What is Branding and Why Does it Matter?

Photo: Lyndsey Leach Photography | Featured Branding: Juniper Mountain House

When launching a business, it’s typical to focus all your energy on developing a product or refining your service lines. But as many entrepreneurs and small business owners can attest, simply making or offering a great product isn’t enough to attract your target audience. 

Branding is the first step in the process of intentionally attracting attention. But that doesn’t mean it’s purely superficial. Too many founders make the mistake of thinking, “I just need a logo.” But unless you’ve had the hard conversations—what problem am I addressing, how am I doing it differently, what values drive our process—even the most eye-catching logo is likely to fall flat.

When describing the branding process in her book, Obsessed, Emily Heyward, co-founder of award-winning agency Red Antler writes:

“Leading brands are able to form deep emotional connections because they stand for something that people care about. When I talk about brand, what I’m actually talking about is what a business stands for, at its very core.”

...And it when it comes to defining what your business stands for, you’re going to need some words. At Cognoscenti Creative, our branding process integrates your company’s verbal and visual identity for a reason. If you have a gorgeous logo and website, but your copy is far from compelling, you’re going to lose potential customers (and SEO traction). Similarly, if you have an amazing mission and vision for your company, but your visual presentation is subpar, it’s hard to be taken seriously.

In short, the branding process answers the question, “Why should people care?” The most successful brands not only answer this question—they integrate it into all their decisions, both creative and operational. When a brand’s visual and verbal identity is in lockstep with the way it treats its employees and makes people feel, that’s when you get a brand like Patagonia. 

As many of us know, Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard is famous for saying that you have to begin with strong values to successfully integrate them into your company. He famously opposes micro-managing and lets his “people go surfing,” per the title of his book. But what fewer people recall is that, in 1991, Patagonia found itself overextended in the midst of a recession, laying off 20% of its employees. In Chouinard’s own words:

“I realized we were just growing for the sake of growing, which is bullshit...I was faced with the prospect of owning a billion-dollar company, with thousands of employees making ‘outdoor-like’ clothing for posers.”

This story is important because we all know what happened next: Chouinard pulled back, retooled and built one of the most successful businesses in the history of the outdoor industry. He did this not only by reevaluating his operations, but also reimagining his brand—from becoming a B Corp to the infamous “don’t buy this jacket” ad campaign. 

At Cognoscenti Creative, we particularly love this story of reinvention because it reminds us that great brands can be built at any point in your business’ history. While we do work with companies that are pre-launch, more than half of our clients have reached a certain amount of success, but simply don’t know how to reach the next rung on the ladder. 

Just think about Apple for a moment. How many times has their brand evolved? It isn’t a sign of failure to go back to the drawing board. It’s a sign of self-awareness, of evolution. And if your company has never gone through a formal branding process, it’s not too late. Whether you’re about to publicly launch or a few years into building your business, we’d love to chat about how we can help tell your brand’s story.