Branding Is Not About Looking Good. It Is About Being Remembered.

By the CEO, Metatron Ads

There is a question I sometimes ask when someone tells me they want to “build their brand.”

What exactly do you want people to remember about you?

Usually, the conversation starts with a logo.

Then comes the colour palette. The website. The brochure. Social media. Maybe a new tagline.

All of these are important. But none of them, individually, is the brand.

A brand is what remains in someone's mind after all those things have been experienced.

And that is where branding becomes interesting.

You can create a beautiful identity fairly quickly.

But you cannot manufacture familiarity overnight.

Think about the brands you recognise instantly. Sometimes you don't even need to see the name. A colour combination, a shape, a sound, a packaging style or even a particular tone of communication is enough.

That is brand equity at work.

It is the accumulated value of all the experiences people have had with the brand.

• Some were created by advertising.
• Some by the product.
• Some by customer service.
• Some by the salesperson.
• Some by a conversation with an employee.
• And some simply by seeing the brand consistently over a period of time.

That is why I don't believe branding ends when the brand guidelines are approved.

Consistency Doesn't Mean Being Boring

There is a misconception that consistency means using exactly the same design everywhere.

I don't think so.

Consistency is about having a recognisable personality.

A brand can behave differently on LinkedIn, Instagram, a website, a presentation or a physical event and still feel like the same brand.

• The tone may change.
• The format may change.
• The audience may change.

But the underlying character shouldn't.

That's the difference between a brand that has an identity and a brand that simply has a logo.

And Then There Is the Temptation to Keep Changing Things

This happens quite often.

A new marketing head comes in. The website feels old. A new logo is discussed. Six months later, the colours change. Then the communication style changes.

Then another agency comes in and decides that the brand needs to “look younger.”

And somewhere along the way, the market loses the ability to recognise the company.

Not every problem is a branding problem.

Sometimes the brand simply needs more consistent expression and more time.

Brand Equity Is Built in Small Moments

• A customer receiving a well-written email.
• A salesperson presenting a proposal that feels unmistakably like the company.
• A product package that is instantly recognisable.
• A social post that sounds like the brand.
• An employee explaining the company in exactly the way the brand wants to be understood.

These things may seem small.

Together, they create memory.

And memory creates preference.

The Real Question

So when a company asks me, “Should we invest in branding?”

My answer is almost always yes.

But I would change the question.

Don't ask:

“How much should we spend on our brand?”

Ask:

“What do we want our brand to be worth five years from now?”

That changes the conversation completely.

Because branding isn't an expense we undertake to look good this quarter.

And that, ultimately, is what brand equity is about.