In the early phases of building a brand, it’s easy for organizations to get caught up in the misconception that their logo and their brand are interchangeable. They pour all their energy and resources into establishing that symbol of their visual identity, and then fall short on other brand elements that are equally important.
The fact is, your logo is just one component of your brand.
Your brand represents how people perceive your business — what they think and how they feel about your products or services. More than a name, a brand encompasses your identity, personality, values, and promises.
Your logo is a visual identifier of your brand. To be sure, it has an important job to do. Your logo is essential to building brand recognition. It differentiates you from the competition. It can offer clues to the services or products your organization offers. And most important, it can rally customer loyalty.
But there’s much more to building an effective brand, including:
- Verbal positioning — Your core values, promises to customers, and responsibilities to partners are part of your brand. Your verbal positioning is how you express these elements concisely and consistently.
- Visual style — Your visual style is a consistent look and feel — in images, colors, typography, and other graphic elements — that signal to your audience they’re engaging with your unique brand.
- Ability to execute — So you have a solid plan for crafting your brand identity, but what about rolling it out? Good brands are backed by a comprehensive, consistent strategy for sharing material and content in a measurable way.
- Experiential elements – We don’t build an affinity for brands based on visual elements alone. Superior customer service, facilities, product quality, and interactions across mediums all influence how clients react to and engage with your brand.
- Long-term strategy — Strong brands aren’t built on a hunch. They are developed based on a deep understanding of your industry, markets, and audiences. And they are sustained with a long-term strategy for continually measuring and adapting to audience expectations and market needs.
Your brand is everything and everything is your brand. Putting too much emphasis on your logo can hinder your ability to establish lasting relationships with clients. Conversely, paying close attention to and investing equally in all of your brand elements will put you ahead of your competition from day one.
Ready to get started on building your brand? We can assist with everything from brand analysis to compelling messaging and — yes — even logo design. View our work, then give us a call to discuss taking your brand to the next level.
