Branding vs Logo Design: What is more important for your business?
Logo Design is the process of designing a logo.
Branding is the set of strategies that companies use to build a brand following and eventually create a unique brand identity.
So, the short answer is, Logo Design is a part of Branding, and Branding as a whole is much more important than just logo design.
Why is branding more important?
Let’s look at it with an example. Take Apple. Yes, the company, obviously. Their name and logo have literally nothing to do with their products. Steve Jobs simply thought the name sounded fun, spirited, and not intimidating. And yet, when you think of Apple, the logo always comes to your mind. Why is that? It’s not because the logo is so attractive. It’s because of the brand that the logo represents. Marketing experts from all over the world strongly believe that the key to Apple’s success is its brand. Not the products, not the logo, but the brand.
So, what is a brand?
A brand is how people feel about your company and your products. Even though a logo is probably the first thing people notice about your brand, it’s not necessarily the reason why they choose you. It’s because of the experiences they’ve had with the brand. Those experiences are brought to you by the Branding strategies such as brand name, brand values, logo, font, visual design, advertisements, partnerships, customer service, etc.
Taking Apple’s example again, their brand is based on emotion and experience. They are what the marketers call “an emotional brand.” Over the years, their branding strategies focused on three principles.
- Empathy, where they repeatedly assure that they understand their customers’ needs better than any other company.
- Focus, where the spotlight is on big events with live audiences, like the ones Jobs used to present.
- Interaction, where they forge pathways for customers to get priority treatment, whether it’s accessing their products or receive special service.
If you notice here, all three points specifically target the emotions and experiences of customers, making them part of their brand, thereby developing this cult-like relationship. Be honest, if Apple released iPhone 12 tomorrow, with the exact same specs as iPhone 11, you’re still going to buy it. And that’s what a great branding will get you.
Evolution of Apple’s Logo
At some point, their brand-customer relationship transcended business, and has found an emotional place in people’s lives. So, even though the logo is simple and mostly irrelevant, when people look at it, they think about all the positive experiences they had, about how you are part of a brand that’s been at the pinnacle of innovation, imagination, and design. And Apple always makes sure that their customers feel connected to them through their branding strategies. So, while a great logo does attract audience, it’s the brand that they will ultimately care about. A logo is like a beautiful door. But that’s all it is. Without a beautiful house, it’s useless.
The idea that logo is the utmost thing for success, that an attractive logo will stay in people’s minds forever is simply not true. Because logos can change constantly, as it did for Apple over the years, but the emotional and experiential values that’s attached to it, that doesn’t change. And you can achieve that only with a focused branding.
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