The Difference Between Brand, Branding, and Identity
Great brands have solid foundations made of consistent client experiences, clear communication, and striking visuals. Your brand is how you are perceived by your audience. Your branding communicates your brand values. Your identity visually connects your brand values to the emotions you want to project to your ideal audience. Your brand, your branding, and your identity work together to form an experience that your client can feel, hear, and see.
“Your brand is not what /you/ say it is. It’s what /they/ say it is.”
How to Build a Great Brand Experience
What is a Brand?
A brand is an experience. Your brand is how you make people feel. Think of it as the room your clients walk into. How does it look, how does it smell, what music is playing in the background? To get your client to walk into this room, you need to entice them with a promise to eliminate one of their pain points. If you successfully solve their problem or fulfill their needs, you have built brand equity with your client base. If your clients have a great brand experience then they will become loyal advocates for you within their social circle. Your audience trusts the opinion of their friends and family much more than the best advertisement you can produce. Creating a consistent brand experience from top to bottom should be your priority.
Mayo Clinic inspires hope and promotes health through integrated clinical practice, education, and research. Mayo Clinic wants their patients to sense the authoritative presence of doctors who do cutting-edge research, as well as feel cared for as individuals. Mayo Clinic has also provided an online space known as a reliable and straightforward source for health information. Their “room” is concise, respectful, compassionate, and innovative (and smells a bit like antiseptic).
What is Branding?
Branding is how you communicate to your ideal audience. Your branding is what people hear. You might have a fantastic brand experience, but if no one knows about it, then it is as if it does not exist. The perception of your brand needs to match the experience. Branding is based on your brand strategy, which includes your mission statement, values, voice, and points of differentiation. This is the heart of your brand, the why behind everything you do. Think of it as your brand’s personality. Every level of your organization needs to internalize the heart of your brand so that you are speaking as one voice. Who you hire, how you react to crises, your advertising, and your promotional copy should all be based on your brand values.
The American Civil Liberties Union is a good example of top-to-bottom brand value integration. Every decision is guided by their core values: the ACLU dares to create a more perfect union — beyond one person, party, or side. Our mission is to realize this promise of the United States Constitution for all and expand the reach of its guarantees. They strive to keep pressure on the United States government and their citizens to live up to the ideals stated in our founding documents. They push difficult and controversial issues to the forefront, as well as tell the story of how they are involved in defending the rights of people nationwide. The ACLU promotes their values within their social media, ads, website, press releases, and provides legal help for those who need it. This builds trust with their ideal audience, who become their brand advocates not only based on the what of their brand (non-partisan defense of fundamental human rights, engagement, community empowerment), or the how of their brand (providing free legal representation to those whose rights have been threatened), but the why behind their brand (striving for a society where everyone has equal rights and liberties).
What is a Brand Identity?
Brand Identity is all of the visual aspects of your brand. This includes your logo, photography, typography, iconography, and colors, aka your visual style. Your brand identity is what your clients see. By basing the design of your logo on the concepts behind your brand, it becomes more than just window dressing. The choice of typeface, color, and illustrative style can all help to communicate your brand values.
World Wildlife Fund uses bright colors, bold typography, flat illustrations and infographics, and compelling full-bleed photography to communicate their brand vision: to build a future in which people live in harmony with nature. Their brand identity appeals to those who want to protect our natural environment and all that lives within it. By highlighting the problems (climate change and loss of biodiversity) as well as successes (species recovery) they keep their audience engaged. WWF also does a good job of suggesting concrete steps their base can take to help the biosphere other than straight donations, inviting them to become part of the solution. Their visuals and copy work together to support their brand experience.
How your Brand, Branding, and Identity Work Together
Your brand is how your customers perceive you. If your brand elicits positive emotions in your audience, then you will easily build loyalty. Your branding is how you communicate your values to your ideal audience. When your audience knows what you stand for, then they can more easily connect with you on an emotional level. Your brand identity is how you visually communicate to your audience and stand out from your competitors. Visuals communicate on a visceral level, reinforcing your message with your audience.
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