The Real Definition of Branding

When business and marketing people use the word branding, they are typically referring to a company’s logo; colour scheme; design elements; etc.

But that isn’t, in the purest sense of the word, branding. At least, it’s not what branding used to mean.

English is a dynamic language, and if a majority of people use any word to mean something, then that’s the definition of that word. Even if that word previously used to mean something totally different.

The reason I’m being such a pedant about this is that no other term or synonym has stepped up to take the place of what branding used to mean. So, there’s no term on hand to describe what branding should mean, therefore robbing organisations of a core strategic business principle.

Historically speaking, it should be noted this isn’t the first time branding has had a definition change. The original meaning of branding was about burning an identifying symbol onto the hide of livestock. And, shamefully, people.

It’s perhaps understandable that naïve marketers think branding is merely about slapping your logo on everything and obsessing that it’s forever presented in a consistent way. This is one of the biggest mistakes made in business today. To discover what branding really is, please watch the following video:

Just as any given word’s definition is set by how a majority of people use it, so a company’s brand is set by what a majority of people think and feel it to be. Your brand belongs to them, not you.

And it is mostly feelings. Brands kick-in to being at the moments in time that people are making purchasing decisions.

You can’t simply ask people what those feelings are, because they happen mostly unconsciously. Ordinary people are not used to articulating the workings of their unconscious minds. So market research will definitely not help you.

All the things branding isn’t

  • your brand is not your logo
  • your brand is not your packaging
  • your brand is not your tagline
  • branding is not the action of slapping your logo everywhere
  • your brand is not your design elements, colour scheme, font, or anything that appears in a style guide
  • branding and packaging are not interchangeable synonyms
  • branding is not making claims about yourself
  • people are not obedient sponges who will think/feel/do whatever you want
  • a branding campaign is not just an ultra-expensive advertising blitz.

All the things that branding is

  • your brand is your identity… it’s what a majority of people think and feel you are
  • branding happens because of (or in spite of) your efforts to define it
  • every thing/person/company has a brand,
    they might like it, they may not like it
  • a company brand may be commercially valuable,
    they are sometimes detrimental, often simply irrelevant
  • you mostly always inherit a brand,
    you rarely get to start one from scratch
  • a brand is the result of branding, the process of defining your values, then demonstrating them
  • it’s what you DO that matters, not what you say
  • it takes a lot of soul-searching and preparation to define your values
  • a business not interested in branding might as well be a business not interested in products or customers
  • people are simply not going to buy from a company they don’t like
  • to be commercially valuable, a brand value has to be seven things,
    if you don’t know, or can’t guess what those seven things are, you will have to ask me.

Tweed