What Is Branding?

In another post, What Is A Brand?, we established a vital distinction: A brand is an identity.

But if your brand is your business's identity, then what do we call the work required to find, define, and express that identity?

At Seventh Branding, we know that branding is the process of capturing an identity.

If you are an entrepreneur or CEO, you likely feel the physical, mental, and emotional toll of trying to explain what your business does to your audience, team, &/or potential investors who just don't seem to get it.

This friction exists because your identity hasn't been properly captured. Branding is the professional discipline that brings the "soul" of your business to life, making it clear, visible, and tangible to the world.

The Two Phases of Branding

To understand proper branding, you must first understand that it is not a single event, but a two-phase journey of capture. At Seventh Branding, we break branding down into both Brand Strategy and Brand Design.

Phase 1: Brand Strategy (Capturing your Internal Identity)

Before a single pixel is moved or a color is chosen, we must capture the "soul" of the business. Brand Strategy is the forensic work of identifying your internal identity.

• Brand Core: The official, exact truths of your business

• Brand Persona: The layers in your business's personality 

• & more

Phase 2: Brand Design (Capturing your External Identity)

Once the internal identity is codified, we move to Brand Design. This is the process of capturing the external identity—the visual version of that soul.

• Logo: The visual "face" of your identity

• Color Scheme: The visually expressive tone of your identity

• & more

How to Focus on Branding Properly

In my book, brand.: The Final Definition, I discuss how focusing on branding properly means shifting your perspective from "decoration" to "documentation."

You must avoid these common pitfalls:

• Treating it as an Aesthetic Choice: Branding is not necessarily about what colors you "like." It is about which colors accurately represent the identity you've captured.

• Starting with Design: You cannot capture an external identity if you haven't first captured the internal one. Strategy must always precede design.

• Ignoring the Friction: If your team is exhausted or your clients are confused, it is a sign that your branding process is incomplete.

"I want to bring water to the desert. I want to break this cycle. I want to provide entrepreneurs with the official, exact, and final definition of what a brand is." — Lici Newbrook 

The Documentation: The Brand Plan

How do we hold these two phases together? We use a specific tool called a Brand Plan. Your Brand Plan is the vessel that houses both your Brand Strategy (Internal) and your Brand Design (External). It is the definitive map of your identity.

Without a Brand Plan, you are essentially operating a ship without a compass, leading to the seven chaotic results we covered in another post, The 7 Crucial Reasons Why Your Business Needs A Brand Plan.

Conclusion

Branding is not a mystery; it is a structured process. It is the bridge that carries your business from the "Chaos" of being misunderstood to the "Harmony" of being clearly recognized.

By capturing your internal identity through Brand Strategy and your external identity through Brand Design, you create a brand that is easy to navigate and employ.

If you are tired of the explanation and ready to be thoroughly understood, it is time to focus on branding properly.

Take the Next Step

Stop operating in a linguistic void and start capturing your truth.

• Book a Consultation: Let us lead you through the two phases of branding to capture your true identity.

• Master the Definitions: Get your copy of brand.: The Final Definition to learn how to move your business from chaos to weightlessness.