Some people will tell you that branding is all about logo design. Some people think it’s just to do with your marketing materials or how a business communicates with its customers. Others know it has something to do with colours and typefaces. On the whole though, most people aren’t all that sure what branding really means.
The truth about branding is actually quite simple.
Branding is…everything!
What Does Branding Actually Mean?
Branding is the process of making people feel the right way about your organisation. A strong brand is one that people understand, trust and think highly of. A weak brand is one that seems unclear, unreliable or of poor quality.
So branding is actually all about perception – it’s how a company is perceived by the outside world.
The ideal scenario is for the perception of the general public to match the perception of the business management.
This is the holy grail of branding – it’s what everyone’s striving for.
However, as perception is very personal and because we’re all unique individuals with lifetimes of varied experience behind us, one person’s idea of a strong brand could differ wildly from someone elses.
Person A (let’s call her Claire) might think that a £10 bottle of wine is good value, while person B (we’ll call him Steve) might think that’s suspiciously cheap.
Claire might think that the wine seller offers great value for money and a good service, but for Steve, who has a different background and set of expectations, the same business could be seen as cheap and nasty.
Brands rarely appeal to everyone – each will target its own ideal niche.
The trick is to identify that niche and make sure that you give them exactly the experience they’re looking for – and, ideally, even exceed their expectations.
But how do brands give their customers what they want? Will the right logo do it? Or a good colour palette? Probably not.
Consumers need the whole picture to form trust in a brand. Every experience, every interaction, every detail has to be just right.
The logo, the colours, the typeface – they’re all important – but only as part of the overall experience. In isolation they’re pretty meaningless.
What Goes Into a Brand
By now you should have a much clearer picture of what we mean when we talk about branding. You know that it’s about more than just colours or a logo – it’s the whole experience of dealing with a company.
You’re probably thinking – “well that’s great, but where do I even start to tackle such a huge scope of variables?”
I’ll be honest – it’s not easy. But like anything hard, if you break it down into small, manageable chunks it becomes much more achievable.
Picture a brand like an iceberg – there’s a lot of big, solid foundation work at the bottom to support the visible bits on top.
Let’s Look at a Brand From a Consumer’s Point of View.
Think of a brand – any brand you like.
What’s the first thing that comes to mind?
It’s probably their name.
What sort of message does the name give? Does it give any obvious message at all? Why do you think it was chosen?
All brands have a name and ideally it will be unique and memorable.
Some will be very personal and relate to the business founders – think John Lewis or Marks & Spencer.
Some will be descriptive and immediately get across the purpose of the business – Mothercare or PC World
Some will be more abstract – Apple or Innocent
Some will be completely unique – Pepsi or Unilever
Some will be aconyms – ASOS or IBM
There are no hard and fast rules with naming a brand, but it should be appropriate and ideally meaningful.
What do you think of next?
It’s very likely to be the logo.
How clearly can you picture it? Is it simple or complex? Could you draw it freehand?
What sort of feeling does it give you? Is it friendly and approachable or smart and authoritative? Does it give any clues as to what the brand does or what it stands for?
A logo is the face of the brand. It’s the main visual reference that consumers will use to tell one business apart from another.
Logo design is a huge topic and one that we’ll cover in another post, but fundamentally a logo must represent what the brand stands for. It doesn’t have to literally depict what the business does, but it should give the right impression. It should act like an introduction to the brand and set the consumer up so that they know what to expect.
It should be memorable and easy to interpret. Generally this means simple, clearly defined shapes rather than complex or detailed ones.
Now that you’ve got the logo in mind you’re probably very aware of the colours used.
What’s most prominent? How does it make you feel? Does the logo use lots of colours or just one or two?
The most memorable logos tend to use fewer colours (although there are always exceptions).
Generally the colours should be appropriate to the industry and the tone of the brand.
For example a logo for a financial services company that prides itself on it’s traditional values probably shouldn’t use shocking pink.
But a financial services start-up that’s trying to buck the trend and appeal to a younger audience could probably get away with it.
Within that logo there will probably be the brand name (although not always).
How does that look? Is it distinctive? What does it say about the brand? Are they serious or playful? Established or very new?
Typography can play a huge role in how a brand is perceived, but it’s something that many people overlook.
