BRAND v BRANDING
UNDERSTAND THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN
YOUR BRAND AND YOUR BRANDING
Do you know the difference between your brand and your branding?
If the answer is ’no’, don’t beat yourself up. There are many within our industry that don’t seem to either. We have lost count of the amount of websites we have visited where someone is offering to design your brand. Brands can’t be designed. They can be created, extracted or defined, but not designed.
Here’s our attempt at distinguishing between your brand and your branding.
Your Brand
Your brand isn’t the nice logo and pretty colours that the term is often, incorrectly, associated with. A brand is about creating a personality for your business.
Your brand should become part of the DNA of your business. It should be present in everything you do. From your brand identity to the way you answer the phone. From the stories you tell on your website, in brochures and tweets, to how you deal with a complaint.
Creating a successful brand is about creating an emotional connection with your consumer. This is done by defining what your brand is. The values, personality and stories the brand lives by.
But your brand is more than what you think and say. Your brand is also what others think and say about you.
It is only once your business has a personality that customers can decide whether or not they like it. If your business can portray a personality that complements theirs, they might just let you become their friend.
Scientists back this theory up. The latest catchphrase in the pursuit of getting ‘buy in’ from your target audience is ‘neuromarketing’. Over the last decade or so, neuroscience research has shown that emotions play a much more important role in decision making than most people have thought.
Our brains process much of their sensory input subconsciously, generating affection toward or against objects. Signals that don’t generate positive or negative emotions are filtered out (seen as unimportant) and never reach our conscious mind.
So, for your brand to get attention, it has to trigger an emotion.
Your Branding
Your branding is the visual side of creating a brand.
This is the brand identity, which includes the logo, colours, typefaces and imagery your brand uses to tell your brand story. Branding is the tone of voice you use in your communications. Branding is everything you do that your customers will see.
These all need to complement the brand and be consistently used.
Branding consistency has one huge advantage – recognition. With recognition comes familiarity. With familiarity comes trust and confidence.
Do you have a brand?
So, now that you have a better understanding of the difference between your brand and your branding, can I ask you one question? Do you have a brand?
If you are starting a business, our 1-2-1 BRAND CREATION PACKAGE can help you create a brand for your business.
“Giles has helped us to think strategically about our marketing. He forces us to seriously evaluate who we are as company and how we communicate that to customers.”
A.A
“Giles’ ideas and design skill will add worth to any organisation that seeks to go through a similar project to the one that we undertook.”
D.R.
“Working with Giles has allowed me firstly to better understand what it is we do for our clients but also to then convey that in a much clearer and more powerful fashion.”
J.B.
“Working with Giles has definitely allowed us to improve and broaden the way that we communicate our messages.”
C.G.
“Giles has helped us to explore all aspects of our business and we now have a clear brand identity and path for the future. He has a way of pinpointing the important elements and putting them across in a concise and easy to understand manner.”
T.W.
“We were impressed by how quickly Giles grasped the nature of our business. He has a good grasp of what we are actually looking for, even when we ourselves are uncertain.”
P.R.
“We have created the brand in record time after the merger of all these disparate companies and we are punching way above our weight.”
I.D.
“I’ve now worked with Giles on the launch of three businesses. The main reason being that Giles is not only a creative force to be reckoned with but unusually for a creative brings commercial nous.”
P.D.
“Giles not only works with you to draw out and improve your brand, but the attention to detail and commitment I found inspirational and even now with my brand well and truly on the map I still feel his support and commitment.”
J.B.
“I really feel clearer about the direction of the business going forward.”
L.H.
“Giles has been instrumental in helping me plan the next part of my journey to market. When I needed to identify the real value we were offering to both sides of our marketplace his work allowed me to articulate the benefits of my business to my target audiences, in plain language.”
A.H.
“I worked with Giles on a branding project for a local small business. Giles literally walked the business owners through the branding process, they felt involved and empowered, and the process re-ignited their passion for their business.”
H.G.
“Giles’ knowledge of branding and its impact on business is exceptional. His advice would be an asset to any business.”
M.H.
“Giles uses his experience at some of the world’s biggest advertising agencies and applies it in a small-business, intimate setting.”
A.M.
“I have worked with Giles as his client several times in my career and I find him to be strategically imaginative and purposeful in all his efforts. I would have no hesitation in working with him again or recommend him to anyone requiring a clear direction for their company.”
B.T.
“Giles helped us with our initial branding. The branding was clear, imaginative and effective and many people have commented on this work.”
A.H.
Giles came up with excellent and imaginative ideas. I’d recommend Giles for his professionalism and depth of experience.”
E.B.
“I really enjoy working with Giles. A thorough professional with business acumen made exceptional by his creativity. He is completely client focused in his search for original and effective solutions.”
J.R.
“I would work with Giles again in a heart beat. Giles is an inherently strategic creative. He could concept his way out of any problem. I highly recommend Giles for any assignment – he’ll give it his all.”
J.Y.
“Giles really has an amazing knack for peeling the onion layers back in search of the perfect creative concept – no matter how challenging. He’s someone you definitely want on your side.”
B.H.
“I would work with Giles again in a heart beat. Giles is an inherently strategic creative. He could concept his way out of any problem. I highly recommend Giles for any assignment - he’ll give it his all.”
J.Y. - Marketing