What Really is Branding?

If your immediate reaction was something about a logo, you’re not wrong.

Short answer: Branding is your company’s identity. It is the comprehensive impression the public has of your company and how they recognize you. Your logo is a big part of that along with your color palette and fonts. But it isn’t all visual.

What Is Branding?

Your overall tone and impression are part of your branding just as much as your logo and brand colors. In fact, who you show yourself to be in your overall content and tone can be more impactful than a couple of carefully placed blue boxes here and taupe patterning there.

The right branding can evoke key emotions and responses in potential customers. While colors can create the feeling of trust and confidence, tone can build familiarity and experience.

Let’s consider Wendy’s for a moment. Is the Wendy’s logo more impactful or is it their tweets when it comes to establishing the brand?

Those bright red pigtails are synonymous with burgers, fries, and a good ol’ fashioned Frostee. And yet, those snarky tweets symbolize a cool, edgy company that is ready for the modern era.

What Branding Isn’t.

Well, it isn’t something to be left to its own devices and it shouldn’t be left to the backburner either. But most of all, branding – as an all-encompassing compost bin of buzzy terminology – is not a solution to a business’s success or struggles. It’s part of the puzzle, for sure, but a big rebrand will not be the answer to any sales team’s prayers.

Branding is meant to enhance the relationship between a company and its customer. To be a bridge for both to meet each other at the starting line.

The Heavy Reliance on Branding

As a marketing firm that specializes in branding – from design to content and everything in between – we have seen our fair share of those who have placed a heavy reliance on branding. Often, people can approach buzz terminology – especially in the marketing world – as mystical concepts that can resolve any persistent issues and bring an ROI close to that of a winning Powerball ticket.

If only.

The key takeaway here is that branding is vital for a healthy business, but it is also what you make of it that matters most. It’s a long game that is cultivated over time in line with a robust marketing and sales strategy. All aspects tie together – from logo, colors and fonts to content and messaging as well as opportunity for engagement and relationship building.

If this all sounds even more confusing than when you first started reading this blog, give us a call today. We can wax poetic about branding all while designing you something truly you.