The Fundamentals of Blog Branding & Identity
Our host today is Lindsay Branscombe. If you're interested in getting in front of the readers of Site Sketch 101, check out our guest posting invitation here.
I have recently been lucky enough to be invited into a small group of blogging professionals and to experience their daily life as professional bloggers. These are guys who can easily pull 40+ comments in one post and their websites have the amount of activity and views that I can only hope to have.
I feel extremely lucky to be a part of this little group and at first I was nervous that I did not have much to offer being someone who is relatively new at marketing my blog. Blog marketing and business marketing is different in some ways, but I am learning that for the most part it is very similar.
One of the things that I had noticed and pointed out was the lack of any blog branding in these guys’ blogs. As a matter of fact, when I asked about their identities one of the bloggers quickly declared that he had more than enough pictures of his face on his blog and his identity was most definitely front and center. I had a little bit of a laugh to myself because obviously people in the blogging world think very differently about branding than people in the design world.
Identity (in design) is your look as a brand. Your identity generally consists of colors, font, and logo. Think about McDonald’s and their brand identity, when you see red and yellow together you instantly think of McDonald’s, and thus makes the red and yellow colors a part of their identity.
Why do bloggers need an identity? Well, even though you are not necessarily a business, you do likely have a purpose on the web. The general purpose of a blog is to gain popularly. What you do with that popularity is not my place to say. Did you know that the general purpose of any business is to gain popularity? Beginning to see the connection now?
Creating a brand is not necessarily creating a business but more about creating an iconic appearance so that the general public (your target audience) will think of you when they are confronted with an element of your identity.
What are the elements of my identity? Like I said before, colors, font, and logo are the major parts of your identity. If you brand yourself properly and effectively, a person will think of your blog instantly when they find one of these elements out during their daily business or in their daily life.
Take, for instance, my bathroom. I had the unfortunate experience of having to create a cool looking bathroom with the ugly yellow tiles that were already on the walls. I inadvertently painted my bathroom to look like McDonald’s and many people comment on the “McDonald’s bathroom” yet there is no sign of the McDonald’s logo or a cheeseburger or even Ronald anywhere.
The hardest part for most people in this whole process is choosing an identity that has this reaction, and this is generally why professionals are hired. Professionals know the psychology of colors and fonts as well as professional logo design.
How do I get people to recognize my identity? This is where marketing comes in. You need to first establish your identity as your own original and unique brand. You will need to implement your brand within your website design and all other elements that have your blog’s name on it. All advertisements need to convey your brand identity and any social media accounts should have your logo or at minimum your colors on the avatar and any other place where you can customize your profile.
How does this help? It is hard for people to remember a specific name or face on the internet. We are bombarded by individuals trying to get us interested in their blogs and businesses trying to hock their products every day so what makes you stand out? When you are on social media, what will make people associate your account with your website? Your avatar or signature can do this!
When you comment on other blogs it will remind people of your blog even when you don’t mention it. When people see your ad they will remember your content on other blogs’ comments, social networks, and your own blog.
It all ties into keeping everything you do everywhere on the internet consistent and leading back to your own blog.
David Messmer said:
I loved this post and couldn’t agree more. When I started my website and blog, branding is one of the first things that I tried to do. The color scheme on my website is very obvious (greyscale and bright red), and the response that I’ve gotten has been great. When people see my site they never comment on the writing (it’s a site for my freelance writing services), they comment on the distinctive look. I’ve used that same look on my business cards and get comments on those too.
I actually have a question for any experienced marketers out there. When I started my blog, I decided to use the same color scheme, but I changed the logo a bit – the website used a red pencil to emphasize the writing, the blog used a red ball to emphasize motion/moving forward. Should I have used the same logo?
Lindsayanng said:
Changing your logo is not a detrimental thing. I actually wrote a blog post about this a few weeks ago. here’s a link
http://design.bscphoto.com/designblog/2010/02/09/should-i-change-my-logo/
If you have any questions about it, let me know.
