I was talking to some people a few days ago, and I realized how difficult it was for almost all of them to try to explain what branding means. The overall consensus was that branding is when a company has a distinctive identity and you can recognize it. At Twelve12, we get a lot of questions about why we do or don’t do some things when we are designing a branding campaign, so we decided to share with you some information about branding in Orange County.
Going back to a definition: the people I was talking about are not completely wrong; a brand is supposed to have a distinctive identity, but it is not as simple as that. Believe it or not, everyone is always doing some sort of branding, whether you realize it or not. If you have a small business and are thinking that you haven’t done any branding, I will tell you this: yes, you have, but you haven’t done it consciously.
There’s no such thing as no branding, and even regular people that have nothing to do with a business are doing branding. Think about when someone asks you about another person; everyone forms an opinion about that person, it can be good, bad or simply indifferent. In today’s world, you can see a lot of branding out there: on the main social media channels, we know someone who’s brand is healthy living, someone else is all about parties, concerts and drinking, and there’s some that it’s all about makeup and fashion. Usually, we tend to comment on people who have similar interests or completely opposite interests. And all of this happens even if we are not selling a single thing. How many times have you seen friends actively advocating for a company? What do they get out of it? Well, the really savvy and lucky ones get free stuff, while regular people get only a sense of belonging.
By now you have probably thought about at least 3 friends that keep on sharing a specific brand’s content. And this is branding – when someone can relate and feels identified with the values and products of a company, we are creating a brand. It may not be everyone’s favourite, but we are doing something good for sure.
To make it very simple for you, branding gathers the essence of a company – its values, principles, social activity, quality, services or products, communication, price and image – and compress it into a small package usually delivered in a logo, with or without a slogan, that you will be able to identify and relate to. And every time that you find a new product or service from this particular company, you’ll know from previous experience if you want to buy it or not, just because of their brand.
To learn more about branding in Orange County or worldwide, give us a call today, at Twelve12 and we’ll be delighted to help you.