Brand vs. Branding: Why You Need to Know the Difference
Believe it or not, brand and branding are not the same thing. Here’s why that’s important.
Does a small business really need branding? There isn’t one right answer. To get to the core of this question, we have to do a little bit of decoding. Specifically, we need to talk about the word “brand”.
Not all small businesses need an intentional branding effort to succeed. In some cases, it basically doesn’t matter at all.
Wait, aren’t I undermining the value of my own work?
Not quite. Let me explain.
There is a difference between “brand” and “branding”. This is an important distinction when you’re deciding whether to invest in branding in a more serious way.
Brand is the perception your audience has of you and your work.
Branding is the intentional process of shaping that perception, along with the strategy and assets resulting from that process.
What this means is that if you’ve been working for yourself in a particular industry, you have a “brand”. Even if you’ve only been at it for a year, or haven’t legally established a business entity and are working off the books. You may not have done this on purpose, but anyone you’ve worked with or sold product to has a mental and emotional association that amounts to a brand.
The fundamental truth of branding is, if you have a business, you have a brand. Period.
I’ll give you an example. Our family handyman is a dude named Elmer. Elmer is the best. He’s easygoing, friendly, and reliable, always happy to answer questions, and tactfully honest. He’s thorough and efficient, which means projects don’t drag on and the quality of his work stands up to time. His prices are reasonable. He’s so popular that sometimes it’s hard to get him booked—which, though frustrating, is a mark of his quality. We love Elmer. Elmer doesn’t have a brand strategy, a custom logo, a company tagline, a social media presence, a marketing budget, a graphic designer. Just a truck, his gear, his expertise, and his word-of-mouth network.
Elmer doesn’t have “branding” but he definitely has a brand. The fact that I’m able to clearly articulate all those personal and professional qualities and connect them together based on experience is proof of the brand. That’s all Elmer needs to run a successful business and make a living.
What does this tell us?
It tells us that a brand is simply perception. It’s the impressions amongst clients and customers created by the aggregate of the choices you make.
Put another way, a brand is a shared story in the minds of the people who have interacted with your business.
“But Hope, if brand is just other people’s perception, and I can’t control other people’s perception, doesn’t that mean I can’t control my brand?”
Ah. Now we’re getting somewhere.
It’s true, we can’t control how we’re perceived. But we can control our choices, and our choices influence how we are perceived.
This is “branding”.
Here’s a hypothetical:
Say you’re invited to a friend’s dinner party. Half the guests are close mutual friends, and the rest are your friend’s colleagues whom you’ve never met. If it were a casual get together with those mutual friends, you’d be perfectly comfortable showing up in sweatpants with Tostinos chips and salsa. They already like you no matter how you outwardly present yourself. Your friend’s colleagues, however, have no sense of who you are because they’ve never met you.
So you have a choice to make based on the situation. You could go the sweatpants and Tostitos route based on the familiarity with your mutual friends. You have no need to exert influence over their perception of you. But, taking into consideration the other guests, you would probably adjust how you show up to the party.
Instead of sweatpants, you would likely opt for a cute outfit, and instead of Tostitos and salsa, maybe a bottle of decent wine. Why? Because how you show up and behave at the party will create an impression of who you are that is appropriate to the situation, even if you have established a positive impression amongst the people you already know.
If you’re the sweatpants and Tostitos person most of the time, great. But meeting new people (especially folks who know each other through professional networks) in a more formal situation is a different goal than casually hanging out with your usual crew. You have to evaluate whether your more casual self-presentation is going to accomplish your goal.
This is the value of branding. It’s about taking initiative in managing how people perceive you, and it can make a big impact on your success as a business.
Whether or not this is valuable for your business depends on what you do and for whom, and what your goals are.
This fictional scenario also illustrates why our friend Elmer doesn’t need “branding”. His brand is structured (intentionally or not) to function without it by relying on localized word of mouth. The most self-promotion he would need is putting up signs around a neighborhood. He’s built his business around that and has no need to expand beyond it to reach new audiences or offer innovative services. My design and strategy services would literally be a waste of his time and money.
UNPOPULAR OPINION ALERT: Designers, my past self included, often say branding is necessary for the success and longevity of a small business. I don’t believe that’s true across the board, and I feel that idea dilutes the wide range of approaches out there.
But there are a lot of reasons to invest in branding.
Branding Shapes How People Perceive Your Business
As a small business, you are what you do, at least when it comes to other people’s perception. Whether you choose to shape that perception is what matters.
If you have a business, you have a brand, positive or negative, intentional or not.
If your operation is small and therefore able to be extremely attentive to each individual, that’s your brand.
If you fly by the seat of your pants and slap things together at the last minute, that’s your brand.
If you’re attentive to detail and go above and beyond to ensure the client gets great value, that’s your brand.
If you have a logo that looks like it was created in 1998 and you send tersely written emails, that’s your brand.
If you’re dedicated to using the best ingredients and materials no matter what, that’s your brand.
If you focus on being the cheapest possible option in your niche at the expense of quality, that’s your brand.
So, does your brand line up with how you want to be perceived?
Branding is your chance to grab the reigns and shape perception. Just like meeting new people or networking for work, how you choose present yourself can make or break the outcomes of those relationships.
If you are new to a space in the market, pivoting your work, expanding your reach, introducing something new to an industry or market niche, leaning into promoting your business, or need to elevate your style and language, you should invest in influencing your desired perception. If you’re trying to niche down and be more targeted, you should start taking branding seriously.
The good news is, it doesn’t have to be complicated. You don’t have to pretend to be someone else. You just have to make intentional, aligned choices.