Tom | Build That List said:
Creating a memorable identity is golden! I am currently starting to plot out what I want my blog’s identity to be as I am looking to redesign in the next month – so I will be looking at a lot of popular and successful blogs and picking the things that work well (and steal them for myself
)
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Web Design said:
Branding is something you need to get 100% from the start – not something you want to change down the line. One of my favourite brand marks is the fair trade one – there are lots of meanings in there. One of the most famous is the Amazon logo, with the smile, arrow from A-Z etc. Apparently there are loads of hidden messages in there.
Robyn from Sam's Web Guide said:
Great reminder LIndsay.
Anyone who is trying secure an audience needs to have some form of branding so that they can be easily identified. Many bloggers stick to the normal way of design and just look like everybody else.
I expect my blog design and branding strategy to evolve overtime, since I’m not an expert at that just yet.
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Anne Moss said:
It’s a good idea for some business models. I am toying with the idea of
branding my chain of blogs and sites with my main online identity. Still not sure if it’s a good idea at this point.
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Keith said:
You are right about one thing Lindsay, people in the blogging world do think about branding completely differently than designers do. Designers tend to lean towards graphics, while bloggers tend to lean towards personal brand. Which means face recognition.
I find it a little ironic that while you stated you were “lucky enough to be invited into a small group of blogging professionals” and talked about how they were able to get good amounts of traffic and 40+ comments on posts, but they didn’t have any branding.
In some online niches, a personal brand can be the difference in making it or not. Facial recognition is part of building a personal brand.
To me, branding can be attacked much differently depending on what you are trying to achieve. On some of my sites, I am trying to brand an actual product, so your tips are spot on. But, on my blog, I am branding ME, so an image of my face is an important part of branding that site. Yes there is a logo too, but the actual content of the site is my take on the topic.
That is where a blogging niche blog differs from a products based site.
Don’t underestimate the power of a personal brand, if you have branded “self” properly, your future endeavors can be promoted much easier, without having to create a whole new brand for it, name recognition creates the brand for you.
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Lindsayanng said:
I think you entirely missed the point. You are measuring success based on the number of comments, but branding is more than that. Branding doesn’t just drive traffic to your website, it creates memorability and that is what will get you to the next level.
Just because you get 40 comments does not put you on the level of the top blogs, it puts you maybe in the top blogs within your community, but there is more that can be done for your blog.. There’s always another step up you can achieve.
Personal branding IS business branding. There is no difference.. So if someone sees one of your ads out there on whatever network you are using, your face or what you call “personal branding” will not help as much as the design identity.
Keith said:
I didn’t measure that success, you did. I measure success mostly on monetary stats, comments don’t make me any money.
As usual, you, as a designer, have blinders on and are missing the bigger picture.
By branding my name and face, when I launch new products, possibly even joint ventures, my name will hopefully be recognized because I am branding it. Therefore, a venture where I launch “Product A” on another site claiming “Product Developed by [insert name]” will have immediate traction because I branded a name, not a professionally designed piece of digital art, that has nothing to do with “Product A”.
There is a reason for graphic branding, but for you to say that personal branding and business branding are the same thing is quite naive.
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Lindsayanng said:
I’m sorry.. but no. I spoke about a part of branding – I couldn’t possibly cover all aspects of branding.
To think that you can trash the graphical side of branding and just focus on name recognition without it is naive. I don’t see why you would choose to do one without the other. It makes no sense to not create a cohesive brand identity on all fronts.
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Keith said:
First of all Lindsay, I clearly stated that graphical branding has a place, I never trashed it.
You clearly don’t see (and probably never will) the name and face recognition side that is more important in some areas of branding.
As a designer, you think colors, fonts, and graphics are most important, I agree with you for product based businesses. But for a site that is branding a person instead of a logo I think name and face branding is more important than a graphical logo. I stated a reason why (one of many possibilities) but you seemed to ignore my reason.
Not all businesses need to be branded with a logo….
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Tim Zager said:
I have to agree with Keith here. In some industries, the personal identity is the brand. There is a real estate agent in my area who’s face I see EVERYWHERE. Every time I see her face I’m convinced she must be selling houses like crazy. My assumption is confirmed by the number of “Sold” signs I see next to her familiar face. When writing this, I had to stop for a moment to think what company she represented. Frankly, the company doesn’t matter. No design element would enhance her success. I want to talk to *her* when I sell my home!
