What is branding?

I see a lot of confusion and cloudiness around the word brand and branding. It often gets in the mind of business owners reduced to the visual cues your brand sends. Logo, colors, images, fonts.  Because the visual system that connects these to your brand are called brand identity. But they are not your brand. They are an very important part of it indeed but not the whole picture.

So what is brand and branding then?

As simple as it gets: Brand is the individual perception of your business.

Branding then is the conscious effort to shape that perception. That indeed includes visuals like a logo, design, typography and imagery. It also includes your voice and tone your marketing materials - website, ads, packaging, UI´s etc.

And what is its purpose?

Its purpose is to ensure a business will prevail successfully over time.

How does it do that?

By creating a entity that people want to be part of and are willing to sacrifice something for it. In the case of business: Money and their time and skills. Your brand is not exclusive to customer relations. It speaks to everyone who is in a transactional interaction with your business.

That means it has to provide a platform for identification. That means points of identification, of belonging need to be visible and the audience needs to be able to experience them. Ideally by buying into it.

That means they need to be clear.

What needs to be clear?

We answer that by looking at what gives us a sense of belonging and potential for identification. Humans are social beings. We want and need to be part of a group. A tribe. We see that in National identity, religion, in cultures and subcultures. In peer groups or in fandoms. All of these things give a common identity to people.

One thing in between: These things are not absolute. They shouldn’t be. What absolutism leads to is well documented. Too much of something good is still too much. It creates a rigid system that then is unable to develop and transform itself and become either irrelevant or has to try to suppress progress.

Back to the point.

What all of these things share is a vision and values that then dictate rules of behavior of that group. The vision is usually an infinite goal that is meant to be strived to not reached. In some groups the goal is not even clear. its more of a direction and many different interpretations exist. Like in religion or societies. If it gets reached or irrelevant it needs to be replaced with a different one. Without a vision we lack the drive to strive towards something. To play a infinite game we need a infinite goal. A vision.

The lack of absolutism and flexibility in striving towards these goals is what allows us at all to develop and change at all. That is the reason we can invent new things, discover and solve new problems.

How does this relate to business?

In conclusion to give the base for potential identification and belonging, your business - your brand - needs do make its vision, its mission ( how you intent to strive towards that vision ) and values clear and visible. And most importantly: live and act by them. What happens if you betray these in society, religion and business is also well documented. And as transparency is a given either by choice or force there is no way of hiding it.

Still, no absolutes. Not being able to stick to 100% of the time to your values is forgivable if it happens with a good reason - for example survival- or without the intention of betrayal. Of course it should be avoided as it will damage the reputation of your brand and it will move people away from you. But it will not be the end of the world, you just need to be aware your response to that crisis needs to help people trust you and your alignment to your values

Lets look at the purpose of a business for a moment

It is always a means to an end. It is always a enabler towards the mission of the customer. It is always a guide on their journey of fulfilling their needs and wants, no matter what these are. Help them solve a problem.

You and your solution to a problem are not unique to the problem. There are many different solutions either out there or coming into existence. It may be unique for a moment but others will learn from the mistakes you make as you have learned from the mistakes others made. The simple concept of progress. So going into the market with the best solution may be working until somebody gives a better solution and makes you irrelevant. Ideally you are always the better solution to a problem by innovating, but there is no way to always be on top of it all the time.

That is why building a brand is so important. For the business it is an insurance that customers stay with them through times a solution may be inferior, because they agree with what a brand stands for and align more with that then with a competitor and his visions. Also the inferiority can have many different forms and perceptions. It may be price it may be features it may be availability it is impossible to be aware of all of that and be perfect to anybody. Remember: no absolutes.

We also see brands with seemingly indifferent products or even inferior products strive because people love them. And what is love? A deep sense of belonging that allows to dissolve partly into something else. Being a customer of a certain brand is about signaling the belonging to something bigger, a group - a tribe, that what status brands are there for.  This has allowed many brands to exist beyond the lifetime of a CEO or of any other worker. They became culturally significant and people mourn when they disappear.

This leaves no other conclusion then that branding is not only a nice to have in business, it is a necessity. It is what transforms your product or service business into something bigger than this.