LOL, your guys' responses are precisely why I'm doing these blog articles. To give more explanation. Your marketing efforts target your specific audience. Yes, your different areas of branding - logos, colors and all that are noticed because of how they make people feel. A logo doesn't survive just on it's own. You could create a good logo, or a horrible logo, but if you back up what your company is about, then people relate to the logo and get a sense of feeling from it. They find trust in it. Knowing your target audience isn't usually step one because you would need to figure out how you are going to brand your product. If you try to force a brand down someone's throat, and make it stick to a particular audience, it most likely isn't going to survive because it's not genuine.
I did start out thinking the same thing as you guys are saying now. But starting this ChicoKini bikini sales thing, my main goal was just to provide great service. Service would provide the income. If you ordered a bikini and it was wrong, I just ship a new one. No need to deal with a return, shipping, restocking - all costs much more than just sending a new one and resolving the issues, people love this. Next, I wanted the price to be on the low end with a higher end feel. The colors / packaging and all that relates to Victorias Secret - which attracts every demographic and aspect of women, except these are bikinis people can afford. After I hashed out all of what i wanted to do with ChicoKini and how I wanted to approach it, then I actually started looking where to market. My target audience for advertising interesting enough was 35+ females. The bikini's I sell are ones that younger girls want (18/25) along with older women which I was advertising at. So it appeals to everyone, it was just nailing the target audience to advertise to, in order for this to spread like wild fire. Those 35+ year olds seemed to be the best fit due to kids/income/and friends & gossip and it got some talk going. So what I have is a product/service that is for anyone, not a specific audience but my marketing efforts were targeted at a specific group. But everyone relates to the look and feel because I tried to base if off something everyone knows as quality.
The main point though is that the colors/look/feel along with the service or whatever interactions are what create the brand. People identify with it because it makes them feel a certain way. I could just throw the colors out there, but it's not going to stick. Just like anyone you come into contact with on a daily basis. We are all our own brands, yet you remember some people and even talk about them with friends and family while you forget others. Some people make you feel good, some people don't - you know these people, the ones you can trust and ones you don't count on. It's no different than a company, a logo is just something that holds those feelings of the interactions you had with whatever product or service was offered, rather than a face.
