What is branding? (and why it matters more than ever)
About this Squarespace video tutorial
If you think a business or personal brand is just a logo or some colors, you couldn't be more wrong. Branding is a wide-spread persona that you put together through hard work and intentional action, and today we'll be discussing the value of that brand for your future success. By first understanding the principles behind branding, you're able to make better decisions moving forward on how to shape it.
Timestamps
0:00 - Introduction
0:24 - Part 1: What Branding Really Is
2:29 - Part 2: Why Branding Matters
4:11 - Part 3: How To Start Shaping Your Brand
7:13 - Conclusion
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What Is Branding?
A lot of people think your business or personal brand is just your logo, and while that’s a big part of it, it is only a part. Today, we’ll be discussing what branding really is, why it matters, and how to shape your own brand if you’re a creative, an entrepreneur, or a student still figuring this all out.
Part 1: What Branding Really Is
As mentioned, branding is so much more than just your logo. It is your logo, but it’s also your voice, your values, your style, your audience, and the experience your brand or business offers, all rolled up into one idea. Your brand is the full experience people have with you; it’s what they remember about you when you’re not in the room.
If you look online for the definition of ‘branding’, you’ll find a lot of explanations and definitions that use the word brand or branding to define the word brand or branding. It’s recursive and not super helpful. How I define it is “branding is the intentional expression of who you are, what you offer, and why that even matters. It’s how you show up in the world on purpose.”
This definition can be broken up even further into three pieces, branding, marketing, and design.
Branding is who you are
Marketing is how you spread the word about what you do
Design is just what makes it all look and feel great
You can have beautiful and clever visuals and marketing, but if you don;’t have clarity on your branding, these ideas won’t connecy to your audience.
For example, if you’re a musician, your brand isn’t just your album art or logo: it’s your vibe on stage, it’s your social captions, it’s the values behind your lyrics, or the feeling people walk away with after hearing your music or seeing your show. The same is true for creators, business owners, and any sort of person with a brand. It’s how you communicate who you are.
Part 2: Why Branding Matters
Simply, branding matters because people make decisions based on trust, connection, and alignment. Brand is how you build those things out. Before you hop on a call or send out an invoice, you have to connect with your brand.
About a year ago, I got on a call with a potential client, answering her questions and seeing what she needed. At the end of the call she began to tear up, and said something to the degree of “I just feel like you get me.” That wasn’t about my pricing model or my business proposal…it was about the power of my brand, Designing The Row, which is meant to help people like her feel seen and understood and supported. She already felt the alignment; all I needed to do was show up and be there. In today’s world of scrolling and split-second decisions, the clarity of your brand is everything. So, if you’re trying to stand out in any way, your brand is what will make you unique and magnetic.
Part 3: How To Start Shaping Your Brand
Here’s where to start:
Know Yourself, your mission, your values, and your audience. Once you know that, you can
Clarify Your Message down to your tone, tagline, and story which helps you
Visualize It with the creation of a logo, fonts, and other brand identifiers like colors. These identifiers go out into the word when you
Share It, spreading your website, socials, and other content to your audience. This then allows you to
Evolve It; rebrand, pivot, and grow. Your brand should evolve as you evolve.
It’s not about perfect, it’s about purpose; in fact, your brand doesn’t even really have to be fully formed to start working and be powerful, which should take some of the pressure off of you. 10 years ago I was interviewing for jobs, and I ended up getting an offer from a well-known music publishing business here in Nashville. The job combined music and design, which would be the dream role for somebody like me. But after going through the interview process, I realized I wouldn’t be able to create freely, and that there weren’t a lot of growth opportunities on the horizon. Even though I hadn’t launched my business or had a formal brand, I did already have one: I valued creativity, purposeful design, and helping people share their voice. Those principles helped me make the biggest decision of my career: turning the job down and starting Designing The Row.
And those are the three steps to wrap your head around what branding is the value it has for your business. Next week we’ll be talking about brand consistency on social media with actionable tips, so subscribe on YouTube or follow me on Instagram at @DesigningTheRow and @KatherineDForbes. If you want to learn more, you can download the 75-page personal branding workbook I’ve created at designingtherow.com/workbook.
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