Brand Basics: What is your brand, what is your branding, what's the difference, and do you really need them?!

[Brand definitions for beginners].  

Do you know what a brand is, and what your brand actually is?  How important are they to your business?  Hint: It’s not just your logo!  Read on for what a brand encompasses, what branding is, and why they are are so essential, even for a small business... 

What is your BRAND? - Your brand is not just a logo!

Your business brand is definitely not just your logo, or even your logo and your website, a couple of colours and a photo of you.  It’s a whole lot more than that!

It’s the whole identity of your business, everything that makes you recognisable, and memorable, and attracts the right, perfect fit, ideal customers or clients to you, and to buy from your business. 

So that’s particularly your message, your offer, knowing how you're different, knowing who you’re targeting and how you help them, and all the visuals that help you attract them, but more too.

What is your BRANDING? - Your branding is not just a logo either!

Whereas your BRAND covers everything that shares your message/your business/what you do with your audience, helps you stand out, and be recognisable and memorable, and tells them why they should work with you not someone else, your BRANDING is just the visual side of it.  Your logo, your colours and fonts, and then the visual style, the graphics, and your photos.  So your visual branding, or brand visual identity, is part of your brand, and is how you convey your brand to your audience.

Just to be confusing, 'branding' can also be used as a verb rather than a noun - as in the process of branding your business, ie creating the whole brand or any part of it, including the visuals. 

It's also used as in 'branding photos', where it's describing photos of you that also illustrate/go with your brand. 

And it's used as in 'personal branding' as a verb or noun and referring to branding yourself, your personal style or brand, or making your brand more personal.

What is your brand? - Your brand is for your customers...

Going back to your brand as a whole, it's what other people think, feel and say about your business when you’re not there. 

There's a famous quote from Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon – “your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room”.  So it’s your business' reputation, what your customers and clients, and potential customers and clients, think about your business and you. 

It’s also for your customers and clients. 

Your brand is your promise to your customers/clients, telling them who you are, what you do, what you stand for, how you are different from your competitors, and what they can expect from working with you or buying from you.

And when you build a strong, strategic brand, and have clarity over all of it, you can influence what other people think, feel and say about your business when you're not there.

What is your brand? ...it helps people buy from you

It’s what makes you stand out from other businesses.  When people recognise and remember you, because of your brand, they'll want to buy from you.

Having a strong, clear, strategic business brand will make you look professional and credible, creating trust in you and your business, showing you as a professional business owner, and the expert at what you do / the go-to person in your niche / the best person to buy from. 

Then your ideal customers/clients will want to buy from you.

What is your brand and branding?  They are all about you too

Your brand and branding are not just about attracting your target audience, your ideal customers, with pretty visuals.   When creating them, when refreshing them, when just getting more clarity over any or all of it, you also need to look at your vision and purpose for your business.  And at you and your story, your values, your why. 

Your brand and branding should reflect you because that is what will make your business unique and stand out.

The more it all reflects you, the more personal you are making your brand. 

The more personal you make it all, the more you’ll stand out and be unique, and the more you’ll attract your ideal clients or customers.  

The more personal it all is, the more it will connect with and resonate with your ideal customers/clients, and the more irresistible you'll be, the more they will want to come and work with you / buy from you.

And they will be able to remember what you do and what you stand for.  They’ll become repeat customers, and fans, and they’ll be able to easily refer your business to other people too.

There's more on putting more of you into your brand in this blog: How to personalise your business brand.

Think Coca-cola!

We’re aiming for coca-cola over a generic drink – a brand that is recognisable and memorable, that shows up, stands out and sells for you.  And one where we pay more for the name!  - So building a strong business brand will give you an edge over your competitors. 

Building a strong, clear, strategic brand will add value to your business because it means you can charge more too, because your customers will want what you do over someone else.

Think everywhere

Everything you do, say and write, should reflect your brand, (not just your logo and website!).  So that's including your social media posts, your images, your marketing material, your paperwork, your emails, you in real life - everywhere you show up.

And everywhere your customer or client comes across you should consistently and cohesively communicate your brand.

The importance of your brand and branding

Hopefully you can now see how essential your brand and branding are to your business!  People will think and say and feel what they like about you and your business, but by creating a strong brand you get the chance to influence them and show them how you want to be known.  So make sure you create and build a unique, stand out brand or business identity, that makes you recognisable, memorable and irresistible.

The more clarity you have over all the different elements of your brand and branding, the more cohesive and consistent you can be with everything you create, and the more it will make you more recognisable and memorable and build you a stronger, stand out, strategic brand - one that sells too.

So what is YOUR brand all about?

Finally… so what do you want people to think, feel and say about your business?  Have you thought much about it?  What kind of impression do you want your brand and branding to give about you and your business?  

Try starting with working out what you want to be known for, and who your products or services are for - ie the kind of person you need to appeal to.  Then have a think about what qualities and characteristics do you want people to associate with your brand? Budget or high-end? Fun or professional? Modern or Retro?  My finding your brand vibe keywords will really help with this, From Brand Confusion To Brand Clarity, and find other relevant courses below too. 

You can’t be all things to everyone, you need to work out what you want your business to be known for, as well as who it is for.  Create a memorable and recognisable brand, then you can use it to confidently get visible and grow your business.

Next Steps:

- Take my self study course, From Brand Confusion To Brand Clarity - how to find your brand vibe, to work out your brand keywords that will keep your whole brand and branding cohesive and consistent, thus becoming more recognisable and memorable, improving trust and encouraging buyers.

- Want to know more about creating or updating your branding yourself?  You need my DIY Branding course, From Drab To Fab (available shortly!).

- Want to know more about personalising your whole brand so it is more unique to you and helps you stand out?  This is all in my brand foundations course, From Ordinary To Authentic.

- Ready for more personal mentoring, brand, visibility and marketing strategies that work for you, a community of fellow ambitious introverts, training, and accountability to put it all into action?  It includes lots of introductory lessons to help you create or refresh or fill in the gaps of your brand and branding too.  Come and join my Brand Plan membership, and get support to show up, stand out, and sell more🤩

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Blog topics / categories: 

#All things brand

[This blog was first written in November 2019, then transferred to this website, updated and added to, January 2024]