I’ve spent 30 years designing brands around the world, from cool startups to established mega brands. Along the way, I’ve collected enough war stories and creative experience to fill a book. Actually, I did fill a book, and this podcast is part of that project.
Today, we cover a question I get asked a lot. Is my logo my brand? But first, let’s do a quick recap of how we got here. In the last episode, we defined the difference between branding and your brand.
Branding is the work. A brand is the result, the feeling, the perception, the reputation that builds up in someone’s head over time. So let’s ask the question that trips up a lot of business owners today. Is my logo my brand?
No. Your logo is not your brand. Your color palette or your catchy tagline is not your brand. It’s none of those things, and it’s all of those things at once. Your logo is, without a doubt, the most important part of your brand. It is the foundation, the cornerstone, but it’s only part of your brand.
Your brand is made up of an intricate web of elements that start with a logo and grow to include a color palette, fonts, photography, and every other touchpoint. Your brand is the soul of every experience, every impression, every feeling a person has ever had about your business.
Jeff Bezos put it best, you might have heard of Jeff, I think he runs a bookstore. He said, The brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room. And that’s it. That’s the whole test of a brand. Not what’s on your website, not what you say in your pitch. It’s what people say when you’re not there to correct them. It’s the reason someone picks you over a competitor who might be cheaper, faster, or even three minutes closer.
Every logo, every color, every font, every line of copy you put out into the world should all be in service of that one feeling. But none of those things on their own is your brand. Your brand is what happens when all of them work together consistently, with purpose over time.
Make that last part of the mantra a consistent, purposeful practice over time. So if you’ve been quietly assuming that your logo is your brand, you’re not alone, but now you know better.
Your logo, the foundation of your brand, is important enough for us to take a real deep dive into it, into logo design, in future episodes. Let’s look at the difference between branding, marketing, and advertising. We’ll paint a picture. Imagine your business is a house you’ve built. The branding is the architecture, the vibe, the who you are.
Marketing is the massive for-sale sign at the open house that helps you build awareness. And advertising is the paid campaign, the megaphone, the way of getting potential buyers to your house. This all starts with building a proper brand.
Without a strong foundation, the house is a disaster. It doesn’t matter how many balloons you put on the for-sale sign; nobody’s coming inside. In our next episode, we’ll compare sizes with a simple question: Does my small business need branding?
Well, we’ll keep it short. That’s it for this episode of Brand New.
Thank you for spending a few minutes with me. I know your time is valuable, and I don’t take it for granted. If this show saves you from a bad design decision or makes you think a little differently about your business for five minutes, do me a favor: share it with another business owner who needs to hear it. And hit subscribe so you don’t miss out on the next one.
I’m Donovan. This has been Brand New. I’ll see you in the next episode.
IS MY LOGO MY BRAND?
I’ve spent 30 years designing brands around the world, from cool startups to established mega brands. Along the way, I’ve collected enough war stories and creative experience to fill a book. Actually, I did fill a book — and this podcast is part of that project.
Today, we’re tackling a question I get asked constantly. But first, a quick recap on how we got here.
In the last episode, we defined the difference between branding and your brand. Branding is the work. A brand is the result — the feeling, the perception, the reputation that builds up in someone’s head over time.
So let’s ask the question that trips up a lot of business owners:
Is my logo my brand?
No.
Your logo is not your brand. Your color palette or your catchy tagline is not your brand. It’s none of those things — and it’s all of those things at once.
Your logo is, without a doubt, the most important part of your brand. It’s the foundation, the cornerstone. But it’s only part of your brand.
It’s none of those things, and it’s all of those things at once.
THE SUM OF EVERY IMPRESSION
Your brand is an intricate web of elements that starts with a logo and extends to color palette, fonts, photography, and every other touchpoint.
Your brand is the total of every experience, every impression, every feeling a person has ever had about your business.
Jeff Bezos put it best—you might have heard of Jeff; I think he runs a bookstore. He said:
“The brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.”
And that’s it. That’s the whole test of a brand. Not what’s on your website, not what you say in your pitch. It’s what people say when you’re not there to correct them. It’s the reason someone picks you over a competitor who might be cheaper, faster, or even three minutes closer.
It’s what people say when you’re not there to correct them.
CONSISTENTLY, WITH PURPOSE, OVER TIME
Every logo, every color, every font, every line of copy you put out into the world — it should all be in service of that one feeling. But none of those things on their own is your brand.
Your brand is what happens when all of them work together consistently, with purpose, over time.
Make that last part your mantra: consistently, with purpose, over time.
So if you’ve been quietly assuming your logo is your brand, you’re not alone. But now you know better. Your logo — the foundation of your brand — is important enough for us to take a real deep dive into it in future episodes.
Consistently, with purpose, over time.
BRANDING VS. MARKETING VS. ADVERTISING
Let’s paint a picture. Imagine your business is a house you’ve built.
This all starts with building a proper brand. Without a strong foundation, the house is a disaster. It doesn’t matter how many balloons you put on the for sale sign — nobody’s coming inside.
It doesn’t matter how many balloons you put on the sign; nobody’s coming inside.
Next Time
In our next episode, we’ll compare sizes with a simple question: Does my small business need branding? We’ll keep it short.
That’s it for this episode of Brand New. Thank you for spending a few minutes with me — I know your time is valuable, and I don’t take it for granted.
If this show saves you from a bad design decision, or just makes you think a little differently about your business for five minutes, do me a favor: share it with another business owner who needs to hear it. And hit subscribe so you don’t miss the next one.
I’m Donovan. This has been Brand New. I’ll see you in the next episode.
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