f you don’t understand what a branding agency is, you’re definitely not alone.
There are agencies that work in specific areas of marketing, like a social media management agency, or a digital marketing agency, or agencies that specialize in web design. Now, when it comes to branding, most people (and even professionals) think that a “visual identity” (graphic design) agency is a branding agency, but designing a logo is not branding, at all. I will explain.
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Let’s start by making the definitions very clear.
The word ‘Logo’ is the abbreviation of ‘logotype’, which comes from the Greek ‘Lógos’ and means “word” or “speech”.
The word ‘branding’ comes from the Germanic word ‘brand’.
‘Brand’ originally meant the act of burning or permanently marking something with a hot iron – we’re talking livestock branding here. Over time, ‘brand’ became “the type of product manufactured by the private company under a particular name” because just like livestock, that product comes with that brand.
Ok, now, while the LOGO is the visual symbol of a brand, the BRAND embraces not only the logo but the whole visual identity, as well as many other things like the slogan, the culture, the mission, the values, the positioning in the market, and, most importantly, the customer experience. Finally, we would then call BRANDING all of the strategies and actions that need to be taken to ensure that a brand is presenting the right experience to its customers.
For example, you have the LOGO of a spa – that’s just a symbol with the spa name. Then you have the BRAND of the spa – everybody knows that this is a fancy, expensive, top of the line spa, even as a franchise, you know what you will find there if you go, because that’s their brand. And then you have the BRANDING for this spa: from the way the place smells, to the products they use, to the quiet and warm tone the receptionists will greet customers, the song that plays in ther website, the gorgeous pictures in their social media, as well as a great location, beautiful lighting, the pricing… everything is in the BRANDING, and the way this spa is positioned in the market.
Branding is not something that you literally see, because it’s more about subjective aspects of a brand, like the perception and the emotions transmitted, as much as the values that a brand shares.
BRANDING IS EXPERIENCE
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OK, so what does a branding agency do?
We work to attract your customers in a way that they perceive your brand as the perfect solution for what they are looking for. That’s very abstract, I know. Professionals have also been using the iceberg metaphor to explain branding so let’s use this concept.
On the tip of the iceberg, you have the visual identity, marketing campaigns and strategies. The branding agency can work with that as long as the bottom part is taken care of. And what’s in the bottom part? That’s your fingerprint, your company culture or even your company’s soul.
A branding agency will guide you through some tricky questions like: Who are you? What do you offer that it’s unique? How and who are you offering this to? How do you connect with your audience?
And then we start working in whatever you need. Your business plan, your name, your mission, vision and values, your approach, your contribution to your community. After we’re done with this foundation, we create the perfect logo to match the brand, the stationery, the website, social media, marketing, advertising, public relations… there are dozens of things to do with a brand but an agency can only be called branding if it acts at the bottom part of the iceberg. That’s what we do and are super passionate about.
We’ve been writing about different stages of branding and you can see some of the related content below, but please do reach out to us if you have any questions.
Thank you!
