Women & Design // Guest Writer
We are surrounded by brands. They have a huge influence on the world around us. They help shape and form our opinions, bringing out our emotions that are very important in shaping our opinions and views. But how are brands built? Oh, and more importantly, what is a brand?
What is a brand?
A brand goes into the very essence of your company. It's what makes you different and it's what makes people remember you. This article will look at different aspects of branding, as an industry, and how it’s relevant to you. With the growing awareness and the number of startups emerging every day, we all have some interaction with the term ‘branding’, but do we really understand it? Whatever your answer to this question is, we all can learn more about branding, how it works as an industry, and why it is relevant to you. So, what is branding really?
A brand is one of the most important things that a business can have. Basically, it is all that tells people who you are, what you do, and why you do it. Many people don't understand this. They think that a brand is just a logo and some colors, but a brand is more than just that. One of my favorite reads, The Brand Gap, by Marty Neumeier, defines a brand as “a person's gut feeling about a product, service, or organization.” By this definition, if a brand (as a noun) is people’s gut feeling, then branding (as a verb) is the act of influencing their gut feeling.
Branding is the invisible hand that controls your brand's ambassadorship.
Branding as an Industry
Branding has grown from being a practice of the elites to a necessity in an ever-competitive marketplace. In the business world, a brand stands for your products, services, and how your customers perceive your organization. Doing effective branding is critical for your business to flourish in the digital world.
Branding as an industry is growing at a very rapid rate, with many new brands starting up. Brands are important in the growth of a business, but many companies are not sure of the best way to effectively brand themselves.
Unlock the Power of Branding ( aka why it’s relevant)
As Andrew Beattie writes, “The power of branding can help a company triumph in a price war, thrive in a recession, or simply grow operating margins and create shareholder value.” Along with that, branding can be favourable to a company’s employees, bringing a personalized human touch, and signifying purpose.
A good branding strategy can change the course of the entire company’s lifeline. If you’re not investing in branding, not only are you cutting short its source of oxygen but, simply put, are also directly losing potential customers. Branding allows you, as a brand, to take a seat at the table. It’s important, now more than ever, in a world built on capitalism. A world where convincing the audience(s) of your own worth is more important than goodwill. It asks you to challenge yourself, to identify yourself, to prove yourself, and to ascertain yourself as an entity of value that has the ability to hold itself in a sea of many.
To let others perceive you as a brand and mould their vision on a singular wavelength via a strategic approach so they are in line with the way the brand wants to be perceived, is the magic of branding.
Branding helps the stakeholders and the customers to better trust you, it makes it easier for them to look at the brand as an entity in itself, one that has its own personality and values; and the more familiarised the people get to it the more they start to understand and value its (your) vision, allowing you and them to form a mutual trust that is mutually beneficial and respectful - a healthy relationship in a world of individualism and indifference.
Moreover, a signature style to go along with your identity as a brand helps the audience/customers to notice and pick you over a business that doesn’t hold the quality of attentive branding.
By creating a distinctive logo, memorable communication, and attractive visual elements, the business dives into the competitive market, while having the distinctive element of standing out via branding.
This might seem obvious, but is one of the foremost points of relevance for anyone in the branding industry. As more and more people start to recognise your business, the more successful your branding gets - ultimately being one of the sole reasons to be responsible for communicating with the world - directly, metaphorically, and indirectly.
Author : Aashita Gupta
Edited by : Dhruti Soni
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With 🧡 Team WID.