What Exactly is Branding?

Most think branding is your logo, and anything you can slap it on. Sure - free things are great! However, branding is a lot more than bribing people to pay attention to your company by handing out that cool flash drive or awesome coffee mug.

Branding is the personality of your business.

A brand should have a certain look, feel and swagger. This “brand personality” should create a relationship that effectively communicates either a particular message or idea that will resonate with the correct audience.

Take Targets popular brand for example. Two separate campaigns, but each campaign still feels like Target. Now, what’s similar between the two? Let’s analyze the two examples below. For starters: consistent logo treatment,  unwavering color, a very steady tone of voice, and similar feeling to both campaigns. Each campaign is intriguing and fun visually while maintaining a tone of voice that is fun and hip. Messages like these speak loudly to the audiences that usually frequent Target. This fun and hip personality is the face and “brand” of Target. Targets consistency with their brand has created a relationship with most of their audience, that has effectively communicated Targets personality and this purposefully resonates with the viewer.

This successful “brand relationship” has resulted in trust and loyalty to the Target brand. A lot of the times when people want to shop at a place a bit cooler than Wal-Mart they choose Target. Why? Because Targets consistent brand has led people to believe that Target is cooler than the rest. This idea of selling something more than just the name, is branding. This overall goal can only be achieved through consistency. So, the next time you’re thinking about slapping your logo on a coffee mug or any other random piece of fluff, look at the big picture. Is this “crazy key chain,” really showing off your business’s personality?

Photos courtesy of Flickr.com

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