Marketing Myth: Branding is Just Frills. 06/10/16 | Doug Cofer What is branding anyway, and what role does it have in marketing? It’s just the stuff that makes your company pretty right? Like the logo, or maybe the design of your website and advertisements, right? NO! Too often people are misled to believe that branding is just the frilly part of marketing, but it is so much more. First, let’s establish that branding is not the push of marketing but the pull. Although branding does have a lot to do with what your company looks like, it has more to do with how your company is perceived. This perception is what invites people to buy into your company and stick around as a customer or client. Branding itself does not push product on the consumer or run up sales, rather it is a partner to these functions– it draws people into who you are. But what in the world do we mean when we are talking about who your company is? Hang with us, we’ll explain– Branding is the fundamental expression of what your companies core beliefs and values are. It communicates characteristics, values, and attributes that clarify what your particular brand is and is not. Thus, it takes you knowing who your company is very very well to come up with an effective branding strategy. The strategy behind a brand is really what branding is all about– and yes it does incorporate a lot of design aspects, but good branding goes far past that. Your brand is the space your company takes up in the consumers mind– it is what the consumer unconsciously associates with your product or service whether or not they buy into it. This “space” is created by a medley of targeted messaging weaved into all of your content, intentional consistent design, and purposeful language. Marketing may activate the consumer, but branding evangelizes your customer. That is some pretty powerful stuff to engage– no frills here.