The shape and style of letterforms can speak volumes about a brand and a bad choice can give entirely the wrong message.
What other materials might that logo appear on?
Maybe a vehicle or an advert, a building or a product. How is it used? Is it very prominent or quite subtle?
Are there any other graphics or words along side it? Maybe there’s a tagline or some kind of pattern?
Does that help you to get a feel for what the brand is all about?
Additional graphics aren’t essential to a brand but they can be a huge help in adding meaning and setting the right tone. It’s a bit like the layers of sound in a musical score – too many could be confusing but just the right amount can lift the sound to a whole new level.
Likewise, taglines are optional. Some brands use them to help explain what they do or what they stand for.
All these things form the brands visual identity.
Now let’s say you wanted to interact with that brand. How would you do it?
In a shop, a website, over the phone?
What’s that experience like? Does it seem in-keeping with everything you’ve thought about so far?
Ideally the experience of dealing with the brand should reinforce all the experiences up to that point. This can be achieved by using appropriate imagery, colours, type and language.
Now imagine you’ve bought something from that brand.
What are their actual products or services like?
Are they as you expected? Or a little different?
What do your friends and family think of the brand?
Do they feel the same way you do? If not, does that make you doubt them or just more keen to support them?
So, in your mind you’ve bought a product or service from this brand and you’ve interacted with them. They’ll probably keep cropping up in your day to day life now – maybe on your twitter feed, TV ads or promotions in the post or by email.
How do they fit in with your expectations?
Do they strengthen or weaken how you already felt?
You can see from that quick exercise that there are lot of factors to consider when building a brand. All of them are connected and rely on the quality of the others.
So You Want to Build the Perfect Brand – Where Do You Start?
Should you start at the top and work and down? Design a cool logo, then put it on some materials and hope for the best?
Probably not.
To build a strong brand you need to start at the bottom. You need to decide what sort of brand you want to build and gradually add each layer.
You need a brand strategy. The visual elements – the logo and the colours – should all be informed by the brand, not the other way around.
We’ll go into details in other posts, but here are some step-by-step brand strategy basics:
- Set objectives for your brand – what do you want to achieve and by when?
- Work out what your brand stands for – define some brand values
- Uncover your brand’s personality
- Think about who you want to sell to – this should be a narrow ideal market
- Find out who your competitors are
- Get to grips with the real-life benefits that your products offer
- Work out what makes you unique – your USP
- Understand how your market looks and where you fit in
- Give your brand a voice that will resonate with its customers
Once you have all that worked out you can use it to inform the way the brand looks.
What Are Brand Guidelines?
With so much information to consider it’s useful to have everything stored in one place for easy reference.
Brand guidelines (also called identity guidelines, brand manuals or brand handbooks) are document that explain how the brand should look and sound. They may also go into the story of the brand to explain why decisions have been made.
They’ll usually show all the variations of the logo and how to use each one. There may be rules about placement or the amount of space around a logo (usually known as white space).
They’ll show the colour palette/s and list all the colour values for print and screen use.
They’ll show the typefaces that should be used and explain where and when to use them.
They may give an overview of the sort of language the brand should use.
There may be specific guidelines for different types of marketing material or the use of imagery.
Essentially, a brand handbook is the go-to guide. It’s easy to share with staff and external contractors and ensures that the brand image is always consistent. Which leads us neatly on to…
What is Brand Consistency?
Bring to mind a close friend or family member – someone you know quite well and see regularly.
You might not be able to put it into words, but you’ll have a pretty good idea of what makes them, them.
Now imagine this person suddenly, with no explanation, starts acting differently somehow. Maybe every time you saw them they spoke with a different accent or completely changed their hairstyle every week.
You would obviously still know that it was them, but you’d be a bit suspicious. You’d probably have some questions.
What if they had a complete U-turn on something that had always been important to them? Unless there was a good reason and they explained it clearly to you, you’d be confused.
It’s no different with brands. Our experience of brands is actually very similar to that of people. We get to know them, we like them or dislike them based on how they line up with our values. When things change unexpectedly it throws us off.
If you’re managing a brand it’s vital that you maintain consistency. That means keeping to the right look, the right language and the right behaviour. It doesn’t have to be completely rigid – you can make changes – but they should always be appropriate.
‘On-brand’ if you want the industry jargon.
