How would you define branding? If you’d define it as logos or signage, you’re halfway there. But there’s much more to branding than graphic design.
In fact, branding is not even the same as a brand or a brand identity. While they all work together, each one plays a different role in the marketability of a product or service.
Why Does It Matter?
It’s not just about semantics – it’s about results. If you understand the differences between branding, brand, and brand identity, you’ll be able to optimize each one in order to meet your goals or vision.
At Idea Kraft, we’ve helped our clients use strong, nuanced branding to gain and maintain an edge in highly competitive fields. But you can’t use branding to your advantage until you understand what branding is and what it isn’t.
What Is a Brand?
A brand is more than just a name or a logo. It’s the public perception of a company, organization, product, or service.
That perception is informed by visual and verbal assets of the brand identity and strategic branding initiatives like a new website launch or social media rebrand. However, none of those things are the brand itself. The brand is the meaning the public forms based on their interactions with those elements.
This also means that a rebrand requires more than just a name change, logo redesign, or website overhaul to be successful. Reimagining a brand requires reimaging and redesigning all of the elements that create public perception.
For example, Progressive Dental’s rebrand wasn’t complete with just a new logo and visual guidelines. Custom photography, a user-friendly website, welcoming outdoor signage, and playful collateral helped them project a more approachable image that left their clinical and outdated identity behind.
What is Brand Identity?
We’ve established that the brand is the public perception of a company or organization, not identifiers like the name and logo.
If you’re wondering whether there’s a name for those elements, the answer is yes. The specific visual components and core messages of a company or organization’s image is called the brand identity. Brand identity – along with the process of branding – is what forms a brand.
A brand identity includes the visual building blocks of all digital properties, assets, marketing material, and physical collateral, including:
- Logo
- Color palette
- Typography
- Imagery
A brand identity also includes the verbal components, such as:
- Slogan
- Brand Story
- Core messages
- Mission and vision statements
- Tone of voice
See a recent example of a brand identity we completed for the mental health organization MHAST, using refreshed visual storytelling to put an empowering spin on their legacy. You can also learn more about our custom Brand Story and Messaging development process here.
What is Branding?
This brings us to branding! Branding may be the most commonly misused term we hear at Idea Kraft, which is why we’ve saved it for last.
Branding is the process of shaping the brand – the company or organization’s public image – by strategically applying the brand identity to all touchpoints and assets like the website, signage, collateral, and social media channels.
The more consistent and creative the application, the better. You can take it from one of our clients, NYMAC: Applying their new brand identity across all channels helped them level the playing field among their competitors and drive traffic to their website.
Need another example? Learn more about the Rethink Your Vape campaign or the Triple Cities Innovation Corridor, two brands Idea Kraft helped to build from the ground up with brand identity and branding development.
Creating brands backed by creativity, expertise, and strategy.
For over 10 years, Idea Kraft has been building brands that stand out in every space, from social media feeds to billboards and grocery store shelves.
With a full suite of branding, design, web development, copywriting, video, and photography services, we’re ready for your next big project or brand reinvention. Schedule a consultation or tell us more about your B2B, B2C, nonprofit, or manufacturing business here.
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