What is branding? A plain guide for small businesses

Ask ten business owners what branding is and you will get ten different answers. Some say it is the logo. Others call it marketing. A few think it is something only big companies need to worry about. This plain guide answers the question what is branding for a small business, and shows where it actually lives: on your sign, your van, your windows and your walls.

It is something we think about every day, because almost everything we make, from shop signs and exterior signs to office branding and wall graphics, is a business’s brand made physical.

Where branding started

The word comes from farming. Cattle owners burned a mark into the hides of their animals so everyone knew who they belonged to. A brand was a mark of ownership, nothing more.

Over time it came to mean much more. A brand became a promise: if you buy from this name, you know what you are getting. Today branding is about demand, desire, guaranteed quality and identity. It is the reason people will cross the road to one café and walk past another.

What branding means for a small business

For a small business, branding is the visual and verbal style that people come to recognise as you. It is how you look, how you sound, and how you make people feel. Done well, it says quality, reliability, trust and good service before anyone has spoken to you.

That matters because small businesses are judged quickly. A customer seeing your van in traffic or your shopfront from across the street decides in seconds if you look like the kind of business they want to deal with.

Logo versus brand

A logo is one part of a brand. It is the mark, the badge, the signature. A brand is everything around it: your colours, your typefaces, the words you use, the photos you choose, the way your staff answer the phone and the condition of your van.

You can have a great logo and a weak brand. If the logo appears in three different colours across your sign, your website and your invoices, people do not see one business. They see three.

Logo	Brand
A mark or symbol	The whole impression people have of you
Designed once	Built every day
Sits on things	Shows up in everything you do
Can be copied	Cannot be copied, because it is earned

Where your brand shows up physically

Most small businesses think of branding as something that lives on a screen. In reality, the places customers meet your brand most often are physical. Each of these is a chance to look like one joined up business, or to look like a collection of bits.

• Your sign: the first and biggest thing people see. It sets the tone for everything else.
• Your van: a sign that drives around all day. People judge your work by the state of your vehicle.
• Your windows: graphics, opening hours and manifestations that customers read up close.
• Reception: a logo wall, wayfinding and wall graphics that tell visitors they have come to the right place.
• Uniforms: a branded shirt or jacket makes staff easy to spot and look like a team.
• Stationery: business cards, letterheads, invoices and compliment slips. Small, but handled by the people who matter most.

Consistency is what makes a brand

If there is one thing to take from this article, it is this: consistency builds recognition. The same logo, the same colours and the same fonts, used the same way everywhere, is what turns a design into a brand people remember.

Brand colours

Pick your colours and write them down properly. A colour needs to be specified, not described. ‘Dark green’ means something different to everyone, but a defined colour reference means the same green on your sign, your van and your business cards. Different materials such as printed vinyl, painted aluminium and embroidered thread will each show colour slightly differently, so a good sign maker will match each one carefully to your reference.

Brand fonts

Choose one or two typefaces and stick to them. Use the same font for headings on your sign as on your website, and the same supporting font on your stationery as on your window graphics. Our guide to choosing a font for your sign explains how to pick type that reads well at a distance as well as on a page.

Our own example

We practise what we preach. When Sign Rite Grafix reached its 35th anniversary, we refreshed our logo, announcing it in 2019 and rolling it out fully by 2020. We kept our core colours, because they were what people already recognised. A refresh should build on the recognition you have earned, not throw it away.

Phil’s tips for small business branding

Phil Aliphon has been helping businesses look the part since 1985, when he started out pinstriping cars and signwriting by hand. These are the principles he comes back to.

• Start with the customer. Your brand is not about what you like, it is about what the people you want to attract respond to.
• Employ people who share the vision. Staff are the brand in person. If they do not believe in it, customers will notice.
• Think ahead. Will your branding still work when you add a second van, a second shop or a new service?
• Keep it simple. Keep the main thing the main thing. A simple logo works on a pen and a fascia alike.
• It is not always about money. Clear thinking and consistency count for more than a big budget.
• Do not copy another company’s branding. It confuses customers, it makes you look second best, and it can land you in legal trouble.

Bringing your brand together

The simplest way to start is an audit. Gather everything with your name on it: a photo of the sign, the van, the business cards, a uniform, a screenshot of the website. Lay them side by side. Do they look like the same business?

If they do not, pick the strongest version of your logo, colours and fonts, write them down in one place, and roll them out as each item is due for replacement. You do not have to change everything at once, but everything new should follow the same rules.

Ready to bring your brand to life?

From the sign above your door to the walls of your reception, we design, print, make and fit it all in house. See our shop signs and exterior signs and office branding and wall graphics, or call us on 01296 399202 to talk about making your brand look consistent everywhere.