Your brand exists on a spectrum and as long as it stays in its own area of that spectrum and doesn’t suddenly lurch to one end or the other you should be fine.
It sounds easy enough, and for most small businesses it is as long as you’re paying attention.
One of the most common ways for brands to lose their consistency is in customer service and aftercare. Especially if you employ staff to run this area of your business. You might understand your brand inside out but do they? Do they know what sort of language and tone they should be using and why? Or are they just guessing?
Always make sure your staff – and any third party contractors – are on-board and well informed.
Do Small Businesses Need to Worry About Branding?
Maybe you’ve been reading this and you’re thinking “That’s all well and good, but my business is tiny – I don’t need to worry about branding.”
The truth is, branding is even more important to small businesses.
You don’t have big budgets and fancy marketing materials to hide behind.
If you’re short of customers you probably can’t just throw money at the problem, you need to connect with people – quickly and effectively.
You also need ways to stand out from the bigger companies – some of whom could well be your competitors.
You might only be small, but your products and services still need to look credible, professional and of value.
If you’re uncomfortable with the term branding, just think of it in terms of your reputation instead. Would you work hard to protect your reputation or just leave it all to chance?
The good news is that as a small business you have something that your larger competitors probably don’t – a close relationship with your customers. You might well deal with them directly yourself which makes it much easier to work out what they want and keep them happy – something big business’s have to pay out for.
Do Start-ups Need to Worry About Branding?
The same can be said of start-ups. I’ve had enquiries from plenty of start-ups who “just need a simple logo – nothing fancy. We’re just a start-up – we don’t need a brand”.
If you’re thinking of starting a business you’ve probably put quite a bit of effort in already. You’ve likely had to write a business plan and source some funding. You’ve probably put a huge amount of effort into perfecting your products or services.
Even if your business evolves quickly – which it could well do – you’ll be in a stronger position and far more able to connect with customers if you plan out your brand and invest in a visual identity that has some genuine meaning.
After all – if you’re a new face on the scene you need all the help you can get to stand out and be noticed.
What Do I Actually Need to Launch a Brand?
By now you should have a pretty good picture of how much work goes into a building a brand. But what does your business actually need?
Every business is different, so it’s difficult to be specific about what branded materials you might need for your brand. There are some essentials though:
Every brand will need:
- A visual identity – this is how your brand looks. It includes at least your logo, your colours and your typeface.
- A brand strategy of some kind – this doesn’t have to be a huge brand manual, but you should have some things planned out and recorded.
- At least: objectives, brand values, your brand personality, your products benefits, your target audience, your key competitors, your place in the market.
You’ll also need some things to show or give people. Typically at least:
- A business card.
- An online presence – a carefully managed social media account at the very least – but ideally a website.
To get the most out of your brand you might also need:
- Alternative versions of your logo for different uses (small/large, digital/print etc)
- A wider colour palette – even secondary palettes
- A range of complimentary typefaces for various uses
- Some supporting graphics or treatments – maybe patterns, textures or other imagery.
- Some guidelines covering the sort of photographic imagery you should use.
- A brand manual or detailed brand guidelines
- A range of printed marketing materials – adverts, brochures, leaflets, exhibition materials, vehicle livery, uniforms, signage.
- Digital assets – website, app, social media accounts, adverts, presentation templates
The important thing is to make sure you have just the right set of materials for your brand – every brand is unique so there’s no one size fits all solution.
How to Get Help With Branding
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed when you first start to think about branding a business – there’s an awful lot to think about.
Here are some great online branding resources:
The Beginner’s Guide to Branding ~ Creative Market
Developing your USP: A step-by-step guide | MarketingDonut
How to Build a Brand That Attracts Die-Hard Followers – Entrepreneur
We also have some free branding guides on our own resource pages:
Before we finish here’s a quick summary.
Branding is about far more than just your logo or your marketing materials. It’s every interaction you have with the outside world. Brands are only ever as strong as their perception in the minds of the people they interact with. So unless you have superhuman mind control powers the only way to ensure that you find that holy grail of brand success – when your idea of your brand matches up perfectly with your customers – is to put the work in and build your brand from the ground up.
If you have any questions about how to brand your company we’d love to hear from you. And of course if you’d like to add any of your own ideas about defining your brand or what branding means to you, you’re welcome to leave a comment below.
