S2E17: Good Branding Doesn't Stop At Your Logo

Hey, welcome back to the podcast. If you're new here, I am Taylor B, the brand and web designer behind TB Design Loft, a brand and web design studio that's dedicated to helping more women, especially moms, build sustainable businesses that flow with their life instead of control their life. If you're a returning listener, hey there. Thanks so much for coming back. Let's get into this episode. Today we're talking about how good branding doesn't stop at your logo. Now I'm gonna I now I'm not gonna sit here and ramble on and on about how you need more than just a logo, that a brand is not just a logo. Why am I not gonna do that? Because there's a good chance you've already seen it, you've already heard it in one way, shape, or form. So I'm gonna say the exact same thing in a different way. Because that's marketing, right? So what do I mean when I say good branding doesn't stop at your logo? Now, I am guilty of this. Pretty sure a lot of people, when they're first starting out in entrepreneurship and starting a business, have gone through this as well. We get, I get, I can only speak from my experience. So if any of this resonates with you, feel free to be to nod along and be like, me too. And if it doesn't, you can ignore me. Whatever. Long before I became a brand designer, and even now, especially with my own business, I was obsessed with the logo and the visuals and getting it right. Still am, honestly, still struggling with that. But now I know that the logo is just how you're recognized. It's the very surface level thing. Basically, if you think about it, if you think of your brand like a person, if you were walking down the street, when you look at someone, you see the color of their skin, the color of their hair, their clothes, you could say that's their quote-unquote logo. It's how they're dressed up, it's how they appear. Pause. Not saying that someone's skin tone or hair color is being dressed up, unless if they're cosplaying and they have like paint on or something like that. That is not what I meant. I simply meant the very first thing you see, their appearance could be translated to their quote-unquote logo. Because it's the first thing you see. You don't know anything about this person or this business until you stop and interact with them, until you take time to learn about them, learn about what made them become the person or brand. Okay, quick pause. I apologize because I had I had to go deal with my dog barking while my mom was trying to get the baby to sleep. Then my kid was knocking on the door. It was a lot. Okay, there was a lot happening just now. I don't even remember what I was talking about. I'm not gonna know until I go back and listen to this. So I'm just gonna start back from where I remember. Basically, your logo is the surface level. It's the first thing that someone sees, but it doesn't actually tell them whether your business is a good business, whether you have values that are that align to theirs. It doesn't tell customers whether your product is of good quality, none of that. And your logo, if you did not know this or had never heard this before, your logo doesn't need to say what you do. It doesn't need to, not really. Um, and this is kind of the fun part of branding is that when it comes to like naming, you know, like naming a business or helping someone come up with a name, or for me, for my passion projects, you know, the brand name doesn't have to say what you do, but it also can't be confusing, if that makes sense. So for example, let's say you come across a law office that has like creative legal academy. I'm just coming up with stuff, I don't know, off the off the top. Creative Legal Academy. That's kind of I don't know, I don't know for sure if that would be memorable, but it might be memorable. But the academy part, let's say again, this is a law firm. They had academy in there. So you're thinking, huh, I wonder what they teach. So when you're going on their website and you're going, you're going through their content and you're trying to figure it out, that's when you realize, oh, this is a law firm and they don't actually teach anything. Huh. I wonder why they have academy in their name. That's just a small little tidbit. Like again, your business name doesn't need to say what you do, it, but it all again, it needs to not be confusing. Um, it also needs to be easy to remember. Not necessarily like catchy, but easy to remember. Well, okay, these are just suggestions. I apologize, because there are plenty of businesses out there that are successful that have really complicated names to say and are difficult, maybe difficult to spell or remember the exact name, you know.

So these aren't like hard and fast rules, these are just suggestions. But your experience, your customer's experience, that is good branding.

