Graphic Design

What is Branding?

Branding can be seen from many angles as a few different things. In general it all boils down to what people see, hear and think of when they are viewing or thinking about your company. It is up to you as a corporate entity to shape the way people think about you and your products or services. Cadillac and Toyota are both “Car companies” but both are thought of or “BRANDED” differently. The same could be said of Wal-mart brand coffee and Starbuck Brand coffee. Its all in the branding. Branding usually is defined on the surface with simple things like Logo, color schemes, and general advertising keys. In reality it goes much deeper to encompass things like corporate values, customer service and general product or service quality. Hence, we get the term, “The Cadillac of (insert item name type here)!

An illustration of hidden branding at work

Recently my father in-law and I went for a quick trip to Wal-mart. As we walked in he made the funny statement, that if you had been to one wal-mart you had been to pretty much all of them. At first it didn’t really hit me the implications of this statement from a branding perspective. I, loving a good laugh and feeling like leaving this daily dread of another trip to Wal-mart, just laughed it off and didn’t think twice about it. About ten minutes into this trip, I noticed something different about one of the isles that I had been down probably hundreds of times before. The endcaps looked different. They looked… WRONG! Then I noticed they looked wrong because the isle spacing was much larger. Then I noticed why this was the case. The endcaps were simply missing. As we wnt on down the isle it actually discturbed me to see something so out of place in Wal-mart. When we hit the end of the isle things went really wrong. Instead of being able to see to the next set of isles, I merely could see another wall going in the wrong direction. At this point it started to feel like the world had changed. Why was something so trivial upsetting me so much?

As we went on to finish our trip we ended making our way through a maze of moved and adjusted isles that were unlike any Wal-mart I had been to before. The isles were narrow and about 3 times longer than usual. Not to mention the fact that were were headed in the wrong direction. I suddenly felt very out of place. This didn’t “FEEL” like Wal-mart anymore. It felt like one of the old one of a kind grocery stores or hardware stores that I had been to as a kid. Suddenly it dawned on me. The Wal-mart store clone idea had been a good one. As much as I love to make fun of the Wal-mart cloning idea, where all the stores are basically alike, it works. It had actually made me upset to see things out of place in such a grand way. I felt anxious and out of place even being there.

So,… What is my point?

My point is this, “Branding goes further than skin deep. In Wal-mart’s case it goes as far as isle spacing, placement and configuration.” The Wal-mart idea that I had made fun of fifteen minutes earlier was actually one that in my case gave me peace of mind even when I didn’t realize it. You know a Corvette when you see one because they are all alike (sort of). You know a wal-mart because they are all alike (usually). This is branding at a deeper level.

What should you take from all of this?

You should learn to incorprate branding a little deeper into your company. It should be more than just a logo or just a color scheme. It should go all the way to your customer service or packaging design or even to your store layout design. Great company’s have proven time and time again that consistency is the key to success. Branding is yet another name for that consistency. Think twice next time that you are deciding on anything that is visual with your company. Its, layout, color and function will help define your branding whether you realize it or not.

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