I’ve had several conversations this week that have led to this post…

It seems several people I’ve spoken to recently mistakenly equate branding with visual identity.

The two are not interchangeable.

Branding is the entirety of your customer experience. Any contact you have with a client that is repeatable or consistent is a part of that experience.

Your logo and design is only a part of that experience. Good design is a huge value add but it’s not your branding, it’s your visual identity.

Visual identity is its own thing within the larger brand experience.

Don’t mistake good design for a strong brand. There’s plenty of great design out there representing weak brands and plenty of bad design representing strong brands.

The backbone of any strong brand is: 1) An ideal that resonates throughout the customer experience. 2) A customer experience that’s repeatable and consistent.

That’s it. You can go into the nitty gritty, of course, but it doesn’t have to be more complicated.

Stand for something then prove it by consistently creating an experience around it. That’s your brand.