I’m only in my second week of blogging. I’m in the process of defining my brand. Since I am a consultant offline, my brand will be me. I’m positioning myself as an expert. I want people to hire ME.
I do agree design branding is more appropriate for physical products. I appreciate your ideas.
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Lindsayanng said:
How do you know what her success is. Just because you remember her face doesn’t mean you would necessarily use her. There is a lot that goes into that type of marketing and a LOT of psychology behind it. Marketing like that might impact you, but not the rest of her target.
Also, you are really out of context with this. You might live in a small town or a neighborhood where she might have sold a lot of houses.. That really doesn’t mean too much in marketing. The fact that you don’t even remember the company means that her company didn’t brand well enough, but real estate agents are a different type of marketing.
Online you need to be more than just a face because like i said, people see faces everywhere – they won’t necessarily remember you for your face.
Also, you have to remember that just because you personally don’t need it doesn’t mean that the readership here might not get use of it. If you are blogging in an industry that doesn’t have a lot of bloggers, this is something you will need because you aren’t competing with other bloggers, you are competing with actual businesses who offer similar information.
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Tim Zager said:
I see we don’t agree here, and that’s OK. Nothing wrong with a healthy debate.
You no doubt are successful at what you help your clients with. I appreciate what I’m learning from you.
You asked how I knew she was successful? I did mention the “sold” signs that dominate most of her listings. And yes, she is the first person I would check, to see what her track record is *because* I see her face everywhere.
And you make my point for me when you say the company didn’t brand well because I didn’t remember their name. Again, I don’t care who she represents if I know *she* kicks butt selling houses. A company is not going to sell my house…SHE is.
You also said “she might have sold a lot of houses.. That really doesn’t mean too much in marketing.” What? You’re joking, right? Getting sales is not an indication of marketing success? I don’t really know how to answer that.
I tried to understand what you were saying in your last two paragraphs, but I’m not following you at all. I know I’m a little dense at times.
Best wishes with your business. It sounds like you’re doing well with your clients.
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Andrew plays free games online said:
So in essence what you’re saying is that if Elvis Presley were a blogger he’d be in need of some graphics and a logo or else he won’t get the recognition that you think he would be capable of because its a personal brand.
OMG
A PERSONAL brand IS historically the most effective MARKETING strategy that one could pursue.
You see “branding” is a marketing concept developed over 100′s of years that may or may not include design elements. It’s not a design concept that may or may not take on marketing.
Take Dick Smith (massively successful Australian entrepreneur) as a perfect example. He never promoted his shops, only himself. His shops – all named “Dick Smith Electronics”.
He didn’t brand his shops, only himself. In fact his logo was a silhouette of his face. The only design element involved in his branding was the yellow background on his black silhouette.
How about another example. Without actually going and researching, what is the name of Donald Trump or Robert Kyosaki’s companies?
Exactly, who actually knows that? No one! But anyone worth a pinch knows exactly who Trump and Kyosaki is.
That my dear is the immense power of the personal brand that no amount of imagery and color can out do.
And as a designer who’s been involved in multiple start up companies with your amount of experience, I would have expected you’d have known that already.
Lindsayanng said:
Where in the world did I say that person branding wasn’t worth doing? I never said that.. I said branding with colors and design and getting your face recognized is one in the same.. Its all about creating BRAND RECOGNITION. Apparently you are reading more of the comments that aren’t mine and less of the ones that ARE
And again, ELVIS? You are completely speaking out of context of BLOGGING. Blogging is something that is entirely different front music. A musician brands his face with his sound.. a blogger brands his face with his website. If the website isn’t memorable, the chances of people remembering your blog after having visited it once is much slimmer.
Again, you need to take this outside of the context of bloggers blogging about blogging to get other bloggers to do the same. A lot of readers are in an entirely different niche where there is not a built in online community. Instead, they need to establish themselves as an authority on their topic.
