Branding: A Product of Strategy

Alternative title = Branding: Not the Instigator of Strategy

John clarifies the very conundrum my feeble mind has been wrestling with the past few days: How are branding and strategy different? The answer, in short, is they are almost synonymous.

More importantly, why are some people declared as gurus in branding and others as gurus of strategies? The answer, in short, is that same person is a guru of both.

When people start to separate strategy from branding, and vice versa, you can bet the farm that someone has a bad idea of what branding is. In fact, they probably think it mostly affects the logo, the packaging and the colors and fonts used on the website. It’s a common mistake.

But if branding is “the difference,” then it’s the strategy that identifies those differences and determines how to act on them, and branding is then more a product of the strategy. It’s the result of the impressions you make.

Once you have that strategy in place, and once the impressions are being made, then your brand becomes clearer by the day. At which time you can be sure your logo, packaging and website are all aligned to communicate in a way that supports that brand.

But don’t do it the other way around. Cuz if your customers think your brand means something different than you do, then you’ve wasted a lot of time and money on all the frilly stuff.

Similar posts on Brett’s Blog:

1. The Best Branding Presentation I’ve ever seen
2. If You’re Business Had a Tag Cloud