What Is Branding? Spoiler Alert: It’s Not Just Your Logo

What exactly is a brand? As a marketing consultant with experience working with countless nonprofits, I’ve found that many nonprofits are a bit confused about their brand. Is it their logo? Is it their color palette? Their fonts? All of the above?

Knowing the answer to this question is vitally important to the success of any nonprofit or business. Your understanding of branding as a nonprofit will not only affect the perception of your nonprofit but also indirectly affect your reach, growth, and overall perceived value to your market.

Firstly, let’s go through what your brand is not.

1. Your brand is not just your logo.

Although your logo is crucial to your brand identity, other important aspects exist. While important, your logo can be viewed as a symbol that is merely a visual trigger for the audience to associate their feelings and experiences with your brand.

2. Your brand is not your product or service.

Although your brand plays a big role in the ability to market and advertise your product or service, your brand goes deeper than one product or service. Your brand is a mixture of emotional connection, perception, reputation, and culture. Your audience should be able to envision what a potential new product or service might look like, even if they’ve never seen something like it from you.

3. Your brand is not just for an external audience.

Many nonprofits and businesses are used to solely focusing on the external influence of their brand. Still, by doing so, they must catch up on a brand's impact on company culture, employee loyalty, and organizational behavior.

Now that you know the common misconceptions around branding, here are a few key points to help you better understand the brand and how to craft your's to represent your vision and values better.

1. Brands have a clearly defined personality.

Just as an influencer or celebrity has a unique and recognizable personality, so does a brand. Your brand personality profoundly impacts the perceived tone, style, and behavior of your organization. Just as we have our own personality traits, your brand should exude human-like traits that your audience can relate to. Whether you’re a brand that’s sophisticated, flashy, and confident or a brand that’s fun, carefree, and adventurous, these traits play a vital role in the overall experience that your audience has with your organization.

2. Brands provide a memorable experience.

Your brand personality and customer experience go hand-in-hand. Your clearly defined personality makes it easier and more likely for customers to form an emotional connection to your brand. Whether through storytelling, humor, nostalgia, or shared values, eliciting emotional responses helps form lasting memories. Bonus points if these experiences are shareable moments!

3. Brands understand and leverage their identity.

Although your organization has a lot of power and influence over your brand identity and perception, your overall reputation mainly lies in the hands of your customers. Whether it’s online reviews, social media posts, or discussions on a forum, it’s important to seek out and embrace any positive feedback you receive from customers. Leverage those notable experiences to solidify better and establish your brand's presence and equity. It's also important to pay careful attention to any negative feedback, as this can help you understand how to evolve your brand better and, in the long run, help your organization create more consistent positive experiences for your customers.

I hope these points have helped you realize that branding is more than just a logo or tagline. It's your audience's whole experience with your organization, down to the emotions they feel and the memories they have. I encourage you to make a conscious effort this week to evaluate your brand and brainstorm how to better approach your overall brand identity and personality. I promise that intentionality around your branding will be worth whatever you put into it.

If you need help further developing your nonprofit's brand or want to brainstorm new ways to connect with your audience, I would love to chat with you more about your organization's goals and work together to craft a branding strategy that supports your mission. Click here to book your consultation.

Wisdom Moon
CEO/Founder of Christian Music Marketing