Who is branding for?

Have you ever wondered if branding is for your business? or Why would your business need branding?

In the past few weeks, I have heard many people say that "branding is not for me" or "branding will not add value to my business." Others ask, "Who is branding for?" So I decided to write a post about who is affected by branding, and why focusing on aesthetics are important in branding.

But first, a quote from the book I'm currently reading to set the tone about what a brand is.

“A brand is a person's gut feeling about a product, service, or company. It's a gut feeling because we're all emotional, intuitive beings, despite our best efforts to be rational.” - [The Brand Gap by Marty Neumeier]

We all know that alike with nature, the life of your business has its seasons and stages. First, you start as a one-person show and work with people individually in your sessions to keep your overhead low and to validate if this new venture can create money for you in the long term. You get your first clients from your group of friends because they trust you, and they see you live what you preach. Once you have some regular clients and money coming in, you decide to get your first logo and business card to look more professional.

Over the years, you start growing and investing more time and money into your business. You buy books, join Facebook groups for personal trainers and coaches, you purchase courses to learn how others do things, and understand what it takes to run a profitable business.

Since a brand is more like an aura of your business, branding is “the secret sauce” for both seasoned pros and newbie entrepreneurs to create an ever-evolving culture that grows alongside your business. Hence the reason why many businesses decide to rebrand in each stage of scaling up. But when you do decide to go through branding, you have to stand for something because, in today's information-rich world, we make choices after looking at symbolic attributes.

“Branding is “the secret sauce” for both seasoned pros and newbie entrepreneurs to create an ever-evolving culture that grows alongside your business”

Symbolic Attributes:

What is your process?
Where do you sell your courses?
What kind of people buy your programs?
Which "tribe" will I be joining if I purchase from you?
What are the other people say about you?
(Most important) Who are you?

When you know you can trust the seller, you don't overthink your purchase. Yes, trust. The most important pillar of a business is trust. And how can you create trust quickly? Invest in your aesthetics! To answer your question, why aesthetics? I brought another quote from Marty Neumeier's book.

“Because it's the language of feeling, and, in a society that's information-rich and time-poor, people value feeling more than information. Aesthetics is so powerful that it can turn a commodity into a premium product.” - [The Brand Gap by Marty Neumeier]

Just think about it! How do you purchase your fruits and vegetables for the week? Yes, you look at them. We, as humans, are visual creatures, and this affects us in business too. We ask ourselves, should I buy from this person? Does this person in front of me LOOK trustworthy?

Also, good news! You don't have to be worried about not having it all figured out. You can always change things on the go. Look at the evolution of the Adidas logo!

Evolution of the Adidas logo: