Branding for Dummies: What Exactly Is a Brand
Imagine driving down the freeway and suddenly your kids start screaming because they spotted “the golden arches.” Not only do they expect you to stop, they expect to have a certain experience inside the restaurant.
That’s branding, baby. For decades, McDonald's iconic golden arches have stood as a classic icon, even for children too young to read or understand the meaning of a brand. They’re not too young, however, to know they will experience consistency in their favorite fast food as well as a chance to play and have fun.
As a new business or struggling startup, you won’t have the immediate impact behind decades of brand building by a giant like McDonald's, but you do have an opportunity to begin building a successful brand that connects your company's story with potential customers
What is a brand?
A logo, color scheme, slogan and design are features of your company brand, but a brand goes far beyond simple visuals. A brand is 50% what you say about your company and 50% what your customers say about it. From that perspective, the act of branding is ensuring that those two perceptions of your business are one and the same.
A brand creates an image of your company and tells your story in ways that connect with the right audiences. A brand reflects not only the products/services but the values of your business—and assures consumers that you share their values. A brand connects what consumers need and how your company provides a solution.
The more your company does to ensure your image of the company aligns with your customers' image of the company, the stronger your brand becomes.
Read about a few of the brand identities we've built for our clients!
Grafted Growth
When another marketing agency reaches out to your marketing agency to ask you to give them a brand boost, you must be doing something right! See how we made minor, strategic changes to this firm's own brand to elevate its visibility.
Perfec-Tone
This Black-owned family skincare business needed to evolve into the 21st century to appeal to its new, younger audiences. Our team built a new brand book and redesigned their entire marketing strategy to take them to the next business stage as they scaled.
CWBCN
California Women's Business Center Network is a nonprofit organization that brings together woman-owned businesses across the state and empowers them with education and resources. Our challenge was to re-imagine their brand visuals to represent everyone.
How to establish a strong brand
Before beginning the design process behind your brand, you need to dive into the guts of your business. Why did you or do you want to establish a business? What consumer problem do you aim to solve? What makes your solution different from what other businesses are doing? Who will be impacted by your products or services? What values drive your passions?
Having strong answers to these questions will help you:
- What is your story? Consumers connect with a brand more deeply when they understand why the company was founded. People buy from people, and everyone’s driven by an ethos.
- What is our mission/vision? Mission and vision statements are important because they should drive every aspect of business. Everyone in the company should know what you do, why and where you’re going.
- Who are our customers? Determine your potential (and current) customers and how the company can connect with them to meet your goals. Liking your own brand is great, but if your customers hate it, you’re in trouble.
Once these key elements are decided, you're ready to begin building the visuals and supporting materials that reflect your brand.
The mechanics behind branding
Structural elements will be necessary to support a company's branding campaign, including but not limited to:
- A company logo
- A color palette
- Messaging
- Typography
These choices must reflect the values and vision established earlier in the process. A brand book or style guide ensures these elements carry throughout the company's processes, such as product design, packaging, marketing, sales and more.
Business cards, letterhead, website design, marketing materials, sales presentations and customer service must align to establish the company's brand consistently through each step of the customer journey.
More than marketing
Too often, startups and entrepreneurs forget the critical step of building a brand. Sometimes, new brands will come to us to support their marketing efforts before they’ve even built their brand identity. Since marketing is all about communicating between companies and their customers to meet everyone’s needs, we need the branding building blocks to get started; otherwise, you look and sound like everyone else.
Marketing lets consumers know when McDonald's is bringing back the McRib, but branding lets consumers know that, even once the McRib is gone, they can still expect the same great experience they’ve known all of their McLives.
Establishing a brand that connects with consumers allows a company to thrive and prosper in our competitive environment, especially as partners and team members come and go. Get started on a successful branding venture for your company by filling out our Entry Questionnaire and connecting with our branding experts today!