Many businesses will jump straight into creating a logo with a Graphic Designer based on their personal preferences – choosing colours and typefaces they find personally attractive or basing their design from an existing logo they admire. Unfortunately, this approach will often lead to the need for a redesign within a few short years due to a maturing understanding of their market positioning and the needs of their clients. This boils down to a lack of understanding of their own brand.

So, What Is The Difference Between A Logo And A Brand?

What is a Logo?

In conventional language, we refer to any text, graphic icon, or combination-of-both which make up your personal Trademark as the logo.

As your logo is the proverbial flag for your brand – hoisted to the top of the mast on all customer-facing marketing – it’s important that your logo accurately conveys what your brand is about. A logo which is designed before the brand has been explored has a high chance of needing a complete do-over as your business and marketing efforts expand.

Your logo is just a small – albeit crucial – ingredient in the overall picture that is your brand.

What is a Brand?

Your brand is How Your Customers Talk About You. Their perception of your product/service is shaped around where they see you, how you present yourself, the type of language used in marketing materials and social media, the overall aesthetic, and whether you deliver on your promises.

A Brand Specialist will usually develop your branding using Brand Pillars as the foundation. These generally address the following:

  • Purpose – Why do you exist? What inspires your employees to work for you and feel a sense of pride and value? Is your purpose compelling enough to justify your customers choosing you over the competition?

 

  • Vision – Where is your destination? What is your image of the perfect future if everybody chose your service? What would be the ideal outcome?
    eg LinkedIn: “Create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce.”

 

  • Mission – What are you doing to get there? What are you providing for your target market to help them achieve their goals and make your vision a reality?
    eg LinkedIn “To connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful”

 

  • Values – How will you get there? What are the core principles you value the highest in your journey to achieve your mission and vision?
    eg LinkedIn “Members first. Relationships matter. Be open honest and constructive. Demand excellence. Take intelligent risks. Act like an owner.”

 

  • Positioning – Know your niche in the market. What are your customers looking for? What do you offer? What are competitors failing to provide? What do you do differently than the competition? What is your X Factor? Fill in the gaps.

 

  • Voice/Tone – The way you interact with your audience; the language you use and the feelings you convey. Are you proud and trustworthy? Are you playful and personable? This language should be consistent across all of your customer facing channels and reflect all of the previous Brand Pillars.

 

  • Look/Feel – The way you present yourself as a brand. This should complement the voice/tone of your messaging and is where raw creative design comes into play. If you are proud and trustworthy you may use bold, uppercase, san serif type faces and crisp, clean, corporate imagery relying on an oxford or navy colour palette. A playful and personable brand may feature vibrant colours, hand-written or script typefaces, and imagery reliant on positive emotions; relateable models with large smiles engaging in social activities or achieving goals that your target market aspires for.

When all of these have been defined, your business should have a clear structure to build both its internal and external communications upon. This structure will provide some control over what customers say about you – and therefore how they define you as a brand. 

If you choose to approach obstacles as they appear rather than preparing the way with your Brand Pillars, then there is a good chance your service or product will become lost in a sea of competitors, and your staff may be left unsure about the goals of the company as you navigate the marketing world rudderless.


Every Successful Brand Needs A Logo Mark, And Every Memorable Logo Mark Requires Brand Strategy

The Genki Brand Strategy Ship
When we imagine your Brand as a Ship – sailing the Seas of Lead Generation – your logo is the flag at the top, your various marketing efforts are the sails which generate movement in your desired direction, and it all stays afloat thanks to the hull built with Brand Strategy.

To go into the logo design process without first having a clear understanding of what your brand is about, who it benefits, and what your customer’s needs and frustrations are, is to start dyeing the sails before the hull has been framed.

So now that we understand the importance of your Brand when it comes to developing a great logo, what are the next steps?


Get A Consultation

Every branding project with Genki Graphic starts with a deep dive session where your back story, your place in the market, your customers, and the unique X-Factor which sets you apart from your competitors are thoroughly explored.
With the information learned from you and your customers, a blueprint can be set up for both the visual direction of your logo, as well as the type of complementary messaging which needs to be employed throughout ongoing marketing efforts.
At Genki Graphic the goal is to provide more than just a great looking logo – but to help you set up a fantastic brand.