Hover over Brand & Logo to learn the distinctions
Brand
What is a BRAND?
A brand is the entire personality of your business. Or in marketing terms the “corporate identity” and everything around it. From the way your staff greets your clients and “live” your brand, the style clothes they wear, to the logo and the colors in the logo. A brand is “alive”. It is the way your clients and the market “see, experience and perceive” your business.
Logo
What is a LOGO?
There is a general misconception when it comes to a brand vs logo. A logo, although very important, is only an element of a brand. It is known as the “Brand Identifier” in marketing terms. In our words, it is the whole personality of your business brand into a single “image/picture”. This can be a drawing, a word, rending of an object etc. Anything that can be made into an image or picture that is relative to the business personality and sums up the brand personality.
Why you should invest in Brand & Marketing Specialists and not just Graphic Designers
Graphic Designers make use of their creative skills to design concepts with computer software. They can take a concept or idea to a drawing board and from the drawing board to a digital rendering, or in normal terms, pictures and graphics.
Graphic Designers are qualified in exactly what their position is called, Graphic Design, and all aspects there of. This mostly focuses on the operational side of the software they use to design these graphics. Some of their studies might have included a brief covering of branding, but they do not specialize in branding per say. Some would also be experts in creative drawing / art-related functions like sketching and drawing.
Now that you understand what a Graphic Designer on its own is, it is important to understand the difference between Graphic Designers and Brand & Marketing Specialists. First, Branding & Marketing Specialists are qualified in the marketing industry. They understand what the difference between a logo and a brand is, and how the two are connected. They focus on the marketing aspect of a brand, that includes the logo element.
Some our most Brand & Marketing Specialists are also trained and qualified in the Graphic Design sector and are able to design their own brands & logos by themselves.
Remember, a logo is the brand identifier, the visual image used to identify the brand, aka the picture of a brand.
With this in mind, a Brand & Marketing Specialists analysis and breaks down the business personality and all aspects there of to gather important information about the business brand. Then, they take that information and transform it into a concept and idea that becomes the business brand. That includes the colors used in the logo and the clothing of the staff, right through to the font used in the logo and even as far as object elements that all forms a relevant link to the information gathered about the business. Then only is this information and interpretation of the business brand given to the graphic designers, who then take that information from the Branding & Marketing Specialists and transform it into the brand identifier, known to everyone as the LOGO.
Brand & Marketing Specialists understand that a random logo can not be created for a business. It needs to be relevant, it needs to contain the correct elements to portray the correct message to the viewer (the consumers / markets).
You might have noticed a business logo on their building wall while driving past. Let’s say the name is Motion. Now, you see the logo on the building, it is clearly readable, yet you don’t know what we do. Then you look further and see IMC, or Integrated Marketing Communications. You now immediately know what we do, because our tagline stated it in our logo. Then you read further on and see the slogan “What Moves You”. You immediately relate back to the business name in the logo, Motion. That indicates that we move businesses or set their motion forward. You then notice the ever subtle bend in the “O” of Motion and realize it is about to start rolling forward, which in its own again, indicates motion about to happen. You soon see that we have emphasized that same slightly curved O all across our branding and marketing. Why? Because that is our logo, and we have successfully educated you, our potential client, on our business and what we do simply through our logo and now in the future, whenever you see that bent circle, you will be reminded of us. This is what we call Brand Recognition. – Having people recognize your brand. Then lastly, through it all you probably noticed our color theme, red. This indicates that we are a serious company, that we are not afraid of our competition and that we are set on not wasting our client’s time and give them our best service.
There are many more examples like this out there, take BMW for instance. Start noticing the brands around you and you will soon realize, a brand is more than just a logo.
We at Motion IMC are both Graphic Designers and Brand & Marketing Specialists.
This is why we won’t charge you the “R3oo logo special” you see everywhere online. We know what we’re doing. We understand how to create brands, not just logos. And when we do create a logo for you, viewers will get the correct message from your business.
This does not however mean we are expensive. We believe in fair pricing. We are more than affordable and you know you are getting a professional service provided by competent and friendly staff.
A brand has a personality
Below is an example of a brand and it’s breakdown. This was done on the owner of Motion IMC. We use this sample for you to understand that a brand is a personality, weather it be for a person or for a business. As a business brand is seen as a “living personality” in the marketing world, this will give you a better understanding of the approach and breakdown of a brand. Please keep in mind that no two brands and their breakdowns will ever be the same, as the same with people, no two personalities are the alike.
Hover over to see the breakdown
Our latest Brand Creation
OMNI-CCTV is a newly established security business specializing in the installing and supply of CCTV equipment to homes and small business in Cape Town.
We have taken all the information from their brand analysis and came up with “OMNI-CCTV – See Everything”.
Their main focus is to help their clients secure their property by making them “see everything” which refers to the Latin name for all-seeing / all-included, OMNI, which is in return included in the main name. This is what we call branding- linking a logo, slogan and brand identifier all into one brand.
We are now in the midst of Integrated Marketing Communications for them, taking their new brand from the drawing board to their newly created social media platforms.
WATCH THIS SPACE!
