The average consumer and several business leaders often confuse branding with logo designing. Even some agencies are guilty of this confusion when they claim to do “branding” but are involved only in “logo designing”.
You should know in detail about both terms to understand the difference between branding and design.
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What is a “brand”?
A “brand” is a name, design, symbol, or such other features that differentiate one product—either good or service—from another in the marketplace. This differentiation is required to ensure that a customer can understand why your brand is different, better, or more useful than its competitors.
A brand is how your customers perceive and experience the overall engagement with your organisation – it reflects your organisation’s values and functions and what it stands for. A brand, therefore, defines your business’s strengths, quality, and personality.
Essentially, a brand is your organisation’s reputation, as customers perceive. It is not what the organisation thinks about itself but what the customers think about it. A company’s branding efforts aim to build a positive perception in the minds of its customers, and those who succeed in doing it build a successful brand.
What is “design”?
This article will use the term “design” to denote logo design or brand logo.
A logo is a graphic element that visually represents a brand. It is part of a larger branding strategy that includes primary elements such as logo, colour scheme, fonts, and the brand’s visual architecture.
The logo is the most visible aspect of brand identity and appears on most touchpoints with customers and all internal and external stakeholders. It is often the first thing through which your customers will identify your organisation and, in many cases, is the only identifying attribute.
Therefore, the logo is one of the primary graphical elements that allow your customers to swiftly identify your company and its products in the marketplace or any other engagement platform.
Logo design is an essential part of the branding process as it:
Allows quick brand identification and recall
A logo is the primary brand identification mark.
The logo works across touchpoints and channels. Primary differentiator from the competitor
Logo designs use different shapes, styles, fonts and colours to show what a brand is and is not, compared to other brands in the category.
These elements can be protected under “intellectual property” laws and cannot be copied by a competitor.
An integral part of the company’s brand identity
The logo is part of the organisation’s visual brand identity.
The logo presents the brand’s name, values, and personality to its customers.
Develops consistency across all communication channels
As a modern organisation exists on different platforms such as websites, apps, social media, POS material, print and television advertising and so on, therefore, a properly designed logo helps it present itself consistently everywhere.
Enhances the organisation’s professional image and reputation
A professionally designed logo helps the company stand out better in the crowded market.
It also enhances the brand’s reliability and trustworthiness in the customers’ eyes.
The significant difference between branding and design
The primary difference between branding and design is that branding is a long-term exercise composed of tangible and intangible components. A business develops a branding strategy to improve the visibility and recognition of its products and services and increase sales.
Design is relatively a short-term exercise. Brand elements are designed to present a certain look and feel and engage customers as per current trends. You can modify, rework, or even replace these elements over time to keep pace with changing habits, trends and customer buying habits.
Other major differences between a brand and design
Now that we have understood the difference between a brand and design, let us explore the key differences between these concepts. Base v/s building blocks
Your brand is your business’s base.
Your branding strategy directs the marketing strategy, which in turn decides every other action required to attract, engage, and retain customers.
The design elements of your brand are the building blocks; they shape the brand identity and give your customers a way to engage visually with your brand so that they can remember and
recall it easily.
Design is a part of branding
Branding is a broad concept that includes tangible and intangible elements that create a particular perception regarding your company or product in the consumer’s mind.
Design, specifically logo design and other brand identity elements, is a subset of the overall branding process.
The design is derived from the branding strategy.
Visually, we can depict this point through the image given below:
Recognition
The logo and other design elements help customers identify and recognise a brand.
A brand without a visual design element is merely an idea or a concept.
A strong visual identity is unique, persuasive, and leaves a lasting impression on customers.
Brand strategy and brand design
An effective brand-building process requires both a strategy and a design approach.
One cannot work without the other.
The brand strategy helps build the brand architecture while the brand design brings out its visual elements.
Building the brand
As we saw above, design is a subset of the overall brand.
A robust design helps even a small company’s brand stand out in a crowded marketplace.
Scope of engagement
A brand has almost limitless engagement with a customer because it is a mix of tangible and intangible elements that engage them.
A customer may have different perceptions about a brand at different times.
They can also perceive the brand differently in different circumstances.
A design element’s engagement is limited to tangible points – the font, shape, colour and overall placement of the logo and other elements.
Conclusion
Branding is a process organisations use to help customers identify their products and services in the marketplace. Proper branding gives customers a reason to choose a particular product over a competitor’s. In this sense, a brand is both a logical and an emotional reaction to purchase cues. A branding strategy is developed to define and build a brand across all touchpoints.
A “design”, specifically a “logo”, is a graphic element representing the brand visually. It is the brand’s face to the outside world and allows the customers to recognise the brand instantly in any setting. A design has no meaning without an overall brand strategy.
A well-designed logo and a robust branding strategy can help your company reach its audience in a meaningful, relevant, and engaging manner. Together, these two elements can help your company build a resilient, industry-leading brand that stands out consistently from its competitors.