Brand vs Branding: What's the difference?
(7 minute read)
Before we begin, there is one common misconception we need to get out of the way — neither your ‘brand’ nor your ‘branding’ can be simply defined by your logo.
There are many articles that talk about brand and branding as one and the same. It’s a common misconception. Here, we’ll get to the bottom of the brand vs. branding debate.
Your branding is what you put out into the world, your tone of voice, your messaging and your visual identity, each of which stem from your brand – who you are and how you do what you do.
Your branding involves positioning your company or product uniquely and memorably in the market, devising brand strategy to reach your goals, developing a consistent visual identity and brand message.
There is tendency to jump into the branding stage before a clear brand story has been established, simply because a logo is the exciting, most obvious bit. It’s crucial that business owners and marketers understand that you cannot start branding a product or service without having a clear, well-understood brand already in place.
What is brand?
Simply put, your brand is the instant reaction someone has when your business is mentioned.
In more detail…
Story:
“Every great design begins with an even better story.” — Lorinda Mamo
Your brand often stems from the reason you went into business in the first place.
The change you wanted to make. The purpose of your product or service – the reason you started your business – plays a strong part in defining who you are as a company.
Stories are powerful. And every strong, recognisable brand has a story behind it. Ralph Lauren’s son David explains why he’s proud to wear Ralph Lauren clothing:
Vision
Your brand is the vision of your business. It’s the promise you keep as an organisation and the core idea behind everything you do. It’s what you want to achieve as a business, which again comes back to the ‘why’.
A great example is Patagonia’s mission statement: “Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.”
Your vision is not your sales objectives, your growth forecasts or your profit targets. Your vision runs deeper than the figures: it’s the reason that you as a business owner would do what you do even if it made you no money at all.
Action
Your brand is how you are going to achieve your vision.
Each action you take will play a part in defining your business brand. For example, if you’re Patagonia you’re not going to protect the planet if you hire those who don’t care about it.
You therefore need to think about your hiring process and how you will go about finding people that align with your vision and purpose.
How to build a brand that matters >
Simon Sinek’s TED Talk on how great leaders inspire action is definitely worth a listen if you’re ready to start building your brand:
Simon also talks about what he calls ‘The Golden Circle’, a theory that represents how businesses should think about their brand if they want it to be a success.
Action is the ‘how’.
Do you act with integrity? Do you put your customers first? What will you be remembered for?
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, your brand is what others say about your business when you’re not around and the emotions they feel when they do so.
“At the end of the day people won’t remember what you said or did, they will remember how you made them feel.” — Maya Angelou
Again, take Patagonia as an example. Their brand is most simply defined by three words: quality, people, ethics. The exact qualities we associate with the brand as a consumer.
It’s no good saying that you look after your people if there are reviews on the internet saying that you don’t. You will be branded as a bad employer by customers and potential employees and that can be hard to undo.
“It’s not what you say it is. It’s what they say it is.” — Marty Neumeier, author of The Brand Gap
What is branding?
Your branding is what you put into the world, your tone of voice, your messaging and your visual identity, each of which stem from your brand – who you are and how you do what you do.
An important part of your branding is your visual identity.
Your visual identity, when done well, will make your brand instantly recognisable without your logo needing to make an appearance.
For example, which brand springs to mind when you see this?
Your branding can include:
Your logo
Your typography
Your colour palette
Your graphics
Your website
Your marketing collateral (letter heads, etc)
Your visual style (photography + video)
Tone of voice
Messaging
Your branding is not your marketing. When your brand and your branding are brought together with strategy, purpose and creativity, that’s your marketing.
The word brand comes from the Old Norse word “brandr”, meaning to burn, and is of Anglo-Saxon origin.
The use of brand has its roots in cattle ranching and farming, farmers used to brand their cattle in order to claim their ownership over a specific herd.
The word brand was first introduced to the world of advertising in the late 1950s, by David Ogilvy, who coined ‘brand-image’ advertising.
From then on brand and branding have come to mean very different things.
Your branding is the visual mark (the mark on the animal), your brand is what that mark represents (the quality of the meat).
Your visual identity may develop with time but your reason for being will typically stay the same.
Take Apple as an example. Tim Cook took over as CEO with his own ideas for the business and their visual identity has developed over the years but their brand – simply defined by ‘hip innovation’ – has always remained the DNA of the organisation.
Working out who you are as a business and what you stand for is not always easy. But, there is a process you can follow to work it out…
How to define your brand
The most obvious mistake is when a business notices that sales are dropping and so starts spending more money on branding rather than looking for the root cause of the problem, which is often a lack of brand understanding.
If your sales are dropping because your waiters/waitresses are being rude to customers and have no interest in your brand then no amount of good branding is going to change people’s opinion of your business.
This is when you need to go back and re-evaluate your internal brand and work out what it is that’s changed and why your values are not being echoed by your employees.
Questions to ask yourself to establish your brand:
Why does my company exist?
How did we get here? (What is our story?)
What is the problem we help our customers solve?
Why should our customers trust us over our competitors?
How would our employees describe us?
What tone of voice do we naturally use internally?
Once you’ve answered these, you are well on your way to knowing your brand. And, to make sure everyone involved in your business understands it, we recommend sharing some brand guidelines globally with your team.
Summary: How to create effective branding
This is a big topic in itself — but the most important thing is to know your brand well first.
Consider the way colour and shapes are associated with the emotions your brand represents.
How do you want your customers to feel when they come into contact with your brand?
Once you know the direction you’re heading in, chat to a branding expert who will be able to help you craft your branding in a natural way that speaks to your audience and echoes your brand.
