Brand Basics

Written by Dalaine Wall | October 8, 2020

Learn what brand is, how a designer can help with your brand, and how strong branding can set your business up for success.

What is a Brand?

A common misconception is that brand is a logo, a business card, or even a website but these are just parts of it.

In fact, brand is how people perceive your business. Therefore, it’s thoughts, feelings, emotions, experiences, and interactions – so pretty much anything and everything you do and say is part of your brand.

You could think of a business brand (or event brand) similar to how you think of a person’s personality. It’s intangible, therefore it lives in people’s minds and drives the decisions they make, how they communicate, and who they associate with. 

Brand Touchpoints

A touchpoint occurs whenever a person comes into contact with your brand. Some examples of touchpoints are:

• Your website
• A phone call
• An email
• A meeting
• Customer review
• Word of mouth
• Business card
• Reading your content
• Contacting an employee

Touchpoints leave an impression in someone’s mind, so it’s important to identify them and brainstorm how they can be improved to better reflect your business.

Before you can improve your touchpoints you first need to map out your brand. This is where a designer can help get you organized with brand discovery and lookin’ fine with visuals.

How Can a Designer Help with Brand?

Lookin’ Fine: Branding Visuals

In the context of design, branding is the process of creating consistent visuals that embody a brand. This could be through any medium – a car wrap, website, or business card. 

Let’s keep going with this brand/ personality metaphor. Just as people style their clothes, makeup, and hair to reflect their personality, or perhaps even that day’s mood, designers style visuals to reflect a business (or event) brand.

It’s all about presentation – dress to impress. Am I right? Dress how you want to be perceived because first impressions really do count! Sure, they can be changed later – but it’s really, really tough. So make it easy on yourself and make sure your visuals pack a punch by personifying your brand and making you easily recognizable.

Hold up. Wait a minute. Before the eye-catching visuals happen you need to do some soul searching. Just like a person taking a gap year or backpacking through Europe to find themselves, your brand must do the same. You must first discover your brand.

Gettin’ Organized: Brand Discovery

Prepare to answer a lot of questions, some superficial (like are there any colours you can’t stand?) and others that require deep contemplation (like what is your true purpose?).

I personally go through 5 stages of questions:

1. Dig Deep – values, ethics, purpose, mission and vision
2. Walk the Walk – personality
3. Talk the Talk – voice and tone
4. Positioning
5. Likes and Dislikes

Brand discovery can take some time, but it’s definitely worth it. Here’s why:

• It compiles key information in one spot. This allows you, your designer, marketers, and employees to do their jobs more effectively because everyone is on the same page.
• It provides insights and clarity. Resulting in higher quality touchpoints, including things like better customer service and an improved work environment.
• It identifies inconsistencies. Once everything is mapped out, spotting the differences is easy. Basically, it brings zen, peace, and alignment to your business.

So if it wasn’t clear – a designer does not create a brand. Designers help discover it, maybe nudge it into place, and then create visuals that embody it. A designer’s job is to ask the right questions to dig into your brand and create visuals accordingly. But ultimately you are in charge of your brand.

Should I Invest in Branding?

Yes, but obviously I’m biased. Let me convince you why branding is one of your most valuable assets.

1. Stand out in the crowd and give clients a reason to choose you over a competitor. Branding lets clients know: Hey, this is me and this is what I stand for!  They can either like it or lump it. (Side note: where did that saying even come from? It’s something my mom says all the time.) I’m in no way saying we purposely want people to “lump it”, it’s just that we want to focus on our target market.

2. Gain Trust. Repetition and consistency gain trust. Period. Branding ensures that your message is the same across all touchpoints. 

3. Repeat customers. Keep them coming back for more by giving them positive input across multiple touchpoints –  because positive reinforcement really does work!

4. Attract IDEAL customers. That’s right, branding can draw in that dream client. If done right your branding will attract like-minded people that relate to your brand and connect with it at an emotional level.

5. Cult-like customer loyalty. Brand loyalty can be so strong that it can turn customers into advocates and salespeople. Who doesn’t want that?

6. Higher ROI (Return on Investment). Now that you’re targeting your ideal customer you’re also not wasting time and money on people who are not interested in you, which means you get a larger return on investment. Your campaigns and advertising will become targeted and streamlined because you know what your customers want! 

7. Close more sales faster. You can spend less time convincing people because your purpose is built into every fiber of the brand, which means your potential clients are already familiar with what your brand promises. Yay, for faster recognition!

8. Credibility – With strong professional branding you can position yourself as a leader in the industry.

9. Charge Premium Prices. If you position yourself as an expert and give people a remarkable experience clients will pay a premium price. Don’t believe me? One word – Starbucks. I LOVE me a Chai Tea Latte and I could definitely find one at a lower price somewhere other than Starbucks. But it doesn’t matter because I love the atmosphere, tribal connection, product packaging (okay, this one might just be me), customer service, and emotions I have attached to Starbucks.  

10. Increased productivity and creativity – An order and simplicity will ensue, allowing for aligned leadership, an engaged workplace, better customer service, increased efficiency, and easier decision making. It gives you breathing room so that you are allowed to be creative and do what you love.

To summarize the above points: branding builds relationships. Remember the branding/personality metaphor? People tend to spend time with other people they like, or other personalities they are attracted to. If this concept is applied to a brand this means that people will gravitate towards brands that they connect with and want to build a relationship with. 

Did I convince you? Are you wondering now if the timing is right? Well then, let’s keep going.

When to Invest in Branding?

1. You want to grow. If you’re expanding (or wanting to expand) from a side-hustle or part-time job, investing in a larger office space, or want to get serious about marketing. Then it’s time to get organized and lookin’ fine.

2. You know your business inside and out. You need to know your: goals, mission, vision, and purpose. You’re probably thinking: But didn’t you say you would help me with that in brand discovery? Yes, absolutely. I will PROMPT you to figure these out and I’ll be there every step of the way to guide you. However, when it comes down to it I can’t answer these questions for you, you need to have a rough idea and be willing to put the work in. Without first knowing your business you’ll end up with visuals that are out to lunch or need to be updated much too soon.

I am not guaranteeing the above results. Branding only works with regular maintenance. If you don’t fuel your race car, it’s not going to go anywhere – even if it’s the best one on the market.