Branding

Branding is the art of influence. It is the work of making sure your business's reputation doesn't happen at random, and of nudging it in the direction that serves the business best. From the strategy, through the name and identity, the packaging and the website, to the way you greet a customer in your own shop — all of it is a brand impression. And impressions work over the long term, and they add up. The most common mistake of inexperienced founders is to cling to their logo when what is actually needed is a new, more focused way of looking at the business. That is why the most valuable thing to come out of a branding project is usually not a picture but clarity: it saves time, makes decisions easier, leads to better positioning and pulls the team in one direction. The logo and the identity are the artefacts that remind us of that clarity — the end point of the road, not the goal itself.

Related terms: Brand, Brand strategy, Rebranding.