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The question “what makes a brand?” seems so incredibly straightforward, but actually, the answer is the cause of much debate. It leads to a series of sub-questions, such as:

What is branding?
What does branding do?
What does it achieve?
What are the direct benefits of good branding?
What is a good example of a “brand”?

More often than not, the beauty of successful brands lie in their simplicity. For example, you couldn’t get much simpler than a tick, yet Nike have turned it into the symbol of a global empire. That leads to further questions:

Is the tick an example of branding, or is it just a logo?
What’s the difference between the two?
Can a logo be a brand?

That’s actually a more complicated question than you might think, but in general, a logo needs at least two more things to be considered a brand.

The first thing you need is a slogan, and continuing to use Nike as an example, they went with the phrase: “Just do it!” That’s it. Three simple words that anybody could have come up with, but what do these words actually say?

They say you can do it.
They say you should do it.
They say you need to do it – it being sport.

They want you – the potential consumer – to feel like you can achieve great things through sport. The tick is a psychological device to make you feel better after exercising and you might notice they often incorporate nature’s elements within their evolving logo (fire, water, etc) to indicate you can “just do it” whatever the weather.

Some people would argue that Nike have become such a powerful company that the tick alone is a brand. That may be so now, but it wasn’t the case in the beginning.

Finally, to transform into the company they are today, they needed to add a third very important, but often overlooked, ingredient – tone.

If you’ve dealt with an agency, you would have heard the buzzwords “Tone of Voice” a lot, and that’s because getting the “ToV” right for your company is an essential part of marketing. Without a solid Tone of Voice, the messages created in separate areas of your business will appear disjointed, and how do you expect to win a customer’s loyalty if they don’t recognise who they’re communicating with?

Whether it’s the language you use on your digital channels, the messaging you display in your store or the customer journey provided on your telephone system, it all needs to sound and feel the same.

Logo + Slogan + Tone = Brand.

Overlook a single one of these and your brand will always feel incomplete, but master them and your customers will want to communicate with you on every level.

There was a time when shoppers were never sure of exactly what they wanted until they walked into the high street, or shopping mall, and made their decisions based on what was presented to them.

Those days have practically gone.

Such has been the rise in online shopping that people now seek the products they desire – along with scores of reviews – before they even consider stepping out the front door.

As the trend of online shopping grew, many predicted that the days of books-and-mortar stores were numbered, but over time shopping patterns seem to have evened out, suggesting there is room for both physical and digital shopping to co-exist.

For all the benefits technology offers, it seems that human interaction is still an important part of customer satisfaction. Some shoppers may catch up with friends over a coffee, or enjoy lunch together in the mall. Even shopper who do research their products online may still prefer to have it now as opposed to wait for delivery.

These are all elements that support the physical shopper experience, and many shopping centre managers are now understanding that the strength of their digital channels can be used to entice customers in store; that physical and digital shopping aren’t exclusive from one another as first believed, but rather deeply connected.

Customer habits show us that strong digital content can lead them into a mall, and once they’re in, there is much that can be done to improve their mood, increasing dwell times, spend and also improving the chances of impulse buys. In fact, when running an academic study on customer behaviour, we found that playing the right music at the right time could achieve all of this.

There is also evidence that proves staff are more productive when they enjoy the music that’s played in their store – unsurprising given that they’re often stood in the same room for up to 8 hours a day.

Given that all this information is readily available, the question is, what should people in the retail sector do with it?

The first big step for any shopping centre manager is to accept that shoppers value being connected, and a connection should start long before they set foot in the mall.

Ultimately, there are 5 key elements to creating a strong customer journey, which happen in the following order:

1. Engage shoppers socially
To pull in new shoppers, and keep existing shoppers coming back, it’s important to have a presence on social media. Why? Because this is what people use now. It’s how they communicate. The more (good) content a shopping centre has on their Facebook and Twitter feeds, the more people will like, share, “check-in” and generally engage with that mall.

2. Reward their loyalty
Everybody likes to be rewarded. The beauty with a shopping centre is that, at any given time, there are countless offers running within their stores. So the question here is, are the offers clearly visible – online, in store and digitally? Does the centre have a stream of exciting new offers filling their web site and social media channels? If they do, people will flock to them, and are likely to share the offers with family and friends.

3. Be clear and concise
Within our research we found that if people visit a shopping centre website, they’re looking for one of three things: to find information on deals or offers, to find opening and closing times, or to find contact information. Therefore, these details should be clearly presented and easy to find.

4. Set the right mood
Almost everybody plays music within their mall, but do they play the right music? There’s a science to music and the effect it has can be incredibly powerful, so a mall shouldn’t just play any old tunes. Instead, they should work with a provider who insists on understanding their brand as well as the demographic of their customers. Only then can the music become a true benefit.

5. Point them in the right direction
Is it coming up to Father’s Day? Has another of our beloved musicians recently passed away? Is the mall holding a 1 minute silence for VE Day? Are they celebrating something unique to their store? Whatever’s happening, the message should be abundantly clear through some professional radio messaging. This way, the shopping centre can drive sales and increase moral among their staff and their shoppers.

A mall’s relationship with its customers can be all encompassing, and if shopping centres choose to engage with customers in each of the areas above, the reward is that they’ll become a go-to outlet whether shoppers are visiting in person, or simply browsing on their phone.