Before a customer speaks to you, buys from you or even visits your website, they’ve already started forming an opinion. Those first impressions matter, and your business only has a limited amount of time to make the right one.

Branding is one of the most effective ways to shape the way people think about your business, but creating the right impression takes more thought than simply choosing a logo and putting it everywhere. 

At Due North Creatives, we help businesses in Scotland create brands that people remember. In this blog we’ll share what branding actually means, and why it’s about so much more than a logo.

Your Logo Isn’t Your Brand

Your logo might be the first thing that comes to mind when someone thinks about you, but it isn’t the full story. Think of your logo as a small part of the puzzle that makes up your whole brand. 

Your brand consists of many elements working together:

• Logo
• Visual identity
• Colour palette
• Tone of voice
• Typography
• Messaging 
• Values

Each of these elements plays a different role, but together they create the identity people recognise and remember. Your logo might identify your business, but your wider branding tells people who you are, what you stand for and what they can expect from you.

This is why getting a new logo won’t solve your branding problems. Your marketing materials, website and social media might all feature the same logo, but if they’re not consistently branded across every element, your logo is like a plaster on a bullet wound.

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Branding is About How You’re Perceived

Think about some of the most famous brands in the world. While you might’ve pictured a logo, there will be many other thoughts – and feelings – that come to mind. The branding choices we don’t even think about all go towards shaping our perception of a business.

For example, think about the meaning behind different colours. Blue can signal a calmness, or it can be clinical or professional. Green often brings to mind thoughts about sustainability and nature. Bright colours might say fun, while muted tones can feel luxurious. For any brand, the colours you use should be carefully chosen to represent who you really are.

Choices like these colours, alongside typefaces, alter how you’re perceived, and they have nothing to do with your logo. For the best brands, they become synonymous with who they are. An obvious example is Apple, whose strategists have spent decades building a brand identity that’s clean, simple and modern.  This mirrors their products, which are minimally designed, work together seamlessly, and are easy to use despite featuring the latest technology. This is brand mastery at work – and it’s about so much more than a logo.

More Than Appearances

Now we’ve established that your brand is more than a logo, it’s time to explore why it’s also not just about how things look. Branding carries over to what you say, and how you say it. Tone of voice, language and how much you say (or don’t say), change how people perceive your business. 

Are you firm and authoritative, playful and approachable or calm and professional? Every approach can work, but it’s about finding the tone that works best for your business and your offering, and most importantly reflects the audience you want to connect with.

The best brands do this seamlessly, shaping how you view them every time you read an advert, browse their website or see their social media post. The important thing here is consistency – so make sure your brand carries the same voice across every touchpoint.

Great Branding Makes You Feel Something

Your brand changes the way your customers feel about your business. 

If your branding is consistent with who you are, and is used properly across every touchpoint, it might lead to positive feelings such as: acceptance, happiness, warmth. It might make your customers feel like they want to be part of your community, or want to support your mission. 

These positive feelings build up to the most important of all: trust. When your ideal customers trust you, they’re more likely to take that first step to reach out, learn more, or make a purchase.

On the flipside, if your branding is inconsistent you might make people feel wary of your brand. If your branding doesn’t match what you do – for example you use the much-maligned typeface Comic Sans on a website designed to sell high-value homes – that feeling might be doubt about the quality of your product and the expertise of your business.

A logo alone can’t produce these feelings, which is why a full strategy is so important for any effective brand.

Strategy Comes First

Before all great brands, there were great brand strategies. 

Your brand strategy needs to come before any design work takes shape. It should cover who your key audiences are, how you want to come across, what you stand for and what makes you different. Without this, your branding will feel directionless, inconsistent with who you actually are, and fail to resonate with your ideal customers. 

Strategy can be built in lots of different ways – workshops, team meetings, market research, consultancy, but it should have one goal: giving your branding a purpose. This purpose will help your designers, copywriters and marketing team ensure that your brand is always strong and helps you show up the way you want to.

Build a Brand People Remember

If your branding feels outdated, inconsistent or simply doesn’t reflect the business you’ve become, it might be time to look beyond the logo.

At Due North Creatives, we work with businesses in Scotland to build brands that stand out and connect with the right audience. Combining strategy with creativity, we help you uncover what makes your brand special, and design the tools that bring it to life across every touchpoint.

No matter if you’re starting from scratch, or need a refresh, we’re here to help. Get in touch to begin making the most of your brand.