So for instance, if I were to blog about TROUT FISHING, I wouldn’t really work as hard on my personal appearance, my face all over the website because there is not online community to share your traffic with. Instead, you put advertising for your blog other websites that are related to what you offer. You brand yourself so that when people see your ads, and then they finally click and come across your website, they remember you – they recognize your look and your site.
If you put a picture of your face in an ad online, it will look like the hundreds of other pictures that people are bombarded with daily. The face is becoming a blur, and when you have so much ad-blindness in the online world, you have to do something that sticks. Colors are the easiest thing for people to remember. If they go to Bass Pro Shops monthly to purchase gear and they are confronted with an ad every other month that has the same colors, look, and feel, they will remember it – it has been a proven fact.
This memorability will help in the long run if your campaign is strategized. When that person sees the same (or similarly branded) ad on another website within the same revelevance, they will recognize it, and likely click it. The thing is, most people DON’T click on an ad the first time they see it. They only click on it when that ad starts to become familiar with them. When they see the same ad on various websites that they consider authorities.
The only way to do that is through branding.. Personal or not, it all has to do with consistency through design..
And you know what this comment:
He didn’t brand his shops, only himself. In fact his logo was a silhouette of his face. The only design element involved in his branding was the yellow background on his black silhouette.
Just proved my point. You remember the LOGO and the COLOR of the background.. Just because his name is his company does not mean that a logo has any less relevancy.
also, i have no idea who Kyosaki is and Trump was far more successful than any one of you before he had the personal name recognition – even though (again) we are speaking in entirely different industries.
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Andrew plays free games online said:
First of all let me answer that question. In your reply to Keith’s first comment you said: “your face or what you call “personal branding” will not help as much as the design identity”.
So actually you did say it. But anyway lets not split hairs.
I’m not going to pretend that I even come close to understanding what it is your trying to communicate but its not very clear.
I was able make sense of where you say “If you put a picture of your face in an ad online, it will look like the hundreds of other pictures that people are bombarded with daily”.
But then you contradict yourself by saying “You brand yourself so that when people see your ads, and then they finally click and come across your website, they remember you”.
I mean really think about that for a moment. First you’re telling me that faces are not memorable but advise me to go ahead and use my face on my ad because people will remember it.
You are not making a lot of sense here and you must be able to see that.
Another point is here “The only way to do that is through branding. Personal or not, it all has to do with consistency through design”.
You’re original post speaks of how you chuckled to yourself about that blogger who is using personal branding “all over his site” as you put it.
Interestingly also that you say musicians and bands (lets just say performers) are not in the same context as what you are talking about so my Elvis example wasn’t relevant.
In that case I’d have to say the entire post here is probably not relevant because I know exactly who that blogger is.
Some things to know about this blog/blogger:
A) He is a professional performer
B) Has total consistency through design.
C) Is instantly recognisable to his audience and growing daily.
Everything you see associated with this blogger has only 1 of 2 different images and both of them look almost identical.
The images and the blog incorporate the same colour scheme. And there are many other subtle designed branding approaches that I won’t waste time on.
The point is your laughing at this guy and ridiculing him publicly, yet at the same time you’re telling people that your best advice as a designer, with all of your experience, is to do exactly what he is already doing.
It’s marvelous stuff.
Finally, teaching people about a marketing concept like branding yet not knowing the king pins of the game today such as people like Robert Kyosaki probably doesn’t lend a lot of weight to credibility. Perhaps a couple of minutes of research prior to responding may have been the way to go.
I have no doubt that from a design point of view that your right on track. From a marketing point of view however you’re missing the mark by a long shot.
The Dick Smith logo is his face. Make no mistake about it because I KNOW what I remember it for and why. I remember HIS name and HIS face. No one I know ever associated Dick Smith Electronics with a store, they associated with the man because on any given Sunday he might have been at the place you went shopping. The logo didn’t work because of some superior sense of color coordination. Bottom line is that yellow was stand out and grabbed peoples attention but more importantly it gave greater emphasis to the blank space – which just happened to be void of color, yes black, and also happened to be HIS FACE!!!
I suppose in your mind he wouldn’t have been quite so successful if God had designed HIS FACE a little differently. Yeah right.
There is one thing I absolutely do agree with you on in this post though.
