You are your brand not your logo

If you search the internet for ‘logo’ and ‘branding’ you’d often find websites or personal blogs featuring ‘list of things you should do in order to build a strong brand’. The author often suggests that "start with design" and continues writing about how business identity design is the first thing you need to work on when building a brand. Regrettably, most authors got it wrong. Of course, good design is important, but it is not the first step for building a brand. In the branding process, a clear brand strategy comes before the design. Many design companies try to sell you the cookie-cutter notion that you need a new logo. Some also tell you that your business identity system is not trendy enough and that branding is all about design! No wonder so many kickstart businesses fail before even reaching a break-even point. The most common whines from these unsuspecting business entrepreneurs are "I paid a fortune for a beautiful logo and branding, but nothing changed", or “We have built really great looking business identity, but our online sales sucks". The problem is, they don’t know what a logo is not their brand and design can't solve business problems, no matter how dazzling and trendy it is. Good branding is NOT about design, it’s about personality and feelings. Branding is creating a feeling, a certain perception at the right demographic’s mind through careful brand building strategy, making a guideline and following that guideline consistently over time. Design alone can’t pull if off. Business id design is actually an integral part of this strategy and the guideline and often considered as just the execution. Before you go for your business identity design, you must do a lot of homework, from market research about the competitor’s brand to future trends. To build a brand you need a brand strategy development plan first, you need to define your product or service. Make sure it has a personality, a voice and most importantly, a purpose. If your product depends on your personal brand or goodwill, then you have to define yourself as well to be prepared to deliver or project yourself to your intended market consistently by following a plan. Find out what benefits your brand supposed to give to the customers. Define those customers, their age group, culture and find out how they feel about your brand or product or if their perception is different than yours. That is the bare minimum and only after you complete this vital step, you should start the process for your brand logo design and so on. Finding the right designer also a part of the good brand development strategy. Look for a designer or a design agency that can demonstrate a graphic style that best represents your brand's personality and customers’ needs. Designers often tends to convince you to go with what they are comfortable with, when in reality, what your business clients are comfortable with matters the most, not you. Try to avoid hiring a designer who push for a ‘trendy’ logo. Even if your brand is all about staying trendy, always remember that Brands don't follow trends and your trendy logo will become obsolete as the trend changes next season. It's not about how good your logo is, it's about the right design to represent your brand's personality according to your target customer base’s perception.