Marketing Identity vs. Branding
Marketing identity and branding are two related but distinct concepts that are essential for any business that wants to stand out and succeed in the competitive market. Here is a brief explanation of each term:
Marketing Identity: The set of visual and verbal elements that a business uses to communicate its identity to the public. It includes the logo, the name, the slogan, the colors, the fonts, the style, and the tone of voice that the business adopts. Marketing identity is important because it helps to create a consistent and recognizable image of the business across different channels and platforms, and it helps to convey the business’s values, mission, and personality.
Branding: The process of creating and managing a brand, which is the overall perception and reputation of a business in the minds of the customers and the market. It includes the marketing identity, but also the quality, the service, the experience, the story, the tone, and the emotions that the business delivers to its customers. Branding is important because it helps to differentiate the business from its competitors, to build trust and loyalty among the customers, and to increase the value and profitability of the business.
In this article I’ll cover what logos, brands, and trademarks are and what they mean to a brand, how to design and maintain a brand, and objective reality vs. subjective realities in marketing.
Logo, Brand, and Trademark: What They Mean and Why They Matter
Logo: A logo is a graphic visual representation of a company name, trademark abbreviation, etc. and is often a mark, symbol, or emblem that helps to identify a business, product, or service. It represents the brand and its values, personality, and message.
Brand: A brand is a feature or set of features that distinguishes one organization from another. It is the identity, reputation, and perception of a business, product, or service in the market. Brand encompasses the business name, tagline, logo, design, voice, story, and more.
Trademark: A trademark is a word, phrase, symbol, design, or a combination of these things that identifies the source of a good or service and prevents others from using it without permission. A trademark is intellectual property of the business which legally protects it from being used by other businesses. Trademarks can my registered or unregistered and are denoted by the symbols ® and ™ respectively. In the U.S., a registered trademark is one that has been officially registered with the United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO).
Unregistered TMs receive only limited protection under common law and the federal Lanham Act. They are usually restricted to the region where the mark is used and have to prove the validity and ownership of the mark in case of infringement.
Registered Trademarks on the other hand, include all of the following advantages:
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provides a legal presumption of mark ownership and exclusive right to use the mark nationwide.
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puts the public on notice of the mark and lists it in the USPTO’s database.
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allows for recording the mark with U.S. Customs and Border Protection to prevent the importation of infringing goods.
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gives the right to bring legal action in federal court and seek enhanced remedies for infringement, such as treble damages and criminal penalties.
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makes the mark eligible for incontestability after five years of unopposed registration, which prevents certain challenges to the mark’s validity.
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enables the use of the federal registration symbol ® and the possibility of using the U.S. registration as a basis for foreign registration.
Read more about trademark basics on USPTO's website.
How to Design in Order to Promote a Brand
Design is an essential element of branding and marketing, as it can communicate the identity, values, and personality of a company or a product to customers. Design can also influence the emotions, preferences, and behaviors of customers in various ways, such as increasing the visibility and recognition of a brand or a product, enhancing the usability and functionality of a product, evoking positive or negative emotions in customers, and persuading customers to take a desired action. Designing your brand is a vital role in the branding and marketing process and can create a lasting impression on customers and influence their behavior.
Keep it simple, consistent, clear, relevant, and unique.
Some general principles and guidelines for effective design are keep it simple, consistent, clear, relevant, and unique.
Simplicity: Avoid unnecessary complexity and clutter and focus on the essential elements and messages.
Consistency: Use the same design elements and styles across different platforms and channels and create a coherent and harmonious brand identity.
Clarity: Make the design easy to understand and navigate, and use clear and legible typography, imagery, and icons.
Relevance: Make the design appropriate and appealing to the target audience and align it with the brand’s goals and values.
Uniqueness: Make the design stand out from the competition and express the brand’s personality and voice.
Objective Reality vs. Subjective Reality in Marketing
Objective reality and subjective reality are two different and distinct ways of understanding the world. It can be important when creating marketing content for others to view and becomes even more important when you’re creating the content for someone else to use!
Objective reality: the world as it exists independently of anyone’s thoughts, opinions, or feelings. It is based on facts that can be verified by the 5 senses or by logical reasoning and empirical testing.
Subjective reality: the world as it is perceived and interpreted by the individual mind. It is influenced by personal experiences, emotions, and preferences.
The job of marketers is to create and communicate value to customers and figure out how customers will evaluate and respond to the value propositions offered by marketers and the businesses they represent. Marketing involves both objective and subjective aspects, and understanding the relationship between them is crucial for effective marketing practice.
In marketing we use positioning; creating a distinctive image or identity for a product and value; the perceived worth or usefulness of a product to convince the consumer that they need what we got! This can be done by using various marketing strategies, such as education, persuasion, differentiation, or customization.
Our job as marketers is to get the company’s name out there to ears that will listen, get them interested, create desire for the product, convert that desire into a buy, and advocate for the customers in order to get them coming back for more! To do that you need to define your brand and design a marketing plan utilizing logos, brands, and trademarks. You need to design a brand identity using simplicity, consistency, clarity, relevance, and uniqueness. And you need to understand the differences between objective and subjective realities. With a little work you can create a distinctive identity for your business that reflects its values, personality, and promise to your customers!
Dave