Branding & Marketing Clarified

By Chardee' J. Scott, member

1. What is the biggest misconception about branding?

The biggest misconception about branding is that having a beautiful logo will attract potential clients.

A logo’s design is only a fraction of what is truly needed to convert engagement into sales.

Visual identity is important, but I would advise any potential branding client to spend time developing their brand story and business practices.

2. Many think that branding is merely creating a logo and developing the aesthetic of a product. What all does branding entail?

Branding is the visual concept or identity of your company.

Logos and products are marketing tools that help further promote your company.

The key is to create a thoughtful brand identity to draw in potential clients and set yourself apart from the competition.

Branding also includes establishing your brand voice (how you talk and write to your audience) and brand story (core values that help your audience connect with your brand).

3. When hired to develop a brand, where do you start? What information about the person, product, or service do you need to conceptualize and build out the brand?

We do our best to gauge our clients' preferences and expectations at the onset.

When my company starts on a new brand, we ask our clients to fill out a questionnaire to collect important information that we use when brainstorming design concepts.

Those questions ask the client to:

Tell us about their company,

Express their design style by selecting one of three options available, and

Share whether any other company’s branding appeals to them and why.

We also ask about color preferences and image suggestions.

Some clients are able to provide sketches to better convey their brand vision, which is helpful.

4. How do branding and marketing work together? Can you have success in one without the other?

Branding is a company’s visual concept or identity, whereas marketing is promoting and/or selling products or services while using those branding components.

It is certainly possible to have a beautiful brand yet not be as successful in marketing.

For example, marketing involves reaching a business’s target audience to increase engagement. If those target audiences aren’t reached, marketing can fail, no matter how well-executed the brand is.

Chardee' J. Scott is the Owner and Award-winning Designer of Pinch Design Co. Follow her on Instagram and Facebook. Contact her at hello@pinchdesignco.com.