For most people, a brand is a logo, and a logo is a brand. Simple as that. The less-than-savory etymological and agricultural roots of branding are embedded almost five millennia deep in our collective cultural memory. Therefore it isn’t so unreasonable that many people might mistakenly equate the two. But here we are, 4,700 years and a dozen fallen empires from the very first farmer to put an iron to hide, and our understanding of symbolism and methods of communication have advanced more than a little. A brand is so much more than a logo; in fact, it’s the sum total of every experience, memory, and feeling from a person’s direct or indirect interactions with an entity organization.
For this concept, I’m assuming that the relationship a person feels with an organization is crucial to successfully meet its goals. Brands are really about individual relationships between humans and organizations. We’re going to look at these concepts through the lens of a unique experience. Let’s dive into what that means and what can be done about it.
A brand isn’t a logo, and your logo isn’t a brand.
The branding and design industry at large is still a little fuzzy on these terms. Just like words, brands and logos take on new meanings over time. So I’m going to take a bold position and state for the record: Logos don’t matter very much (cue record scratch).
I’ve had more than a few conversations with clients and colleagues over the years about the importance of their logo, especially clients starting a new business for the first time. Many of them placed so much importance on getting the logo just right that it became a blocker to other vastly more important activities that would have had more impact toward launching their company.
A logo is just a symbol. I like to think of it as a personal signature shared by a group of individuals bound toward a common goal. It’s a symbol representing the collective wins, losses, kindness, and transgressions of the entire associated community. And while those two ideas are sticky to one another, they are not co-equal. It’s the company that gives the logo meaning, not the other way around.
A healthy organization that does good work and delivers a consistent and positive experience can give positive meaning to even the simplest, non-designed, off-the-shelf logo. The inverse is also true; there isn’t a logo so perfect that it can make people forget bad organizational behavior or bad personal experiences.
Pro tip: If you’re reading this trying to decide how to brand your new company, please consider this strategy: Pick a friendly typeface and just type out your company’s name. Hire a designer to help with colors and spacing if you’d like, but just make something and get to work building your business. You can always redesign your logo later, and the people who appreciate your work won’t mind. What you do matters more than anything else.
A brand isn’t an identity.
When I was in design school, my Branding Systems class was really just about creating a visual identity and collateral materials. We designed logos, explored shapes and typography, and applied them to various objects to build a system. This was what a graphic designer might think of as branding 20 years ago. While still vital, it isn’t enough anymore.
While the logo is the cornerstone of a given identity system, and visual collateral round out the visual identity, a genuinely comprehensive identity is about a lot more than just business cards and letterhead. Marketing and advertising strategies, focus groups, customer surveys, written and spoken voice, and even the moral and social conduct contracts with internal participants contribute to a given organization’s perceived identity.
A complex and well-developed identity is a great tool that builds strong psychological connections between an organization and its audience. How you communicate with people matters almost as much as what you do.
A brand is an idea—nothing more, but certainly nothing less.
Every individual who interacts with an organization is carrying a running mental tally of the positive and negative experiences they’ve had along the way. Every time they asked a question and were disappointed, points are deducted. Every time they needed support and were supported, points are awarded.
How many points are won and lost in a given transaction is entirely up to the individual. Maybe they’re already having a terrible day, so what would typically be a slight negative association is amplified by outside factors to what feels enormous to them.
A brand is the sum total of every positive or negative feeling a person has experienced during or resulting from those interactions. This may seem unfair to organizations who are doing their best to deliver positive experiences, and it probably isn’t - but that’s OK.
The truth is, there really isn’t just one brand relationship for any given entity. There could be billions. And if the brand exists in the minds of the audience, then it follows that no one outside of those individuals truly controls a brand.
We can control the logo, the voice, and the way we do business. But we can’t control the brand. It’s out there, and the best that can be done is to adjust messaging, intent, and behavior to influence the way the brand is perceived.
This is the first of a three-part series on branding, identity, and customer relations.