If a brand like Adidas changes the color and font of its logo, and you notice this change on a pair of Adidas shoes you just got from a mall, what comes to your mind?
Would you call that rebranding?
Well, not when it doesn’t communicate the brand’s essence and values to potential customers and appeal to them emotionally—not when the brand promise is unknown!
What does this tell you? It’s simple: there’s much more to a brand than just the logo. In fact, a logo is just one part of something bigger. Knowing the difference between the two can help you make impactful business decisions.
What is a Brand?
A brand is the unique perception people have about a company’s products and services that differentiate it from others in the industry. Branding creates a unique identity that people can easily recognize. This could be by designing a specific name, logo, or symbol that tells customers what the business stands for or by communicating the company’s values, how it treats customers, and the emotions it builds in people.
From a business owner’s perspective, a brand includes the company’s positioning, message, design, customer type, voice, and marketing. From the audience’s point of view, a brand is the company’s reputation, shaped by how the business makes them feel and their experience with it.
A brand goes beyond visuals (color schemes, fonts, and logos). It cuts across every aspect of identity that makes the company memorable and unique, including the following:
What is a Logo?
A logo is a visual symbol that helps people recognize a business quickly. It typically combines typography, graphics/symbols, and colors to create an image that sticks in people’s minds. Think of logos from popular brands like Nike or Manchester United. They are all unique and recognizable and serve as a “shortcut” to remembering the brand.
While a logo helps one identify a brand, it doesn’t singlehandedly tell the whole story. It’s just one graphic part of the brand’s larger identity that captures the business at a glance.
Brand vs Logo: Core Differences Between the Two
A logo by itself is merely a graphic representation of a brand used in visual communication. But a brand is an umbrella that covers all the tangible and intangible aspects of a business, which gives its logo meaning.
While both a brand and a logo are important for a business, they are quite different in scope, purpose, design, placement, emotional impact, and long-term influence.
Scope
A brand is like a business’s entire identity. It’s made up of everything that creates a connection with customers, including the emotions the company creates, the trust it builds, and the experiences it gives to customers. The brand shows what the company values, how it treats customers, and the promises it keeps. Think of it as an all-round view of what the business is all about.
A logo, on the other hand, is just one part of this identity. It’s a physical symbol that gives the brand a face. Logos don’t carry the full story or the emotions of the brand; instead, they act as a shortcut that brings recognition.
Purpose
The purpose of a brand is to communicate the company’s complete story. It tells people what the business stands for, shares its values, explains its mission, and presents its unique qualities. A strong brand consistently communicates this message across platforms, so customers get a similar experience, whether they’re on the website, on social media, or visiting a physical store.
Logos, however, have a simpler but essential role: to offer a visual shortcut to a brand’s recognition. A logo acts as a quick identifier that allows people to recognize the brand wherever they see it.
Placement
Logos are placed specifically and visibly across all customer touchpoints. You’ll most likely see logos online on websites, social media profiles, and emails and offline on storefronts, product packaging, advertisements, and uniforms. Their job is to be seen, recognized, and associated with the business.
However, you just don’t see a brand physically on storefronts or uniforms. That’s the job of a logo (an aspect of branding). A brand has much more to do with customers’ emotions based on their experience with your product or service. A company’s branding shows up in the colors on flyers, the tone in social media posts, the style of website content, and even in the customer service experience. A brand’s “placement” extends to every part of the business that customers interact with, making the brand feel present — physically and mentally — and consistent everywhere.
Emotional Impact
Branding has a huge emotional impact because it helps connect your business with customers, builds trust, encourages loyalty, and develops a positive image over time. The brand’s personality, tone, values, and customer experiences all work together to make customers feel a certain way about the business, such as excited, confident, or valued.
A logo, however, acts as a memory trigger. When customers see a logo, it reminds them of the brand’s reputation and their experience with the product or service. But then, a logo can only help you recall an experience; it doesn’t necessarily give you that experience. A brand does.
Long-term Influence
Brands are dynamic and evolve with the business. As the company grows, enters new markets, or shifts focus, the brand can also adjust to reflect these changes. This might mean changing the messaging, introducing new values, or enhancing the customer experience to meet audience expectations.
Logos are usually more static. They can stay the same for years but can be redesigned at some point as part of a brand’s evolution.
Launch Your Brand Today!
A brand and a logo might differ in scope, but their overall goal is to efficiently reach your audience, communicate your message, value, and benefits, visually attract more attention, stay recognizable, and create extraordinary experiences.
Project Branding can help you achieve these goals, from logo design to the entire brand experience. Get started today.
