What a brand is not, is a logo… we’ve said this to hundreds of people over the years. Nor is it any kind of brand mark. Logos, slogans and graphic design motifs, while expressions of branding, are essentially marketing tools. They form a part of your brand identity, yet they are not, in themselves, your brand.
Think of bottled water — whichever brand you buy, the taste is pretty much the same, yet the style, price and messaging used to sell different bottles of water vary hugely. The water itself is only part of what you’re buying.
Brand, really, is more of a feeling — one that arises from a reputational promise, which should be cultivated through consistent delivery on your company’s core mission and values. If a brand is the perceived feeling of the product you want to sell, then the first half of branding is deciding what you want that feeling to be, and the second half is the strategy employed to create that feeling. As Bezos would say, “your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room.”
Great branding goes beyond tokenism and finds something deeper, a core value that is shared by a company and its audience, and entrenches it in everything it does. Take powerful challengers like Lush and Whole Foods, who evoke a strong sense of their purpose with the mere mention of their name.
Brands all begin with a shared vision. At early stage startups, this originates from the founder themselves. Doing it authentically means being so engrossed in your niche you’re capable of representing a solution for your audience.
The driving force of much of our behaviour is our sense of self — our identity and the community we see ourselves thriving within. A powerful central mission unifies and encourages communal cooperation. But establishing staying power does not mean staying the same. Much like the human experience, a brand must be open to evolution.
Remember, your brand isn’t so much a marketing asset, but a thought, a feeling — comprising your integral values, and culminating in the promise you provide to your audience.
