Before the Logo: What No One Tells You About Branding (Part 1)

This is Part 1 of a 3-part series of blog posts providing an in-depth, first-hand overview of what you should expect, and what you need to know, about the Branding (or Rebranding) process.

Branding Isn’t Just a Logo

If you're thinking of rebranding, or building a brand from the ground up, the whole process will go much more smoothly when you know what all is really involved.

Over my design career, I’ve branded everything from mom-and-pop shops and indie musicians to Y Combinator fintech startups — even serving as the primary brand designer for a trillion-dollar investment bank.

This wide range has taught me a lot about the many different facets of the branding process, and I’ve honed a set of key branding insights (typically tucked away behind very expensive agency deliverables) and today, I’m pulling back the curtain on what can be a nebulous and/or overwhelming process. Let's dive in!

Fun Fact: Even a logo isn't just a logo - every logo needs multiple formats, sizes, colors, and variations (with and without wordmarks), and must have versatility for a myriad of contexts and applications

‍

Defining Scope: Baseline vs. Full-Scale Branding (aka "The Whole Enchilada")

Sometimes, you already have a great logo, or maybe even a basic color palette - but you’re missing key brand-defining elements. Or, your extensive style guide and assets are simply showing their age, built for a market that no longer exists. And if you're just getting started, you might not have any brand elements at all. Regardless of where you're starting, you'll need to define the scope of the effort to ensure you have both the budget and resources you'll need to pull it off - before you even start the process.

Depending on the the size, scale, and industry of your business, as well as the current-level of branding maturity, it's also important to take a critical look at your market position to determine how to best move forward. You need to know why you're going through this process from the get-go, in order to ensure buy-in from stakeholders along the process (more on this next).

A "Bare Minimum" Branding Components Checklist:

How do you know what branding elements your business needs? At a minimum, these are the core elements that any company needs to have for successful branding:

1. Logo Lockup: The visual mark for your company, in both print and digital formats, for both light and dark backgrounds, with transparency, in high-resolution (i.e., not just a JPG).
2. Color Palette: One primary color, and at least one secondary color, at a minimum.
3. Typeface: A readable, legible font for use in both print and digital (note: this should be different from any stylized typeface used to create your logo).

Note: Beware of any "Sacred Cows" when re-branding. I've often found that someone in the business will get "anchored" to a specific element of branding, and want to ensure it stays as-is (in one case, it was a literal "anchor" in a logomark). It could be a color, element of the logo, tagline, etc. If you're going to do a full re-branding, explore ALL options for all aspects of your branding. At this early stage of the process it's better to explore a wider array of options that to impose any specific (or arbitrary) restrictions.

‍

Stakeholder Buy-In: "It's a Requirement"

New branding affects everyone in the company at some level, and the rationale for going through the process should be rock-solid and have support all the way from the top-down to ensure success. Once the scope has been determined, the plan will need to be reviewed and approved, along with the scope and resources, before the process can move forward.

I've learned the hard way that executive buy-in is a MUST for any major-scale branding (or rebranding) activity - otherwise, it'll be doomed to fail. The larger your organization, the bigger the "roadshow" you'll need to do to get all departments on-board and aware that the branding project is coming (since other teams will be inevitably impacted). But first, you'll need the CEO's sign-off before you can get buy-in from the rest of leadership. While it's typically the marketing team leading the effort, the CEO must be the one to ultimately sign-off on the final deliverables, as well as give approval for the project to move forward.

From my own experience, I know that getting leadership buy-in is no easy feat: In one executive branding workshop I led, mid-way through the exercises had one executive say to the group that he essentially "didn't believe" in any of it, and offered to withdraw himself from the process. Thankfully, since the CEO was bought-in, he helped to chime-in and reinforce the value of the process. so the workshop could continue. I paused the exercise to ensure any concerns were captured (and later addressed), and that we'd regained alignment as a group, before proceeding with the rest of the exercises.

‍

Lessons Learned & Key Takeaways:

• Define the scope early to ensure everyone's aware of the scale of the effort. If you're in a corporate environment and rebranding, this could be a months-long, or even multi-year process.
• Ensure the value of branding (or rebranding) is fully captured and effectively communicated to aid with both stakeholder and staff buy-in, so they'll help carry the new branding forward when it arrives.
• Get the branding project in front of the CEO as early as possible, to ensure they are onboard. The branding process cannot move forward without them.

Next Up:

Part 2: Building the Brand Foundation

Thinking about a rebrand — or building a new brand from scratch? I can help. Send me a message and let’s make your brand unforgettable.