Can you imagine the feeling you get when you hold a Louis Vuitton handbag or the latest Adidas sneakers? Feels great, doesn’t it? That is what branding is all about. It is the process of creating a presence in the minds of your customers that goes beyond selling a product. The key is to create a narrative that helps people understand your struggle and your brand’s purpose.
Source: Vogue
Take the example of Louis Vuitton’s advertisement featuring Angeline Jolie. The ad shakes up the conventional image of a handbag by showing Angelina sitting on a boat with the handbag over her shoulder. It shows that Louis Vuitton’s products are durable and can handle any weather or place. And Angelina’s face sure helps!
But how exactly can you develop that feeling of connectivity for your brand? That is where blogs on branding come in. Many blog website examples can help you explore the impact of branding and the concept behind each brand. Let us do a deep dive to understand the most crucial concepts of branding in the following section.
Understanding the Concept of Branding
Source: Freepik
The process of creating a concept of your company outside of its products using a logo, design, or tagline is called branding. To clarify, a brand is a feeling you associate with a particular company or logo. For instance, Balenciaga has come out with a “towel skirt” with a price tag of £927. People may have laughed out loud at Balenciaga’s audacity to sell them a towel for almost a grand, but they can’t deny the brand’s impact which has led many people to buy that skirt just to be a part of the in-crowd.
Such is the power of branding! Let us now take a look at some of the major elements of branding.
1. Purpose
The foundation of a brand is laid on its purpose, mission, and values. Defining your brand’s purpose means choosing a cause to propagate. As a fitness brand, you would aim to get people healthy and fit. Similarly, if you are a clothing brand, you would aim to help build your customer’s confidence or look more fashionable. After choosing a purpose for your brand, you will have a foundation on which you can build your marketing strategies.
2. Identity
Think about what you represent as a brand. Are you an aesthetic company looking to create a nuanced branding strategy or are you a robust organization ready to take the world by storm? Both of these descriptions of a brand serve to define its identity. This means need to create an identity for your brand by adopting a certain style and a narrative to attract the right audience.
3. Position
When you add a certain value to your brand and try to connect with your audience, this is known as brand positioning. For instance, while most beauty care products focus on highlighting and correcting women’s weaknesses, Dove positions itself as a supporter of women’s natural beauty. Their “Selfie Talk” campaign was a huge success because it highlighted the ways in which society sets unrealistic beauty standards for women and how they can reclaim their natural beauty.
Top 5 Blogs on Branding to Take Inspiration From
Source: Freepik
Whenever you design a product’s packaging or select a color for the backdrop, you are making a crucial decision for your brand. Each company follows a different creative process when coming up with new branding ideas. That is why we have compiled a list of the most influential blogs on branding that will help you frame a unique brand of your own.
1. Identity Designed
Source: Identity Designed
Among the various blogs on branding, Identity Designed sets itself apart as a place where people from all over the world send in their brand designs. It provides a rich portfolio of portraits from the ice cream brand Wauw to the paint-selling brand Lick. This blog for branding was founded by David, a graphic designer, who allows businesses to display their creativity through his platform. Each blog tells the story of ingenuity and the creative thought process behind each product and its branding journey. For example, it explains the ice cream brand Wauw’s use of black color and soft typography as part of its branding strategy.
2. Logo Design Love
Source: Logo Design Love
Business captions on social media posts can only do so much for your product when it comes to marketing. It needs a logo that becomes a universal symbol to be recognized by the public anywhere it is displayed. To that end, Logo Design Love is one of the best blogs about branding that explore the importance of using the right symbols to promote your brand. David Airey is the founder of Logo Design Love, and he aims to inspire others by sharing creative designs for logos. For example, the Zelman Meats logo shows a cutting board with two cutouts of knives to “cut through the noise”, as they put it.
3. Branding Strategy Insider
Source: Branding Strategy Insider
A brand that has established itself as an authority has usually gone through rigorous cycles of trial and error. Branding Strategy Insider investigates the insights behind each trial and error process and how major brands have come out of dark times with their business intact. The blog itself is a publication of The Blake Project, a strategic brand consultancy that aims to help business increase their brand awareness. Branding Strategy Insider explores the latest tactics that can be used to add value to your brand. For example, their latest blog analyzes the decline of – and efforts to preserve – the Starbucks brand by refocusing on its stores in the United States.
4. Brandingmag
Source: Brandingmag
Flavia Barbat is the editor-in-chief and so the brains behind the Brandingmag blog. When we think of blogs on branding, we mostly look for flashy designs and bright colors that linger in our conscious minds long after we have read one of their blogs. However, the purpose of blogging for brands is not just to regurgitate the same old facts. Rather, it is about having conversations that touch both consumers and business owners. To that end, Brandingmag has taken it upon itself to explore the global and local impact of branding on cultural mindsets. The discussions on personal branding, generative AI, and evolving leadership roles make Brandingmag a delicious treat for people who are ready to build their brand from scratch.
5. The Branding Journal
Source: The Branding Journal
Small business owners who are just starting in the world of entrepreneurship are usually looking for a guide to build a unique brand for their business. The Branding Journal has taken the responsibility to educate these business owners on the fundamental rules of branding. Marion, the founder, has created this blog to educate people on strategic branding through introspective blogs and discussions. It takes a novice’s approach to branding by providing all the resources a startup needs to grow its business. For instance, the resources on the blog include information on branding agencies, books, case studies, branding concepts, courses as well as a journal assistant.
[Bonus] How to Do Branding Right
Source: Freepik
Branding is a carefully curated system where you implement your ideas using your resources to build a new identity for your business. It is not something that happens overnight. Branding has evolved from relying on newspaper ads and hoarding street billboards to using social media to promote a business. After going through the most popular blogs on branding, we have compiled a list of useful tips to help you start your branding process with ease.
- Share the background of your business to give a sense of authenticity to your brand.
- Use social media hashtags to promote taglines, quotes, and products related to your brand.
- Check the performance of your brand’s marketing strategy to improve on any weaknesses.
- Support a cause to build authenticity in your brand, for example, Disney’s employer education program.
- Build a website and start content writing for your blog to boost your brand’s engagement.
- Get regular feedback from customers by doing surveys about your brand’s impact.
Conclusion
In essence, a brand is a visual representation of your company’s core values. It highlights the positive aspects of your business and creates a positive image in your customers’ perception. To teach you how to do it right, the best branding blogs highlight details that you might miss while working on your brand image. A brand requires consistent input of ideas and resources to create a sense of authenticity. That is why you need to add a blog to your branding toolkit and incorporate new ideas into your branding strategy. You can start writing your own blog posts using a blog post idea generator to create catchy titles and increase your online presence.
I am a full-time online marketer, for over a decade now. Helped over 100,000+ people & generated well over $12M in online sales.