What Is a Brand?

When someone comes to me asking for help with copywriting, one of the first questions I ask is, “Have you done branding work?”

From defining your brand strategy and place in the market to creating brand language, branding is one of the most important steps you can take to grow...but I find that many people do not know what this means or if they even have a brand in place.

Despite the fact that we interact with brands every minute of every day, branding can feel like this vague, intangible idea. But it doesn’t have to be confusing or intimidating. By going through a strategic process, you can build an AMAZING brand that will help you connect with others in ways you didn’t even know were possible.

To help answer your questions and demystify the branding process, here is quick guide to what a brand actually is, what it includes and what it takes to create a great brand.

What is a brand?

A brand is simply an outward facing representation of your company, organization, product or even yourself. It’s a way of personifying who you are and clearly communicating that so you can build a relationship with your audience.

It helps 1) ensure you’re consistent and clear in how you communicate 2) create connection with your audiences and 3) distinguish you from the competition.

Everyone who is trying to connect with an audience has a brand, whether you’re an artist or influencer or a big company. People have to know who you are in order to build a relationship with you, but just like you wouldn’t introduce yourself at a party with your entire life story, your brand should quickly introduce the most important things about you so others can connect and want to get to know you better.

Your brand is how you strategically tell your story.

But what exactly goes into a building brand?

Think about your favorite brands. You might picture their logo, but that’s not the only thing you remember about them. You might also feel a certain way when you think about the brand, be able to describe certain attributes or character traits of that brand or hear the brand’s tone of voice in your head.

Brands are made up of many elements that work together to create the brand:

Vision and values
Personality and attributes
Voice
Key messaging
Brand language (tagline, elevator pitch, etc.)
Logo
Other visual elements like photography and artwork

They can also be made up of experiential elements like product packaging, store design and customer service. These elements are not necessarily part of marketing but are an important part of building positive brand perception.

I help with brand strategy, which covers everything but the visual branding. Brand strategy is made up of brand positioning and brand messaging:

Brand positioning helps you figure out who you are and where you stand in the market. This is a strategic process that includes brand personality, voice and other positioning elements.
Brand messaging helps you communicate your brand positioning to your audience. It defines key messages and gives you foundational language that helps people quickly understand who you are and what you offer them. This is both a strategic process and creative writing process. These elements are used in marketing materials.

What gets in the way of a good brand?

It’s really, REALLY hard to create your own brand strategy. Sure, you know your brand better than anyone else, but there is such a thing as getting too close and knowing too much. It can be difficult to tell what really makes you unique and easy to get caught in the weeds.

These are some of the common issues that keep your brand from connecting with your audience:

You try to communicate too much at once. Good brands drill down to the most important essential elements of who they are and hit those points over and over until they are remembered.
You don’t communicate those essential elements clearly or consistently (feels all over the place).
You don’t understand your audience and their pain points. Maybe you don’t even know who your audience is.
You make it all about yourself, telling your audience who you are but not speaking to what they want or what you can do for them or connecting with them on an emotional level.
You don’t take your audience on a journey and communicate the right things in the right order, causing confusion or leading to inaction on the audience’s part.
You don’t use clear, compelling language (some of the hardest copy you will write involves trying to get your whole brand into a sentence or two. It’s an art and a science and every word matters).
You think copywriting will solve your messaging problem (more on this below).

Having an outside set of eyes and ears can help you sort through the clutter and figure out what really makes your brand stand out. It’s kind of like going to therapy. You have all the answers inside you, but sometimes you need someone else who can help you get the clarity you need to move forward.

What is the difference between brand language and marketing copy?

One of the biggest mistakes I see is when organizations try to solve a branding problem with new copy. While good copy is essential to good marketing, if you don’t feel like you’re telling your story, engaging your audience or clearly communicating what you do, the problem is likely rooted in the fact that you don’t have a clear brand.

Brand language is how you define and describe your brand in the quickest way possible. It is foundational and guides all the copy you create. Your marketing copy is the vehicle you use to communicate your brand and message.

Copy can serve a very specific purpose (like an email newsletter or getting someone to download an e-book), speak to a specific audience or sell a specific product. Copy also gives you a chance to expand on your brand language and tell your audience more about you or your offer. Copy has its own strategic framework based on the type of copy and goal (for example, sales copy uses a different approach than blog copy).

Different types of copy will use different parts of your branding, but they will always reflect it. For example, you probably won’t use your brand language in a blog post, but you will want to be sure the tone of that post reflects your brand voice. On the other hand, your website homepage copy will be mostly made up of your brand language.

Think of branding like the recipe and copy like the finished dish. A recipe that you never cook won’t do anything for you, but at the same time, you’re not going to end up with anything appealing if you just start throwing everything in the fridge into the pot without a one (unless you’re Italian; I see you, Nonna.) Branding is your guide and copy is your final deliverable. Copy is what your audience consumes, but it has the elements of your brand in it.

So, where do I start?

I know this can feel overwhelming, but branding is actually really fun and exciting! It’s how you take the idea that’s in your head (which includes all your passions, all your thoughts, all your ideas, all your gifts and all the things that keep you up at night) and translate it into something that others can understand, connect with and love as much as you do!

Brands win when they understand their audiences and what they uniquely offer them, identify the essential elements an audience needs to know to understand the brand and communicate those in a clear, engaging way that makes the audience want to learn more or take the next step. This takes a combination of strong brand strategy and strong copywriting to both define and communicate the brand.

Need help building your brand? Email at kristenshoates@gmail.com to schedule a free consultation.