Stick to what you know and become an authority in your field particularly if you intend to attempt to teach others about it.
Mike Stenger said:
I agree somewhat with what you’re saying Lindsay, however it doesn’t always have to be about a font. Look at a big brand like Pepsi for example…
Many people recognize who they are just by looking at their logo by itself.
About social media branding. You talk about how it’s important to convey your brand on social media accounts. In taking that a bit further, what do you think about your username?
I’ve seen that yours is idiot_girl on Twitter and to me if I was a prospective client, that would be a pretty big turnoff. That’s just my opinion and am curious on your thoughts.
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Lindsayanng said:
the “idiot_girl” moniker actually came out of my very first blog “web design for idiots” so yes, it actually was a part of my branding. When that changed I was faced with the choice of changing it, or sticking it with. I chose to stick with it because it has memorability. And honestly, if the words “idiot_girl” turns people off from even looking at my work, they really aren’t clients I prefer to work with.
As for Pepsi.. If you look at the pepsi logo progression, it STARTED with a word mark (the text/font) and the logo.. They have to create an identity associated with their symbol, so for many years the mark was paired with the text so that people equate the mark with the brand name. Also, just because now, pepsi CAN be recognized without the word “pepsi” they still have an identity with the font because the font used on ALL Of their ads to write out the word “pepsi” is exactly the same..
Succesful branding is when you can remove your actual business name and use just the mark and still maintain your identity. It takes a LOT of marketing and being in the public eye before you can effectively do that, but that doesn’t take the word mark out of the brand, it just moves it to places where it is needed – like on ads with bigger space, website, and other mediums where you have more room.
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Lindsayanng said:
Just wanted to post this as an example. Look at Pepsi’s website. They have their mark with the word “pepsi” next to it. That font is the same font that is carried through out the rest of the website.
http://pepsi.com/
THAT is branding at it’s best. You will continue to see this font through out their marketing materials. It’s like when you see the font used in Coca-Cola, you recognize it as “their” font..
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Andrew plays free games online said:
Have you every wondered why McDonalds used Ronald McDonald for its branding for 30 odd years and only recently moved on to the golden arches?
And if a logo is that important to a brand, than how could it possibly be that they would go and change that 30 years later.
Here’s why. We connect with people, real animated people. Inanimate objects do no connect with us at a personal level.
Even a half assed marketer knows that purchases are made on emotional reactions, and emotional reaction are conjured up through an emotional connection.
Why did I scream like a banshee when I was 5 years old to go have a cheeseburger with Ronald McDonald but I never did care too much about what flavor of cola they served with it?
Why? Because I was getting my pound of Ronald McDonald flesh, not eating a cheeseburger at all. There was a pesonal connection there which the golden arches will never be able to compete with.
Sure you might get instant brand recognition with a logo, but you’ll never in a million years build a brand if you think you can base it all on a logo and a font.
Gautam Hans @ Blog Godown said:
That’s a great insight Lindsay, I use my face as a brand. I know it may not be easy to remember faces, but once you make your face as a brand, it doesn’t matter what thing you sell, it will sell if you have got a really good reputation and you are trusted.
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Beth McLain | Web Designer said:
Valuable piece of information…
Thanks for sharing
Dennis Edell said:
excellent work Lindsey, I’m right in the middle of all my branding stuff including thoughts on my logo; so I’ll be reading that article as well.
Thanks!
Btw, 40+ is not difficult, ya just need to be personable.
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Keith said:
Lindsay, as I go through your RIDICULOUS comments from this debate, I see you are exactly the same as you were before.
People have given you example after example of real people that have used name and face recognition got their branding, you come back with companies like McDonalds (mentioned in the post) and Pepsi and then proceed to tell us we are not using the right context? Are you frickin’ serious?
Here are a few names for you:
Darren Rowse
John Chow
Chris Brogan
David Risley
Frank Kern
Guy Kawasaki
Yaro Starak
etc…. etc….
I could go on and on. They are all online marketers and I couldn’t tell you what color any of their sites are, but I can tell you exactly what they look like! Everyone of them is very successful (Frank Kern has sales of over $2million in only a few days this week on his product launch) and they do it on name and face recognition, or PERSONAL BRANDING!
