The Problem with Branding

I’ve been on my branding soapbox before, touting all the power of branding.

BUT…

Here’s what I’m not telling you.

While I love branding / brand marketing… it has two major flaws.

1. In all my examples of showing you the “power of branding”, I always cherry pick companies such as Nike, The Walt Disney Company, Apple, ROLEX, Tesla…

These brands (unlike the brands I help) have billions of dollars, decades and decades of built up brand equity (visibility, recognition, association, recall… through both paid and earned media), the best athletes / characters / celebrities endorsement, and overall have a massive head start.

2. I personally don’t follow many brands on social media, don’t know their “brand story”, don’t know their values, their mission, don’t know where they came from, don’t know who is their founder or CEO, and would struggle to articulate much about them other then, “They’ve been around for a while, they’re expensive, they’re from Vancouver, they are recognizable, they have decent quality, etc.).

So how on one hand can I talk about all the benefits of brand, while struggle to defend it?

To address the first point – branding definitely helps smaller brands as well. It’s just harder to use those brands as examples since they are not universally known. So I use Disney and Nike as a shorthand.

Regarding point 2 – while we as consumers may struggle to put into words what a brand is about, what is their story, and why we love them – one thing is true, we have a feeling about these brands. We identify with them.

Something they’ve said or done along the way has connected with us in one way or another, consciously or unconsciously, and we have developed an affinity and loyalty.

– I wear this brand and not that brand.

– I drive this brand of car and not that brand of car.

– I want this product in my home, and not that product.

Brands communicate and reinforce values to ourselves and to the world.

They say:

👉 This is who I am

👉 This is what I’m about

👉 This is what I value

Brand Awareness vs Logo Awareness

For some companies, in certain industries, they don’t need brand awareness.

Logo awareness will do just fine.

👉 Do you follow Campbell’s soup on social media?
👉 Do you know who is their CEO?
👉 Do you know their brand story?
👉 What about their mission, vision, or brand values?
👉 Can you tell me where or when they were founded?
👉 Where did they get the name Campbell’s?
👉 Can you recall ANY ad they’ve ever done? (Andy Warhol doesn’t count)

Didn’t think so…

But you know the name, you recognize their logo, and for 99% of consumers, that’s good enough.

Get your logo out there. People recognize logos and begin to build trust the more times they see it.

For many products—especially in established categories where people don’t need to be convinced to buy (like soup, cereal, or laundry detergent)—brand affinity doesn’t drive purchasing decisions as much as familiarity does. When you’re walking down the grocery aisle, you’re not researching a brand’s mission statement or debating their social impact. You’re grabbing the thing you recognize and trust, even if that trust is just the result of having seen it a thousand times before.

So if you’re building a brand, don’t underestimate the power of simply getting your logo out there. Repetition breeds recognition, and recognition builds trust. The more people see your logo, the more they’ll remember it—and when the time comes to make a purchase, they’ll reach for what feels familiar.

Brand awareness is great. But sometimes, logo awareness is all you really need.