Branding and your business {ep 10}

In today’s episode. I want to talk little bit about what branding is, how you can brand your business and just defining some of the terms, because I think there’s a lot of misconception and often people talk about branding. And really, they might just mean a logo or even a brand identity.

Read the blog instead

The first thing to say is that your logo is not your ‘branding’. Even your brand identity (logo, colors, and fonts) that’s still not your branding. They form your brand identity, which is a part of your branding but it’s not the same thing.

Your brand is the way that people might describe you or talk about you to other people. And your branding is all of the aspects that are created to try to make someone feel a certain way about your brand. So it’s things like your brand identity and how everything looks and how everything feels, it’s how you as a brand sound 0 your brand voice and brand tone. It’s the messaging that you have too forms part of your branding.

For example a company like apple they’ve got such a distinctive branding that you know who it’s for and you believe a certain thing about their products, they really create that desirability. And often people are an ‘apple person’. It’s the way that they have branded themselves to be perceived in a certain way, maybe more cutting edge and geared towards creatives. Even through the way they launched their products was quite a different way to how other people were doing it.

So if you are a product based business, you need to think about how someone feels from the moment they first come into contact with your brand, through every aspect, whether that’s then coming onto your website, the ordering process to what happens during the dispatch and their parcel arriving. If they have to talk to customer services then what’s the customer service experience.

What do you actually need for your brand?

Brand strategy and branding

That’s the truth about branding and often you will see people talk about offering branding as a service and you need to be clear about what you’re actually expecting. Are you going to be getting a brand identity, which is very valuable, but it’s not the full picture of branding? And if you’re starting out or you’re looking to kind of grow in a certain way, maybe you need some brand strategy first before you even get into the actual design aspect with a designer.

Some designers offers this, but not all. A big aspect of the brand strategy is talking through things like your customer personas and positioning in the market and looking at your brand voice and tone, values, purpose, why. There is also people that their sole job is to be a brand strategist which might be something that you need, or for in the future. And then from there you can really form a stronger brand identity and you can ensure that you use it to make sure that every customer touch point feels on brand.

What about getting just a logo design

Often a potential client could say that they just want a logo design, but you have to then think about how useful that is actually going to be as a logo is purely the brand mark. So when it comes then to the rest of the things you need to design, like your website or a business cards, what fonts are you going to use? And what colours are you going to use? And certainly if you’re a product based business that has packaging as well it might be challenging with just a logo design.

A logo probably Isn’t really just going to serve you on its own. It’s just the single mark that represents your brand. It won’t really create much feeling or sense of your brand on its own. And that’s where things like the colours and the fonts and patterns Icons illustrations all come in to making more of an impression

Why your brand is like a bush

Another thing that I wrote a blog post before on is the analogy of a bush. I wanted to do it as a tree, because that sounds better but the analogy worked for bush!

If you think of bush the roots are the foundations – your why, your purpose, your values, the vision. The parts that people don’t really see so much. And obviously some of that will come through into the aspects that they do see, but that is at the heart of your brand. It’s the foundations of what your business should be then built on.

Then you’ve got the trunk and that’s the core of your brand – the what and the how. So this is what people will see in the way that you do business. It’s what you offer and it’s how you do it the way you do it.

And then you can think of the brunches as the visual aspects, the things they will see even more – it’s the brand identity and the brand voice.

With the tweaks and leaves being the more tangible elements – copy, design, photos and ultimately all of the customer touch points. This is the bit that people will see the most of! You want that bit to be beautiful green, healthy looking leave, maybe some berries. But the bush behind needs to be healthy to survive and that then starts with the foundations being strong – the roots.

So for a business to be at its full potential ideally all of these things need to come together. It helps the customer to feel confident to purchase. It helps a potential customer see that you are the business for them. Because the foundations are there.

Would you like a professional website audit reviewing your online presence including social media?

If you would like a professional audit of not just your website, but your online presence, then my audit is a great first step to working together. Or of course you can take all my feedback and implement yourself or work with another designer too.

In Summary…

Obviously as someone that’s a visual designer, I of course think design is important. But a successful brand needs to have so much more in place than just the design. You could have a beautiful brand identity but if it’s not based in strong foundations, if it’s not based in really who you’re actually trying to target. Or who your potential customers are or ideal audience. If it’s not based in values and have that strong core of the why you’re doing the business. It’s probably going to fall flat. It’s not going to connect with people in the way that it could. Because it’s just surface level and looks pretty.

Many customers or consumers are seeking out brands that they connect with. Brands that are aligned with their values. Brands that are purpose driven that have a sense of community. And you need to think about how you can offer all of that.

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