Maybe you should have written an article on the actual design instead of marketing and branding….
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David Messmer said:
I just wanted to speak up in Lindsay’s defense. Of course, face recognition can be important, but, just like graphic branding, the face has to be somehow memorable. If I looked like Elvis, I’d put my face all over everything, too. Donald Trump is a very distinctive looking man. So, yes, individual branding is effective for them. An average looking forty-year-old with a pot-belly is going to have a much harder time establishing a memorable personal brand.
The same is true of names. There’s a reason that a lot of celebrities change their names. No one would remember Norma Jeane Mortenson, but Marylin Monroe is easy to remember, and an effective brand. Billie Holiday, Tom Cruise, Axl Rose, the list of celebrities who have created successful brands by changing their names is a long one. Again, someone named Tom Smith is going to have a much harder time creating a personal brand.
I have found that it’s a lot easier to brand using colors, graphics, etc. because it’s easier to make them stand out right from the start. This is especially true in the context of blogging since most on-line branding is static. Elvis, after all, was as well known for moving his hips as he was for face – something I can’t emulate on my website.
Andrew plays free games online said:
David I don’t entirely disagree with you and I don’t think anyone who has not accepted Lidnsays views would either.
The issue here though is that throughout the post, and throughout the comments, Lindsay has effectively stated through her commentary that logo and graphic design is the most important aspect to a brand. She calls it brand recognition.
Lindsay is a designer and clearly very successful at what she does. I am a marketer. Also successful at what I do.
As a marketer I don’t employ designers to develop my brand. Nor do I hire marketers do design a logo unless they are a psychology major because then they have a whole lot more to bring to the table.
However I digress. The point here is that branding CAN exist without a logo at all. It can exist without a colour scheme as well.
But each time one of us suggests somewhere that personal branding has and continues to work as effectively perhaps more so, we are told its out of context only to see the next reply talk about another out of context scenario.
You make a great point however about all these people who have changed their name. Historically speaking if you look into it, names is Hollywood were changed for one of two reasons. Either the name wouldn’t sell, was not marketable, or there was already an actor with the name or very similar and it was copyright issue.
It was never about being memorable. It was about selling more seats at the theatre. It was about selling new star to the public.
Marylin Monroe could have been called Haiawatha Cooberpedie for all I care, but you go back to the 60′s and get that dress up and showing her tid bits again and every man between 14 and 144 is going to remember her name. Crikey you could have called her Dog Shit and she still would have been marketable.
Not because of a logo or design, but because of 2 things. Firstly of course her look. For the 1950′s and 60′s she was the sluttiest thing on the silver screen. That how they wanted her branded to enable the 2nd factor to her brand – Sex Appeal.
No one can remember the drug that killed her but every single person who’s ever heard of her knows that scene over the drain, and has heard the Happy B’day Mr.President.
Why? Branding!!!
As you pointed out, and lets continue to use the Elvis example, he did have a brand and you can even remember it. You’re association to the Elvis brand is swinging hips. While mine is hordes of gushing women.
But did Elvis have a logo, or a specific design that he used?
But were either of these things the actual Elvis brand? No!
What was the Elvis brand? To sum it up into a single phrase – sexual rebellion.
Read any book or interview with the Colonel and he even discusses how he went about branding Elvis as a sexual and promiscuous rebel. You have to remember it was the 50′s and things were a lot tamer back then.
And it clearly worked because you were left focused on Elvis’s hips and his good looks. I was focused on all those hot chicks.
I could cite examples for a week, but either way it was all about the sex. Sex is the brand in entertainment and has been ever since Elvis.
But to compare apples with apples and not oranges. Look at the Partridge Family. Brand on good wholesome family fun. Did they brand themselves, or did they rely on images, designs and logo’s.
They decided to go with wholesome family logo and design based branding. And where are they now? Any one of them? Oh Danny got be on Hulk Hogans I want to be a wrestler. Well done Danny.
And where is Elvis? Been dead more than 30 years and still selling albums.
