Your Brand Is More Than Your Logo
Starting your blog or a business is always a courageous and exciting venture. Yet, there are many businesses offering the same product or services. Nearly all small business entrepreneurs strive to differentiate themselves from the status quo of their specific niche. To stand out from crowd, one of the first things business owners establish for their business is their logo.
While logos are an essential part of brand identity, having a logo only tells part of the full branding story in a business.
What is Branding
Branding is the promotion of a product or company channeled through advertising and distinct design. It communicates the brand or business’s name, personalities, qualities, and values through visual aesthetics. Branding is what brings your business to life while connecting and fostering relationships with your desired clients or customers. It fulfills the needs and pain points of what everyone is collectively passionate about.
Bare Basic Components of Branding
Strategic branding, when done correctly, can help you grow your business enormously. The topic of branding can often get technical and complex but for the sake of simplicity, I want to share the bare basic components of branding. Your brand should include the follow items.
A Complete Logo Suite
Most budding entrepreneurs have it right by having a logo designed. However, a singular logo design for your business won’t exactly cut it when it comes to brand identity. It’s helpful to have at least four variations of your logo (Primary logo, Secondary Logo, Sub Mark, and/or Favicon) which is called a logo suite. This enhances your brand recognition on both web and print.
A Smart Color Palette
Contrary to popular belief, color choices that you make for your brand will invoke certain emotions and attract a certain kind of audience. Humans are created to be visual by design. Colors do have a certain psychology that goes along with your brand. Be sure that your branding colors blend well together while getting the visual aesthetics that you want.
Your Mission/Core Values
Behind the brilliant visual aesthetics of branding, recognizing and establishing your mission, core values, or “why” is going to be the heart and soul of your brand. Knowing your mission and having your core values aligned gives your brand a solid voice and connects with your desired audience about what your brand or business stands for and what you’re passionate about. Your mission or core values fosters the emotional aspect of branding.
Questions to Ask About Your Brand
Here are a few important questions to ask yourself when establishing your brand for your business.
Do I have a logo variation suite that aligns with my desired look and feel of my business?
What colors palette best represents my brand and the audience I’d like to attract?
What is my mission and core values?
What is the demographic of my desired audience?
As I stated in the beginning, a logo only for your brand reveals a small portion of your brand. While a logo is great to have, a solid, well-rounded brand that your audience can feel and connect with is brilliantly better.