You know, it again, they see the logo. That's the surface level. You've barely scratched the surface, and then they walk into your store, into your tent at the pop-up shop, they check out your socials on social media, they go on your website. All of those touch points are part of your brand experience. And if any part of that experience is negative for them, whether it's difficult to understand what you do or what you sell, whether it's difficult to navigate your website, whether they reached out and asked a question and got bad customer service. You know, all of those things could be negative touch points that make your brand make the brand experience for them turn sour. And they might never come back. It could also be as simple as the messages you're putting out, your content, your messaging, your brand alignments. I've seen posts where business owners were like, oh, y'all aren't serious about supporting small businesses until it's somebody popular, you know, and I understand the frustration, but taking that bitterness and that frustration to social media in that particular way, especially if you're posting under your business name or under your professional profile, where people can go and see what your business is, that's a negative experience as well. That can leave a bad taste in someone's mouth before they even consider becoming a customer. I know that has turned me off from people that I would potentially want to shop with, or their product looks good, their service looks interesting, or something that I might be interested in, whatever it is. But seeing a status like that for me personally, it turns me off as a customer, as a potential partner in the future. It even makes me not want to share their stuff because of that negative association. It is not a conscious choice. That is not something that I'm like, oh, well, if you're gonna bash your customers online, then I'm not gonna support you. Absolutely not. That is not, that's not how I think. That's not how I work. Um, what I'm saying is if I see a fellow business owner that very often, you know, just seems to make negative comments about other business owners or their customers or complains about, oh, I see y'all are leaving abandoned cards, you know, what's wrong? Why you don't want to shop, why you don't want to support a small business. You know, seeing statuses like that, it just gives me the ick. And it I don't want to be associated with that negative energy because again, I understand the frustration, trust and believe. I understand the stress, but I don't agree with voicing that in such a negative way publicly. I just and I definitely don't agree with putting customers or businesses or bashing. I don't agree with doing any of that publicly, like putting people on blast or anything like that. Like, unless if you absolutely have to, or if you have to defend yourself because you're getting dragged on the internet from someone's false narrative, that's different. If you gotta show the receipts because this business put your face out there and said, Oh, this person didn't pay their bill, make them famous, you know.

Again, that's poor.

I wouldn't personally do that. But then, you know, the person's like, well, wait a minute, I never actually received the service. You know, I've seen stuff where it's like, hey, the person I booked with kept rescheduling, and then they were late, and then they wanted to reschedule a final time after I got there, and then I just said, never mind, I want my refund. And then they then the person goes and blasts, tries to blast them and say, Oh, this is why small businesses can't succeed. And it's like, well, wait a minute, hold on. That's a totally different scenario than the one you're painting. So anyway, sorry, did not mean to go off on a tangent, but literally all of those things, how you show up, period, is part of your branding. Your brand is your reputation. It's not just what people can see, it's what people feel when they come across you, when they come across your business, when they interact with it, when they are listening to anything that you've put out for it, whether it's content, whether it's or they're reading something, like what anything that comes from your business or anything or anyone associated with your business is part of your brand. Your brand is your reputation. It's just the whole, it's the whole shibutle. The I like to call I've been, I've been, I like the idea of calling it your brand, your brand ecosystem. Your logo and all that stuff, of course, is the visuals. Your messaging and your positioning is who you serve and how you talk to them. Your values is what you stand for, why you do what you do, and the things that the hills you will die on, so to speak, when it comes to your business in particular. For example, some businesses are their values surround uh sustainable, using sustainable materials versus using forever chemicals and things like that. And that's perfectly fine. Other businesses don't have those same values, they're more focused on something else, and perfectly fine. So the the different touch points of your business, every part of it, it doesn't have to be polished, but if you want your brand to be remembered in a positive light, you definitely want to be mindful of what it's putting out and what's being associated to it.

What's what your business's name is being attached to. I think I'm gonna wrap that up. I think I'm gonna wrap this one up.

I'm trying to get better at not rambling, rambling super long and making these episodes a little bit more bite-sized if possible, not just for you guys, but also so I can try and do a bit more batch recording and getting things done in multiple sprints, as well as uh making them easier to edit. Plus, who wants to hear me talk for 45 minutes? You probably don't. Anyway, I'm gonna wrap this up here. Thank you so much for tuning in. Feel free to DM me on Instagram at the Creative Altruist to tell me what you thought of the episode. If you have any suggestions or questions that I can maybe talk about on the episode, maybe I can talk about on the podcast. Feel free to message me. I would love, absolutely love to hear from you. Thank you so much for tuning in, and I'll see you in the next one. Bye.