A couple of weeks ago I was at a local networking event. While introducing myself to an attendee, the gentleman came back to me with a question, which is, “What is branding?” He said, “Is that like logo design?”
It’s weird, ‘but I get asked this question quite a lot. People say, “Oh, so is that logo design or graphic design?” So I thought I’d answer the question that, first, no, branding is not logo design. Branding and logo design are two very, very different things. Your logo design is just one aspect of your branding.
A lot of people think that branding is just the business image, that it’s purely just your logo, your marketing etc. But it’s not just how your business presents itself from an image perspective, it’s also how it communicates. It’s then how every single person in your business communicates. So if you think about your business and think about every single touchpoint that somebody has to connect with your business, each one is an opportunity for your brand to either do well or not do well and for me, it is definitely something that I think, business owners often overlook.
Especially in the area of customer service and customer relations. The number of brands that I go into, maybe on the surface they look really great, they’ve fantastic branding, fantastic look and feel, but then you walk into their shop and you get treated like, basically, crap. That is branding.
Why spend all that money having this great branding, great look and feel, only to have the people in your shop not flying the flag for your business. And if that person then doesn’t carry through and doesn’t represent your brand in the right way, then it’s just a missed opportunity.
While people may look at that person and just see one person, every person is a network. Every person then knows lots of other people. I’m sure a lot of people already know how important word of mouth is in business, and this is where your branding and word of mouth can really, really make or break your business and your brand. And if like I say, on the surface you go to this length of having these really great brand values and you make a brand promise, but then you don’t deliver on that brand promise, that is an impact on your branding.
Oh yes, and I nearly forgot, a book that I highly recommend that you read. The book’s called “The E-Myth” by Michael Gerber, which, I think I have a copy here. It has some really great insights and ideas about what branding is, you’ll find a couple of really great stories in it about how important branding is as part of the customer journey.
He tells a story, about how he went into a barbershop and the first time he went into the barbershop he had a great experience, he was offered tea and coffee and the whole thing was a really great experience. And then a couple of months later he went back to that same shop, and the second time he went into the shop, the haircut and whatever was fine, but he didn’t get asked for coffee, the person wasn’t as tentative as last time. But he thought he’d give them the benefit of the doubt, and then the third time that he went back, the experience was worse than the second time.
And he talks about, that most people naturally have this kind of “three strikes and you’re out” process. So your first experience with that brand is really, really great. Obviously, the first thing you want to do is you want to go back and tell everyone, right? And if then you go back to that same place a second time and your second experience wasn’t as good as the first experience, you kind of feel a little bit let down. And in the back of your mind, you’re then thinking, “Mm, maybe I’ll give them, maybe give them one more go.” And if the third time, the experience isn’t as good as the second or the first time, then you’ve kind of had it? You’ve lost the things. And I think given the fact there’s so much competition out there, that these are really, really important things: making sure that you know all the different parts of your branding, and your branding really communicates and really is consistent across all the different things. That is what the difference between logo design and branding. Branding is everything. It’s basically everything.
Thanks for reading, why not leave a comment below and I’d love to know what you think branding is.