The Difference Between Brand, Branding And A Visual Brand
One goal, three different services.
Prior to the last 6 years working as a visual brand strategist, I was employed as a graphic designer for 16 years. And one of the things I observed in the last 6 years working for myself is that people (clients and industry people) don’t understand the difference between a brand, branding and a visual brand. They tend to use these words interchangeably and yet, they aren’t speaking about the same thing.
I believe the road connecting clients who feel like they’re paying for art work that doesn’t work and the providers who drawback on being paid for an outcome in one sense goes through here.
Now I have noticed a shift happening amongst a select few who take their craft seriously trying to redefine what they do and subsequently move away from the local graphic design stigma — no shade to graphic designers. But as you grow in your craft, eventually you do recognize that the gist of what you do goes deeper than the superficial. And this is a good thing for the creative industry and its prospective clients as this was none existent 6 years ago.
I will never forget the feeling of underwhelm searching the local online space in 2017 for advice on how to present my creative services. No one was speaking about your ideal client, positioning, or even standing out. And although I didn’t have this language myself, I knew what I was seeing wasn’t cutting it and that led me to look outside for answers. Six years later, different ones noticing a variety of pitfalls in the creative industry are trying to bring more value to the table. But to me, it isn’t focused and deep enough because people are still confused about the type of service they need.
So I’ll start by saying that the branding process is divided into three phases:
- Research: the gathering and analyzing of information
- Strategy: the plan for getting you seen, heard and paid over everyone else doing what you do
- Design: logo, business cards, website, etc.
That said
When You Need A Brand…
You are looking for someone who can help you identify what your clients feel about your services and why.
A brand is not branding, it’s not marketing, your reputation or your business. It’s the emotional connection your purchasing public has with your services and that connection is birthed from the experience they can expect to receive every single time they interact with your services.
All too often, business owners fail to give promises they don’t keep in their normal daily lives the attention it deserves. It's easy to fall into the trap of believing these aren’t signs that forecast what it's like to work with you. But if you’ve placed me under expectation for something you didn’t deliver on or called to update me on, chances are this is exactly what it’s like to work with you and now I’m turned off.
Remember when we see, hear, touch, or smell the world around us, we instantly interpret it, assign meaning and by extension that creates a feeling inside.
When You Need Branding…
You are looking for someone who can help you represent that emotional relationship between your clients and your services in a verbal and visual way to the outside world.
So branding is not brand but the expression of brand through your ideal client, core values, USP (unique selling point), brand voice and messaging, processes, intensives, vision and mission statement, brand promise and visual identity.
Just like one of those electrical industrial wires, branding consists of multiple threads working together to strengthen/ reinforce the brand.
If you’ve ever had a client tell you that an article you wrote helped them self-identify with needing your help/services, please be advised that you‘ve found a thread in your brand. These are the gems many local business owners ignore by choosing to focus on the frequency of their posts and how large their community is instead of the key messages that shape the perception of their brand.
When You Need Visual Branding…
You are looking for someone to design your logo, letterhead, business card (or as we say in Trinidad and Tobago, call card), brochure, billboard, website, labels, content, etc.
Unfortunately, design won’t be the thing that adds value to your brand and by extension gets you clients because it’s the brand that does that. So if for example, you’re like my last client PhastraqVFX who produces motion graphic content for global established brands, brand guidelines matter.
What does your brand look and sound like? Who is it speaking to? Locally, people come for a label designed, for example, absent this document… ready to jump on Google, Facebook, or Instagram to market their services. To say what!? I don’t know.
Who Doesn’t Want Packaging Like HÄAGEN-DAZS?
Taste-buds personified so much that the price is of little importance to me and a few people I know. But people buy HÄAGEN-DAZS for the fresh flavors they use in their ice cream, not because of the packaging. Hopefully today everyone (prospects and creatives) can now see why your brand isn’t your label, logo, or any other design you can think of and that there’s a ton of more important work which needs to happen before the visual part even takes place.
In addition, I hope this article will also help prospects do their due diligence when seeking creative services locally, and creatives (in their respective spaces) will start exploring the possibility of being paid for an outcome.
Listen to 1 take away from this article below:
If you‘re looking for someone who can specifically merge branding for small service businesses, communication, and design strategy, reach out to TheBrandTUB
Here are three articles below you can read alongside this one
