture.

What relationship is being built with both the product, the organizational brand, and any other products that the brand might offer? I'll share some more thoughts on organizational branding next time. But for now, that's a wrap.

Happy product branding. And if you like what you've heard here, check out more thoughts on B2B branding with my book, You Are Remarkable, out now on Amazon. Until next time, you are remarkable.