Branding. It's not about the logo.

We are a creative agency. A cheeky upstart making a name for ourselves in the Cayman Islands and beyond. You could be excused if you would expect our blog post on branding to be focussed on bringing you in as a potential client to sell you logo design services.

This is not that post.

The strict definition of ‘branding’ is “the marketing practice of creating a name, symbol or design that identifies and differentiates a product from other products,” (-Business Insider). Within this definition we believe you find the actual key ingredient of branding.

Product. What are you offering?

Consider Google. This past week it unveiled its new logo. The launch has created the now expected wave of debate on social media.  However, 17 years ago when the company was founded the logo and name were probably secondary to the ‘why’ of the company.  The core of the company was (and is) search. It became extraordinarily good at serving up information and this, in turn, brought the audience that drove advertising sales and market expansion. YouTube, Maps, Mail, everything that came after (or was purchased and rebranded) is just a sector-focussed refinement of search intended to reinforce their core brand.

What is the takeaway?

Your brand should be reflected in everything you do, especially your product. Google is dedicated to organising and presenting the world’s information and has a relentless drive to understand the market it serves and the clients within that market. It is that deep understanding and commitment to impeccable products that has brought its brand success. It has very little to do with their ‘simple’ logo, despite the fierce debate around the impact of their redesign.

Not to compare ourselves to Google, but we try to drive our brand with a similar philosophy. Yes, we have a logo but, honestly, it does not communicate our ‘brand’ the way other touchpoints do. The ‘why’ of our company is demonstrated through the focus our company has on combining philanthropy with design.  Projects like the Chicken Foundation have raised funds for the National Trust for the Cayman Islands.  They have brought us accolades and in the process that helped others understand who we are as a company. A window into the ‘how’ of our firm is seen through the way we communicate on Facebook and Twitter and the decision to drop parts of our business that do not match our core brand. The ‘what’ is found in our portfolio.

This, to us, is the essence of branding.

You are doing it wrong if you just consider the logo or the website or the suite of marketing materials to be your ‘brand’.

Form relationships with your clients. Don’t settle for transactional encounters. Understand what your clients want and refine how you can serve them. (By the way, we can help with understanding via our market research services).

With this understanding a creative and marketing strategy can be developed that best conveys the promise of your brand to your target audience.

We can help. Ask us how.