Small Business Marketing Kit For Dummies, 3rd Edition

What Brands Are and Do

Keep in mind two facts about what brands are and aren’t:

A brand is a set of beliefs. It’s a promise customers believe.

A brand isn’t a logo. A logo is a symbol that identifies a brand. When people see your logo or hear your name, a set of images arises. Those images define your brand in their minds.

Your brand isn’t what you think it is. Your brand is whatever mental image those in your target audience automatically unlock when they encounter your name or logo. Your brand is what they believe about you based on everything they’ve ever seen or heard — whether good or bad, true or false.

If you make impressions in your marketplace, whether proactively or unconsciously, you’re building your brand. In fact, you’re likely building two brands at once — a business brand for your company and a personal brand for yourself, a brand balancing act featured in a section later in the chapter.

Something as basic as your street or online address contributes to how people perceive your brand. For that matter, customers, prospective customers, job applicants, reporters, bankers, suppliers, and those who refer people to you and your business form impressions every time they ...