If you’re looking for a useful marketing mantra for your
startup, established business, or even your nonprofit, may I
suggest this one?
My brand is more than a logo.
When I speak to audiences about brand strategy, too often
they think, “Oh, I have this covered. I have a great-looking
logo and visual identity.” But that’s only part of the equation.
Your brand is your core promise, essence, story. Your logo
should convey the brand, but it’s not the same thing as
your brand. Brand forms the foundation for your marketing
efforts, but it also informs many other organizational aspects,
including operations, hiring, and partnerships. Brand is the
story you tell and the position you occupy in people’s minds.
Do they file you under “high-end bespoke couture”—or “fast
fashion?”
There are markets and target audiences for everything but
it’s your job as a business owner or marketing leader to be
crystal clear about the image for which you’re aiming and
how that influences everything from pricing to distribution to
customer experience to—yes—visual identity.
Brand is a three-legged stool: It is conveyed visually, verbally,
and experientially. “Visually” is the easy part: your logo, your
colors, your design, your packaging. “Verbally” is how you
talk, what you say, and which messages you convey. For
example, do you lead with price, or do you lead with value?
Does your company speak in conservative, authoritarian
tones, or are you more playful and whimsical in your copy?
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Maria R