Baking a Brand: The Secret Ingredient to Business Success

By Jeremy Treuden

TWO BAKERIES

Imagine two bakeries. Both bake delicious bread, use quality ingredients, and have skilled bakers. But one bakery has a line out the door every morning, while the other is struggling to keep its doors open. What’s the difference? Almost every time, it comes down to branding.

DEFINING BRAND

Notice we didn’t say “…it comes down to a logo.” A logo is the face of—an identifier for—a brand, but it isn’t a brand. A brand is the feeling people get when they interact with you, your product, service, or organization (to use our baking analogy: it’s the feeling they get when they smell your freshly baked bread).

As brand strategist and author Marty Neumeier explains, your brand lives in the heads and hearts of your customers, donors, guests, and clients. “Your brand isn’t what you say it is. It’s what they say it is.”

So if a brand is people’s perception of your product, service, or organization, then branding is the art of managing those perceptions. It’s being intentional about actively shaping how people see and experience your product, service, or organization.

Whether you consciously think about it or not, there’s no way around it. You do have a brand—it does exist. The question is: Will you play a role in shaping it? A great first step is scheduling a complimentary visual brand audit consultation with the Mueller team to get a baseline where you’re starting from. 

Fill out the form below to kickstart your complimentary visual brand audit with our team.

BRAND PLATFORM: VISUALS + MESSAGING

While a brand is much bigger than a logo, colors, and fonts, first impressions do matter. Andy LeDuc, our vice president of digital strategy and operations, often says, “You’re only as good as you look until they meet you.” Think of your brand’s visuals as the enticing display case in the bakery. Your logo, website, and marketing materials are like those beautifully arranged, picture-perfect pastries and artisan loaves.

But just like those delicious-looking pastries need to taste as good as they look, your brand needs strong messaging and a positive customer experience that gives substance to those good looks. Everything needs to work together to create a cohesive, consistent, and compelling brand identity at every step of the journey—one that is authentic to who you are, connects with your intended audience, and (maybe most importantly) keeps them coming back.

No single brand element is expected to do everything. Messaging and visuals work in unison to tell the story of your brand, informing who a brand speaks to and how it looks and sounds while doing so. 

EFFECTIVE VS. INEFFECTIVE BRANDS

A weak brand can cripple your business. It confuses customers, dilutes your message, and ultimately, costs you money. A strong brand, on the other hand, is a magnet for success.

An effective brand is:

• Memorable: It sticks in people’s hearts and minds.
• Authentic: It accurately reflects your organization and values.
• Cohesive: It delivers the same experience across all touchpoints.
• On-Target: It resonates with your ideal customer.

An ineffective brand is:

• Generic: It blends in with the competition.
• Outdated: It feels stale or irrelevant.
• Confusing: It sends inconsistent, mixed messages.
• Off-Target: It connects with the wrong people…or no one at all.

BRAND SELF-ASSESSMENT

So do you need to switch up your recipe? Maybe it’s time for a rebrand? Ask yourself these questions:

The Big Picture:

• Does my brand truly reflect my business and its values?
• Has my business evolved, and is my brand keeping up?
• Is my brand allowing my business to grow and expand naturally without boxing me in?
• Am I truly connecting with my ideal customer?
• Has my intended target audience changed, and has my brand adjusted to be relevant with them?
• Is my brand distinctive, set apart from my competitors?
• Is my brand well-known and loved by my intended audience?
• Do I have a comprehensive brand guide/standards document?
• Is my brand cohesive across all touchpoint?

The Nitty-Gritty:

• Do I have a variety of vector logo files? (These are infinitely scalable file formats that usually end in either a .ai or .eps file extension.)
• Do I have a well-defined color palette?
• Do I have a font system that is tailored to my brand?
• Do I have branded visuals/elements? (These are elements such as branded backgrounds, graphic marks, icons or symbols, consistent photography and/or curated stock photos.)
• Do I have a library of editable branded templates?
• Do I have a clear story? A mission, vision, values, and tagline?
• Do I have a strategic way to communicate with my audience?

REBRAND VS. REFRESH

If you answered “no” to several of these big-picture questions, it might be time for a full rebrand. This may mean revisiting your core messaging, visual identity, and overall brand strategy.

If you’re feeling good about the big picture, but need nitty-gritty detail alignment, a brand refresh might be the right next step. This might involve updating your logo or creating additional versions of it, refining or more clearly defining your color palette, adding custom branded visuals and templates, and updating or creating new marketing materials.

CHANGING OUR RECIPE

Recently, Mueller Communications found ourselves in need of our own services. You know what they say, the cobbler’s children have no shoes. Well, this cobbler’s child needed a new brand! So we got to work. Check out our own rebrand here.  

NEXT STEPS

A strong brand is essential for any business that wants to stand out and thrive. By taking the time to assess your current brand and identify areas for improvement, you can create a brand that truly reflects your business and connects with your ideal customers.

Ready to take your brand to the next level? Sometimes you need an expert eye to truly assess your brand’s strengths and weaknesses. We’re offering a complimentary visual brand audit consultation with our team to help you identify areas for improvement and chart the course for elevating your brand. Fill out the form below to kickstart your complimentary visual brand audit with our team.