Brand and Branding are two very different things.
We're in the business of building brands and for as long as I can remember, brand and branding are often referred to as two of the same - when in actual fact, that couldn’t be further from the truth. We aren't helping with the confusion as we often find ourselves referring to it as personal branding, not because we're in the design business but purely because the term is more widely used and it's also what people are searching for online - but there is a difference.
Your brand decides your identity in the market – who you are, what you do and how you are perceived. Brand is your reputation and the feelings that people associate with you or your business.
Brand is an emotion - it's how you leave a customer or client feeling when they do business with you. It’s the words they use to describe you or your business to friends, family and colleagues.
Branding is only one element of building a successful brand but it's a vital one in making you memorable
Think of it like choosing a book. As much as anyone says that they don't judge a book by it's cover, this can’t be the case, at least not initially - unless it has amazing reviews and personal recommendations from others who have already read it. The cover is what is going to catch your eye and make you take notice. The cover is what is going to make you pick it up to find out more. That’s the branding part. Once you start reading the book, you get a feel for the story and you recommend it to your friends - that’s the brand.
Think of all the brands you know where you can remember the logo, the packaging, the colours they use - that's branding.
I bet you can also remember how you felt when you dealt with that brand and experienced feeling valued (or not!) Do you recall that time someone was delivering a service that exceeded your expectations, where you left feeling energised and amazed at how much value you gained from the experience - that’s brand.
Our expertise sits firmly in the Brand Camp (this one time at Brand Camp!) and although we fully understand that branding is more than just a logo, when we knew that we needed a logo for Brandable & Co it was time to find a designer to give us a helping hand with our branding.
When we think designers, we think 99designs - so that's where we headed. We'll be sharing the entire process with you so you can see how our logo design evolved to be what you see today.
We can't promise that we won't continue to use personal branding as a term but hopefully this has gone some way towards explaining the difference.
Author: Sallee Poinsette-Nash
Founder, Brand Builder & Humanness Consultant
If you're looking for help with design and aesthetics, 99designs is the place to be!