The Basics of Branding

The Basics of Branding Yourself, a Product, or an Organization 

Branding is one of the first steps in the marketing process. In today’s world, branding a person, product, or organization is just as important as any other stage in the marketing process. There is more to branding than just a name, a logo, and a couple of critical colors. This post will discuss the four basic tactics of branding: brand identity, brand image, brand culture, and brand personality.

Before jumping into what the four areas of branding are, let’s talk about why it matters. Branding is not only an important tool in raising brand awareness and association, but it can also help drive sales and increase brand loyalty. Branding is how your customers find you; it also has an impact on how you are perceived. Most of the points in this article can be applied to a small business or non-profit and your own personal brand, which can make you stand out when applying for internships and entry-level positions.

Brand Identity:

A brand’s identity is how they want to be perceived; a person or company can control the outcome. This principle consists of not only your visual identity (logo, name, color), but also includes your purpose, mission, and vision statements.

Looking at Disney, it has changed its logo several times. However, its current logo is just “Disney” and often changes color depending on where it is placed. The simplicity of this logo makes it easily recognizable and makes it easily changeable based on its needs for it. 

On the less visual side, Patagonia has been making headlines recently after the owner gave away the company to a specially designed trust and non-profit. Patagonia has always made its brand identity clear, and its current mission statement is true: “we're in business to save our home planet.” The mission statement has a clear purpose and allows consumers to connect with the company. This branding makes brand loyalty easy by showing consumers how the brand’s purpose benefits the greater good.

Brand Image:

Like brand identity, brand image relates to the perception of the brand. However, where brand identity is “how you want to be perceived,” the brand image refers to “how you are perceived.” Consider brand image as the reputation of the brand; if you have lousy customer service, you have a bad reputation and a negative brand image. 

Some aspects of brand image can aid in producing a positive result. The two best ways to help your brand’s image are by creating a social presence and high-quality content. Having a social presence on various social media channels allows you to communicate directly and interact with customers. Unlike other channels of communication, social media can be used as two-way communication between the consumer and the business. On the note of high-quality content, Airbnb found during the initial start-up, listing with high-quality professional photos far outperformed the listings that had photos from a camera phone (this was in the era of flip phones still). This same idea can easily be applied to any business or personal brand. A website that is well-designed and works will consistently outperform a website that has no clear structure and is hard to navigate.

Brand Culture:

Brand culture is comprised of your brand’s values and how your brand reflects those. Often a brand’s values are “honesty” or “community,” and while these are a good starting point, they should be built upon to make your values unique and especially identified. However, it is easy to say these are your values and a lot harder to show that you are putting them into practice. If a company does not practice what they preach, this can have a negative impact on the brand.

Consider General Motors, one of the big three automakers. In recent years its vision and values shifted; they now strive for “a world with zero crashes, zero emissions, and zero congestion.” In 2020 they sold over 200,000 EVs and recently announced that they would sell Hertz (a car rental company) up to 175,000 EVs over the next five years. Their answer to zero crashes and zero congestion is their Super Cruise function in newer vehicles which was rated higher than Tesla’s Auto Pilot by Consumer Reports in 2020. This is a company that follows through on its values.

Brand Personality:

Brand personality refers to giving your brand a human side. This part of branding is what allows consumers to connect with your brand and what makes it relatable. A brand’s personality often refers to its tone as well as the copy for any media release. This is often achieved through social media using consumer engagement as the jumping point. 

In recent years, many brands went viral for their hilarious tweets on Twitter. These are great examples of brand personality.

Well, those are the four main tactics when it comes to branding. These can be applied to a person, product, or organization on any scale from a 5-person start-up to a long-standing corporation.

Sienna is a Junior at Grand Valley State University studying advertising and public relations and pursuing a leadership certificate. She has a strong passion for mobility and the automotive industry and has a 1986 4-speed Corvette. Sienna has had the opportunity to intern at General Dynamics Land Systems, a leading company in the defense industry, and as a Freshman, Sienna started her own company and has since done branding work for other small businesses.