What is a brand?
The Origin Story
Fun fact: The term ‘brand’ derives from the word ‘brandr’ or “to burn,” and refers to the four thousand year old practice of branding livestock. Thankfully for the cattle, nowadays we use ear tags instead of burning the skin but that’s besides the point. The next use of branding that we know of is by artisans such as potters and stonemasons, leaving their mark on the work they created and left behind. In the 19th century, trade marks came into force which gave business’ legal ownership of their brand. This changed everything.
Branding in 2021
Fast-forward 4021(ish) years, and we now are witness to up to 10,000 adverts in a single day as an individual in the UK. Each of these adverts has a brand attached to it, and that is much, much more than a pretty logo and some matching colours. We are creatures of emotions, and everything we interact with has an emotion attached to it; be it negative, positive, or down-right in awe of.
As time progresses, we seem to have complicated the word ‘brand’, like we have with much of our lives! Whilst a brand still represents ownership of property, products and business; it now also envelopes what people feel about a product or service. This post will brush on some of the ideas of what a brand is, but we will start with what a brand isn’t:
A brand is not what many people say it is: it is not a logo. A logo is a very useful tool for business, but it is not the brand, it is a symbol for the brand. A brand is also not a product. Some people say that the brand is a promise the company makes to customers. There is some truth to this, however this is not what a brand is either. Advertisers like to say that the brand is the sum of all of the impressions that a company makes on an audience, but we’re still not quite there yet. None of the above areas truly answer the question to what a brand really is.
The Brand Gap
The master of all things branding, Marty Neumeier, started as a graphic designer and copywriter in the 1970s. In 1984, when the Macintosh launched, he moved to Silicon Valley to help companies like Apple, Netscape, HP, Adobe, and Google build their brands. Marty’s definition of a brand is as follows:
“A brand is a result… it is a customer’s gut feeling about a product, service or a company.”
This means that we do not have full control over our brand like we did back in the cattle branding days. We can of course influence our brands, but we do not have full control. To take this further, Marty says that a company does not just have one brand, but that they have a different brand for each individual that responds to their product or service. We as brand designers or company owners tend to look at branding as something we’re creating, but it’s actually more of a result of what we’re doing. This means that branding is a big world: it takes in almost every part of the business. Every employee of a company affects the brand, not just the designer or even the marketing department. For anyone who is thinking of starting a brand or refocusing on their existing brand, I strongly recommend the book ‘The Brand Gap’ by Marty Neumeier. This short book that could be read in a short plane ride, covers the jargon-free essentials from a true pioneer in the field.
Where we come in
The first steps in developing a brand are to dive deep into who your customer is. Full Circle have a Digital team with years of experience in customer research and our methods are proven to create results. Once you find your focus and your personality as a business, we can help you with the creation of the brand assets needed to help you launch or rebrand.
Our in house staff are ready to go with typography, colours, logos, animation, photography, videography and web design. But remember, these areas alone don’t make your brand, they simply help influence your audience in creating the brand for you. To find out more, get in touch today for a free branding or rebrand consultation with our digital team.
Written by Charlie Palnoch, Digital Consultant & Designer