The Miseducation of A Brand Passion Squared hd

The Miseducation of A Brand

April 18, 2016Nina KovnerGROW

“A cool logo does not make you a brand.”

My life’s work has been about creating brands, building brands, growing brands and reinventing brands. And each day I see the term brand used, is another day my heart breaks a little bit more as the word seems to become more misunderstood. And don’t get me wrong, it is perfectly OK to simply have a great business, but a great business is not the same as having an awesome brand.

What A Brand Is Not.
A logo
A website
A URL
A trademark
A name
An Instagram account
A building
A paint color
A business card
A business
A product
A service
A sticker
Etc…

What A Brand Is
A brand is an entire experience. How I feel when engaging with you and the decisions and actions I take (over time) because of that feeling. i.e. click, call, book, tell my friends.
A brand is…
An experience
A feeling
A connection
A culture
A relationship
A story
Which ultimately leads to a decision and choice to take action. Over time. Again and again.

According to Seth Godin, the master of all things marketing and one of my most early mentors of marketing… “A brand’s value is merely the sum total of how much extra people will pay, or how often they choose, the expectations, memories, stories and relationships of one brand over the alternatives.”

Several elements go into creating a brand of long term value. And yes, brand identity (logo, colors, fonts, image, etc.) is a part of creating an awesome brand, but it is not the brand. Big difference.

You can have a beautiful logo and no brand recognition.
You can have a cute sticker but no brand value.
You can have a beautiful building but no clients.
You can have a killer Instagram following but no relationships.
You can have a beautiful paint color but no connections.
You can have a fancy, overpriced website but no visitors.
You can sell a product or service one time but have no repeat clients over time.

So let’s play a game…
When you think of Passion Squared, how do you feel?
When you chose to do business with, follow or subscribe to Passion Squared, why did you make that choice?
When you recommend Passion Squared to your friends, what do you tell them and why?
When you engage with a Passion Squared coaching session, workshop or class, how do you feel when you leave?

If you said you feel empowered, have more clarity, feel loved, inspired, informed, you trust me, it feels like I understand you; that is when my brand has created some form of value for you and you made a choice of exchanging time and money for that experience.

And know this… All the work I have done over the last 5 years building the Passion Squared brand got us to this point. Each move I make, each workshop I teach, each program I create, each story I tell, each piece of content I share, each blog I write, its all strategic. Its all by design. And quite frankly, it has nothing to do with my cool logo. Cause the reality is, I had the logo long before you chose to engage with my brand. And the logo was meaningless and had no value, without all the other efforts I have put into creating something of value for you, consistently, over time. Again and again.

However, when you see my logo, if you know my brand, it inspires a feeling. A feeling I work daily to create. You see how this works? It’s not as simple as someone saying, “I am going to teach you branding”.

Creating a brand of value is much more than a cute logo or a bunch of followers on Instagram. Remember that.

Love + Awesomeness-
Nina

PS: I also wrote about this topic a few years ago here.

 

A cool logo blog header

A Cool Logo Does Not Make You A Brand

September 8, 2014Nina KovnerGROW

“Design is essential but design is not brand.” Seth Godin

 

For the last few years, I have had the privilege and honor of engaging, listening, and coaching small businesses in the beauty and wellness worlds. It truly is my purpose, and I am grateful every second I get the honor to empower those I love.

However, there is a trend I see happening that must be stopped, and that is the belief that if you make a cool logo, secure a domain name and throw up a website, you are a brand. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the truth must be shared. That does not make you a brand, it makes you a logo, domain and website owner. There is a big difference.

So, what makes a brand? While there are a gazillion elements, I will focus on a few that in my experience are the most important and powerful. No matter if you are a 1 person team or a 1000 person team, online or off, these principles apply…

1. Purpose + Promise
Having clarity around the purpose + promise of your business and the ability to communicate it through storytelling creates value + meaning (for your target audience), which in turn, create a brand.

2. Culture
How you communicate, the dialogue & systems you use, your team, how train your team,  your negotiables, your non-negotiables, how you make decisions, how you care for your team, how your team cares for your clients, all of these things create a brand.

3. Experience + Value
How the customer experiences your business, how they feel, the emotions that come up while engaging with your business, the value that is perceived in the mind of the client, that is a brand.

4. Strategy
Planning, what you say yes to, what you say no to, your plans, pricing, promotions, programs, that is the beginning of a brand.

5. Relationships
When people begin to engage with your business and relationships are built. When transactions take place, that is a brand. And knowing your audience. Who you are for, and who you are not for. Both very important.

6.Identity
Your look, your feel, your sounds, and the consistency of your look, feel and sounds, all of these elements combined, creates a brand. This is where your logo comes in.

You see, we have it kinda backwards. We don’t start with a logo when creating a brand, we actually end with a logo.

When creating a business, with must begin with our objectives, our WHY’s, the outcome we are seeking, our strategy, our culture, experience, promise, purpose, and then, when we have clarity around that, it is time to begin design. And not one second sooner.

Why? Well, a logo is designed to communicate a brand promise, purpose, culture, etc. So how in the world can a designer create a logo without knowing those things? In fact, more importantly, how can you create a legitimate business and a brand without knowing those things? You know?

Love + Awesomeness-
Nina