The opening paragraph of Lidsays post ridicules a blogger because he is branding himself as the product not a website nor some image.
But you’re last paragraph actually explains exactly where the mistake is on this one.
You are suggesting that because of color and design you find it easier to brand. That’s the gist of what you said.
Here’s the big problem, in fact the first time I really saw the extent of this problem was in 1994 while in University studying my Dip. Marketing and 80% of the class failed when it came to case study time.
Each of them tried to emphasize and create the brand through a logo and/or design.
Branding is not a logo. Branding is not a design. Branding is not a name, or a face, nor a pin strip or a mascot.
They simply didn’t understand the concept of what branding really is and clearly Lindsay has memorized all the industry terms and phrases, but doesn’t understand the branding concept.
Branding my friends is an experience. It is an emotional, subconscious, neuro-association we place on a particular name, face, logo, mascot. The name, face, logo or mascot though is almost irrelevant if a marketer brands effectively and knows exactly what he/she is doing/talking about.
Ron Leyba said:
Thanks for this tip Lindsay. Branding is somewhat closely attached to Authority. So, with a good branding, authority follows.
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Reza Winandar said:
“Think about McDonald’s and their brand identity, when you see red and yellow together you instantly think of McDonald’s, and thus makes the red and yellow colors a part of their identity.”
In blogosphere, theme does matter.
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scheme pro said:
amen to that. this is a much needed post, especially as the top 10 best blogger/wordpress templates are used so much these days that it’s causing my monitor to burns those designs onto the screen due to overexpose…
Nicholas Cardot said:
scheme pro » Ha ha. That’s so true. And that is one of the reasons why I’m personally not a very big fan of the Thesis theme. It’s becoming over used in my opinion and most people aren’t really customizing it as much as they could.
Trece said:
Thank you, Lindsay, for helping me to understand a bit more about branding. I’ve thought about logos, but I am so happy with my gravatar that I’d rather find other ways to use it once I get a domain of my own.
This post added to my knowledge – thanks.
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Debbie said:
Wow – while a bit heated the input is certainly interesting!
I think many of us NEWER bloggers are a bit confused how we should present ourselves. Clearly, if I were placing an ad for my company I would use my logo. If my face was my branding identity I would use that. When blogging I am representing my business – yet I am the presenter.
Adam Ervin said:
Thanks for taking this opportunity to discuss this,
I feel strongly about it and I take pleasure in learning about this topic.
If possible, as you gain information, please add to this blog with new information.
I have found it extremely useful.
Matt White| Video Traffic said:
Nice insight on brand building. You’re right it’s not enough to suggest to people to write content, create videos, write e-books, and etc. for their target market. But they need to be conscious of ‘how they brand all these content’.
It kind of reminds me how people on talk/news shows brand themselves with taglines or hand movements. Also how leading bloggers brand their ‘content format.’ Seth Godin writes short posts and short sentences. While copyblogger writes longer lists with large headings.
Will apply this with my video clients too…brand them with music, colors, images, or a specific story line.
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Chris said:
Branding is not about having your potential clients to decide on you over your competition, nonetheless it is about getting your prospects to see you as the only one that offers a solution to their problem. The outward expression of a brand, includes its name, trademark, communications, and visual appearance. Your brand resides within the hearts and minds of customers, clients, and prospects.
Branding is a lot more than a marketing objective. For me actually branding is an outcome of just good plain business common sense. Nevertheless, it is often seen as a driver rather than an outcome. The act of associating a product or service with a brand has become part of pop culture. Most products have some sort of brand identity, from common table salt to designer jeans.
There is Attitude branding which is the choice to represent a larger feeling, which is not necessarily connected with the product or consumption of the product at all.
It’s crucial you spend time investing in researching, defining, and building your brand. In the end your brand is the source of a guarantee to your client.
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Brian Kinkade said:
I can’t even begin to describe how important branding is in my opinion. It is what separates us from everybody else, it can be scary at times feeling like you’re alone on an island but it is part of it. This is one of the necessary steps for us to be successful in the future.
Alonzo Pangani said:
Thanks for sharing this great post. I was about to brand myself but didn’t know how. These tips are very useful!