Branding: much more than a logo.

Nowadays the word “branding” has become more popular than ever. But with that popularity, the misconception of what “branding” entails sometimes is wrong or incomplete. If you think of branding, what do you think of? A logo? A brand’s color? the packaging? if you do, I’m sorry to tell you you’ve just described a brand’s identity. Which are very important elements to a brand, but it’s not branding.

Branding is the personality of a brand.

The feelings and thoughts you associate with said brand. For example, if you think about Starbucks you might think about friends meeting, people chatter in a calm place, the smell of coffee. Aside from its product, Starbucks’ branding is completely focused on their client’s experience. That is what branding is all about, the overall experience, taking into consideration every detail and guiding our client to feel what we want them to feel (welcome, happy, calm, relaxed, hyped, whatever that goes with your brand’s personality).

Your logo, on the other hand, I agree it’s extremely important and detrimental to the development of any brand. Your logo will be the image that’s going to be associated with your brand, just like your name is associated with yourself. If we keep the Starbucks example, we associate two-tailed mermaids and color green instantly to the coffee shop, so much that a lot of coffee places use a green circle as their logo, thinking that this way, customers will get the idea that they do too offer the experience of buying a cup of coffee and staying for hours without feeling the pressure of having to leave once you finish your drink (which Starbucks was a pioneer in doing).

So, in short, a few words:

A logo doesn’t have to explain what the business does, it’s a visual representation for your brand to be associated with.
Branding is the personality of your brand, the feelings, emotions, stories, and memories that your clients take from your business.

Now that we’ve cleared the air between logo  and branding, we made a list of the most popular brands with impeccable branding:

COCA-COLA

No branding post would be complete without including this branding giant. Coca-Cola has been the pioneer in the “sell experience, not a product” department. Yeah their logo is pretty recognizable and embedded in our brains. But, when was the last time you saw a campaign or commercial from coca-cola that said: “this soda is so good, buy this soda”. It’s been forever, right? They show people having the best time of their life. People being humanitarian, Santa clause and cute white bears on Christmas time. We associate coca-cola with family reunions and laughter. We feel a certain way whenever we see a Coca Cola ad, and that’s why coca-cola has been always the best example for brand analysis.

IKEA

Ikea’s popularity has increased exponentially in the last few years. Who knew spending money on our house could be so much fun? Ikea doesn’t sell you furniture (I mean if we speak literally they do sell furniture). But, they sell you the experience of going through the maze-like corridors and grabbing what you need for yourself. The room displays show you what your life could look like if you spend your money there. We associate Ikea with affordable, stylish furniture, a great buying experience, and of course: Great meatballs.

DISNEY

Disney is a branding giant, we’ve been exposed to Disney our whole lives. From childhood to adulthood, Disney is one of the most beloved brands. Why? You guessed it, because of their branding. It doesn’t matter which amusement park you visit, you will feel that you are at the happiest place on earth. Their movies always have a happy ending and leave you with a positive feeling, their cartoons and shows are wholesome and lighthearted… did you notice I just described Disney only with feelings? I bet it made you feel some kind of way too to read about it, maybe it reminded you of the shows/movies you used to watch (or watch today). That is good branding.

APPLE

Oh yeah, we would never forget Apple in a post about branding. This innovative giant has stayed on top of its branding game since forever, but it has had it’s few tweaks and changes over the years. When Apple had its first boom in popularity, the brand meant status, exclusivity; The devices that celebrities used could be yours too. Clean sleek innovative devices that no-one else offered. Nowadays they have successfully shifted to be associated as a humanitarian brand, not leaving behind their innovative ways, of course, we associate Apple with innovation, minimalism, kindness, loyalty, and many other positive empowering feelings.

And that’s it for today’s blogpost. Thank you so much for reading! I hope now you know the difference between a logo and branding, and the influence that a good consumer experience could potentially have on your business.