Beyond the Image of the Brand

Branding is so much more than a logo and a couple of good photos. Branding is a whole story. It encompasses everything that your brand is and stands for, and should constantly be updated as your brand evolves. 

One of the biggest misconceptions about branding visuals is that people often undermine the visual significance of it. Branding is a medium of communication; you have to understand the feeling you want your target audience to feel and translate that through your brand. Sometimes entrepreneurs will create brands and they don’t resonate with their audience because they don’t have the second set of eyes or an expert saying “this is how to communicate the message you are trying to send. That’s where we step in.

Branding is more than just style, it’s also the execution of that style. Think of style as different genres of music; you have rock, hip-hop, jazz, etc. What really resonates with the listener, though, is how that genre is interpreted and executed by the musician.

Execution is more about how you represent yourself and your brand. Think of a restaurant who wants to present a classy vibe. You see their brand, top-to-bottom, all put together and coagulated. From the sign on the window to the art to the napkins, you know what that restaurant is going for. Execution can be tricky as your brand grows though. There’s always the challenge of merging between modernization and keeping the aesthetic that your brand related to in the past without getting stale. 

Much like Dale talked about in his blog last week, brands often find what is working for other brands and try to replicate that because they know it is already successful. It’s hard to replicate one brand and still maintain your originality while staying within your own guidelines. At that point, it’s not going to be your brand anymore, you’ll just be trying to be someone else. 

Brands succeed when the core of it comes from their own original thought. People get caught up in trying to be someone else and lose sight of their vision and brand. 

When you’re creating a brand or a business it’s all about being original. People gravitate toward you because of who you are. The brand IS YOU. 

Think about it this way: when you walk into an interview you don’t want your clothes to be wrinkled. When you go out to dinner, you represent yourself in a way that feels authentic. 

The person wears the wardrobe, not the other way around. 

Your wardrobe (your brand) visually backs up what you’re trying to say. 

The biggest misconception about branding visuals is that you will connect with your audience if you are able to emulate what other successful businesses in your field are doing. 

A successful business, when it comes to branding, is being authentically you. 

When it comes to creativity, a lot of people jump to different mediums like pens, paper, or a paintbrush. Here at ACD we see it as a science. Our job is to bring awareness of your brand to the audience you desire. 

We take the time to work with you on drafting, finding your style, and developing a strategy around your brand so we can create a brand kit that resonates with your authenticity and uniqueness.

Branding isn’t about making yourself look cool or nice; it’s about being able to curate a style that resonates with your brand and a voice that reaches the audience that you want to resonate with. 

This is where the difference between a surface-level brand and one with depth become crucial in the success of your business. 

A surface-level brand is one that starts out as a great idea, you do the bare minimum to get your business off the ground, and you don’t put much thought into the vision or values. There’s no attention to detail here. You come up with a quick logo idea, buy a website, and hope for the best. The more that you pay attention to the smaller details, the more attention you’ll draw to your brand. Are you posting consistently visually? Or are you dropping in a photo or video and using whatever font you want? Details matter.

An in depth brand will do all of these things and more! They will take the time to carefully curate a vision for the brand long-term and create something that is so unique it will stop the show (and the scrolling) and draw attention to what the brand is all about. 

If a brand were a movie, let’s say, it would be something like a documentary. It has to tell the full story. There’s always a starting point and end point: where you are now and where you once were. All brands go through challenges, and those challenges are part of the story. There’s cut scenes from when your brand was doing well to scenes where you were working through some tougher times. All of these moments are put together in a cohesive way that tells your true and authentic story.

Our team has been doing branding for nearly a decade and the best part of the movie, for us, is watching the story unravel.

If you’re ready to start branding your business with the integrity and attention to detail it deserves, comment below or send us a message! We can’t wait to be a port of your creating your story.