What exactly is branding?
“A brand is a collection of perceptions in the mind of the customer, the sum total of the entire customer experience. A brand is what your customers think of you and a reflection of everything you do: the way you send emails, your website, your Tweets (and social media presence), how you describe your business, and the logo on your business cards. It’s a complex mixture of experiences, feelings and personalities that (ideally) have made your customers love your company.”1
“The marketing practice of creating a name, symbol, or design that identifies and differentiates a product or service from other products or services.”2
It is an experience. An “experience that separates different products and services in a world where quality is often comparable or the same”3
Branding is your business’s identity, it differentiates you from your competitors, and is the experience that your customers will have when interacting with you. It attracts your ideal customers, builds trust in your potential customers, and loyalty in your current customers. Your brand is what brings your customers back again and again and when asked who they go to for your service or product, you will be the first place they think of.
Branding is more than a logo!
The word “brand/branding” is intangible, so we will dig deep to make it practical and easy to understand. Branding and Brand Identity are often used interchangeably and sometimes used in place of “logo”. A logo is not branding (neither is branding a logo). Your logo is only a piece of the puzzle as you can see in the graphic below. Branding and building a brand identity around that takes time, resources, and effort for both you and the person you choose to journey with on this endeavor. We’ll cover how to become very clear on your why, who & how in a future email.
You may be asking yourself, “why do I need to put time and effort into branding? It sounds complicated.” The reality is, it’s worth the time and effort you put into. It will aid in business growth and will save you time and resources in the long run. Think of it this way: putting time and effort into building a clear, relatable brand will make it easier for your customers to find you and know they want what you offer. Do the work so your customer doesn’t need to.
Branding and marketing go hand in hand! Getting your branding right from the onset will make marketing so much more intuitive because you will be working from a solid foundation.
Do you have any questions about branding? Feel free to reach out! We love sharing our passion with others.
Stay Creative!
Attribution: 1 https://www.marketing-partners.com/conversations2/seven-things-a-brand-is-not-and-two-it-is. 2 https://www.entrepreneur.com/encyclopedia/branding 3 https://www.lucidpress.com/blog/the-7-key-elements-of-brand-identity-design