Let’s get one thing straight— Branding can get you paid more, but only good branding. Now, onto what good branding actually is? and how to build a good brand?
Every time you click on a video or read a blog about branding, you get one of two recycled pieces of advice:
1. “Be consistent with your colors, typography, layout and a bunch of other jargon like “tone” and “values” that sound deep but rarely translate into anything real.
BUT,
That’s not branding. That’s visual identity.
Logos, fonts, and colors are like a name tag. They help people recognize a brand—not build it.
2. Or,
“Branding is about associating your product with an emotion, aspiration, or some larger than-life ideal your audience already admires.”
That’s actually a decent definition of Branding.
But, how do you really connect a tangible product to an abstract idea in a way that sticks? Surprisingly, we get the answer to this question from the last scenes of “Game of Thrones” when Tyrion Lannister picks Bran the Broken as King he says;
“What unites people? Armies? Gold? Flags?
Stories
There’s nothing more powerful in the world than a good story.
And who has a better story than Bran the Broken”
As much as it was poetic nonsense in practical political context, it is solid gold when applied to Branding.
(Because Tyrion was more of a businessman than a statesman anyway)
Great brands are built on stories.
Not fairy tales or fantasy narratives. But stories that tie together what a brand does, why it matters, and where it fits into the customer’s life.
What does that mean in practice, let’s take the example of most boring product imaginable, ‘Water Bottles’.
but what if you tell a story where these water bottles are a companion to people training for something bigger–a better body, a marathon or a sharper mind?
You just associated your Water bottle with discipline, something your audience already values and have a desire for.
That’s exactly how you build a brand.
Storytelling simplified:
Every story has three fundamentals
Protagonist.
Antagonist.
Plot.
Protagonist:
Many Brands make a mistake here, they make themselves the hero of the story, someone who will himself solve all the problems, they make everything about themselves, in their story, they are the lead character, the customer is miserable, and they help him out of the misery.
but, that’s not how it should work, make your customer the hero of story, make it their story and place yourself as the supportive sidekick. Help them solve their struggles themselves in the story, that will stick longer and have a stronger impact.
for example, Nike doesn’t portray their shoes as athletic greatness, they portray it something that will help YOU achieve athletic greatness. They make YOU the protagonist, because that’s what everyone wants to be.
Antagonist:
It’s not your competitor; but the habits, fears, and insecurities of your customers that are hindering their dream outcome. It could be laziness, it could be dehydration causing loss of energy and motivation, in case of above-mentioned example of water bottles.
create a clear villain and show how your product will help your customer overcome it.
Plot:
quite obvious already,
it’s a struggle of protagonist versus the antagonist with your product as the supportive sidekick.
Your story must tap into real feelings: ambition, fear, love, nostalgia, pride.
If your story doesn’t stir something inside your audience, it won’t stick.
Repetetion → Belief.
A good story told once is entertainment. A good story told a thousand times is a brand. You must repeat your story across everything and enough times that it becomes the truth.
Think about Brands you know:
Every brand you remember and can name right now, is because they created and narrated good, relatable and memorable stories repeatedly.
IKEA, Gymshark, Sephora, Starbucks, Nike, Harley Davidson and every other.
They all used emotionally resonant stories, either created those stories themselves or collaborated with people who lived those stories.
Visual Identity—symbol of association
Once you have those stories, then you create symbols around it, that carry your story and represent the association.
This is where things like logo, colors, fonts, and tone actually matter. Once your story is clear, you create marks that represent it.
And to achieve the correct and punchy representation of the association (The brand) you use style guidelines and maintain consistency in your visual identity.
TL;DR
Branding and visual identity are two different things.
Branding is deliberate association of your product with something—an idea, a goal, a lifestyle that your audience already admires.
The strongest way to build that association is a damn good story which is repeated enough times.
and that story is then symbolized by marks—logo colors fonts and tones which we call visual
identity.
