How to explain branding to business folk

Everyone heard the word Branding by now, but a lot of people have a different idea of what it means. Some think it’s the visual design of a company or a different word for communication, but most just don’t have a clear idea at all. Heck, even Wikipedia has a rather vague definition for it:

A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that identifies
one seller’s good or service as distinct from those of other sellers. Wikipedia

To make matters worse, there’s somewhat multi-interpretable jargon like brand identity, brand strategy, brand-guide, rebranding, etc. Sadly, I quite regularly hear businesses & clients wondering things like:

‘Do we need a brand strategy, can’t we just have designs?’
‘Can we just set up marketing instead of branding?’
‘Isn’t a logo the brand identity?’
‘Can we use Comic Sans?’

And yes, this is real-life footage of me. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° )

Here’s the simple magic trick that’ll help 🪄

Explain ‘Branding’ as ‘Reputation’ instead.

Wait… whut?

Everyone automatically has opinions & thoughts about you. They associate you with certain traits, skills, looks, values, etc. Different people have slightly different views on this, but overall there is most likely a big overlap in how you’re viewed. Everything you do slightly affects this, whether this is dyeing your hair blue, talking differently, hanging out with different people, etc. Even if you are stoic and never change, that also tells something about you and how you‘ll be perceived. It all defines your ‘reputation’.

Now, the exact same goes for a business and its ‘reputation’. From the moment it’s founded, it has one. Whether you like it or not. You can’t fully dictate your ‘reputation’ because it’s defined by how others see you. Just because you don’t put effort into your ‘reputation’, doesn’t mean you don’t have one. It just means it’s unguided and undefined for now. However, you can steer it in the direction of how you want to be perceived.

Let’s break this down, shall we? 🔨

🎯 Your ‘reputation’ strategy defines how you would like to be perceived, what you’d like to be known for, who you’ll be talking to, what makes you different from others, what your characteristic traits are, how you talk, what you core values are, how you view the world, what your mission & vision in life is and how you want to achieve it. Finding a fitting name can even be part of this as well.

👨‍🎤 Your ‘reputation’ identity specifically defines how you look & speak. Are you gonna have blue or blonde hair? Are you a punk or a business man? Are you whimsical when you talk or are you more a serious professor type? What does your face (the logo) look like? This should be in line with the reputation strategy or it‘ll feel disconnected. If you want to be seen as a businessman but you’re wearing a clown-outfit and talk like a pirate, you can imagine not being taken serious (Unless you want to be some very bold disruptor). But you also don’t want to talk exactly the same as everyone else or you won’t stand out.

📖 Your ‘reputation’ guide summarises the above! Unlike a style-guide, which is essentially a chapter of the brand guide that only serves to inform about how to use typography, colours, imagery, etc., a brand guide is meant for everyone to have a clear understanding of the entire business.

🦄 Your ‘reputation’ is how you’re perceived, based on everything you do.

Unlike stubborn humans, who are born with certain predefined traits, a business ‘reputation’ can be shaped & moulded to be whatever you want it to be. Defining it doesn’t mean you can’t change anything about it over time by the way, as long as the essence stays the same. A ‘reputation’ is a living thing that slightly changes constantly. If you make any big alterations to your ‘reputation’ strategy, you might also also get a ‘new outfit’ (changing visual identity), a ‘facelift’ (new logo) or even an adjusted way of talking (tone of voice) This is called rebranding, i.e redefining what reputation you’d like to have and how you want to be perceived.

Lé grand reveal ✨

Re-read it and change the word Reputation back to Brand. You suddenly understand branding, miraculously! I’m proud of you, you deserve a Well Done sticker.

(P.s, yes, this counts for both business- and personal brands.)

Bonus segment — real world scenarios! 🎁

You’re a designer or had to face one? Then these might sound familiar:

We’re a hip new start-up, can you just create a logo for us?!
If we look at the breakdown, it hopefully makes sense that this is a rather silly request. A logo is just the face of your business, and only one of the elements needed in a brand identity. Without any kind of brand strategy, it simply doesn’t make much sense to create this already.

We already have a logo but now we need a website. Can you make it?!
Some people think having a logo is already enough to get started on a website. The same as with a logo, what’s your strategy? Is it clear who you’re targeting? What’s your overall brand identity? And what about your tone of voice for your texts? Thinking you can use self-written texts and steal some pictures from Google to figure out all of this on the spot will backfire hard.

We need rebranding!
Are you sure? A lot of people tend to use this to indicate that they want to refresh their brand identity, nothing more. While this can be a choice, do make sure that the strategy still aligns to it, or it’ll become a disconnect.

Pfff, I don’t wanna pay for brand strategy, it’s overrated!
So is your business idea. Nowadays, there’s very few ideas and services that aren’t explored by others as wells. What makes you so special? If you’re able to communicate & show your differentiation clearly, customers will follow. How do you do that? That’s right, with some strategy. (ps, a good strategy means you can charge a premium, earning back your investment quickly.)

We want to have the best brand in the world tomorrow!
I want to lay golden eggs too, but sadly it hasn’t happened yet. As with any reputation, it takes time. Branding is a long-term game, you can’t become a Nike or Apple overnight. That would be like slapping a lab-coat onto a baby and expecting people to view you as an instant authority.

Did this article help you understand branding a bit more?
Let me know, happy to hear your thoughts on this! 👏