Our thinking on business and brand, and what makes them grow
When business is the brand's true north
The business sets the course. Your brand just needs to follow. Image: Adobe Stock
By Sue Ann Ho, Founder
30 July 2025 • 4 min read
A brand can be a nice-to-have. But for some businesses, it’s shown it can also be a powerful asset that drives the business agenda.
TAKEAWAYS
- It’s useful to distinguish between a brand as a marketing expense and a brand as a strategic asset that generates business.
- A brand becomes a true asset when it’s built to serve a specific business goal, such as winning market share or fending off competition.
- The value of a brand can be measured by its ability to deliver on the business goals it was designed to achieve.
You might have come across DBS’s Sparks web series. On the surface, it’s feel-good storytelling about bankers doing meaningful work. But look a little closer and we can see the hints of a business-first brief: grow interest and build trust in DBS’s business and wealth services among SME owners and startups.
It worked. Around the time of its launch, Sparks contributed about 9% of total enquiries and drove roughly 15% of SME product applications in Singapore, according to DBS. The brand content was built to do a job for the business, and it delivered beautifully.
Of course, not all businesses need to be as visible as high profile brands like DBS or Coca-cola. Some business owners think of a brand as a nice-to-have, a layer to add only after comfortable profits are made and there’s budget to spare. It’s not an inaccurate point of view to take for some businesses. These are businesses that are comfortable with their market share and have little competition to watch out for, for example.
But for other business owners looking to break into new markets, grow the customer base and fend off competition, our brands can be a powerful business asset.
Let business lead the brand
For a brand to turn into a business asset, our logical starting point is the business itself. In other words, let the brand serve our business strategy. If our goal is to win customers over from a bigger competitor, we can use the brand to say something that gives them a reason to switch. If our objective is to keep customers from going to the competition, the brand can remind them why they chose us in the first place.
Think of the brand as our sales pitch with a loud hailer. Once we know what the business needs to pitch and to whom, we’ve got a job for the brand.
Put business first and follow through
You’d offer good salaries to talented employees and pay good money for software that keeps your operations running smoothly. So why not invest in a brand that works for your business too?
Of course, not every business has the kind of resources DBS has. But as with other strategic business assets, it’s always a good idea to set aside time and budget for your brand as part of your business strategy. Give it the runway it needs to do a proper job and deliver on your goals.
Brand building often involves a lot of moving parts and it can feel complicated. But when we ground our brand principles in business strategy, that’s when we know that the brand is doing its job and therefore, worth the time and money you invest in it.
A brand built on your business goals isn’t just a logo, a campaign or marketing expense. When your brand works in service of your goals, it’s a business asset that earns its keep.
This approach scales to any business size. The family law form that positions itself as “protecting what matters most” to stand out in a crowded legal market, uses its brand strategically to serve a specific business objective: to win clients who value personal attention over lowest fees. The brand serves the business goal, not the other way around.
It's the meaning behind the brand
Google doesn’t just make a search engine, it makes online search playfully simple. Tupperware doesn’t just make food containers, it helps us organise our kitchens. Panadol doesn’t just make paracetamol, it makes the one-pill-for-all-your-fevers-and-aches.
Developing a meaning that goes beyond what the business sells, is all a part of brand identity and purpose. Planned well, such meaning can be very helpful when it comes to choosing the font for your name, determining the colours of your brand, guiding the design of your logo, and more.
Brand building isn’t hidden theory. It’s all around us. By noticing how successful brands connect with people, we can take the guesswork out of building brands that stand out and grow.
