The Major Differences Between Brand, Branding, and Design for Midwives and Doulas
There are three KEY players when it comes to internet marketing: brand, branding, and design. Each of these are INCREDIBLY important, and they all need to work together to build an amazing digital marketing strategy. Unfortunately, not everyone knows the difference. Let’s just say that knowing the difference is IMPORTANT to understand. Knowing your brand, branding, and design can make all the difference between a QUALITY digital marketing strategy, and a subpar digital marketing strategy.
So today, we just wanted to take a second to clearly define the difference for you. You may decide you need an expert to handle things for you – and you guessed it, that’s where we come in.
Design
Why don’t we start with the easiest thing first? Your design is composed of things like your logo, the look of your website, and the fonts and colors associated with your brand. These things ARE NOT YOUR BRAND. I repeat YOUR LOGO IS NOT YOUR BRAND. What!? Did I just throw you for a loop? I’m not surprised. A lot of people tend to think their logo IS their brand, and that’s just WRONG. Your logo, your font, and your colors are all parts of your design.Your design is the face of your brand, and it is meant to help your audience identify your brand.
Here is a quick example: If someone hands you a cup of coffee and you spot a Starbucks sleeve on the cup, you know you are getting coffee from Starbucks. It doesn’t even HAVE to have their logo on it! Your design is there to tell your audience what is in store for them.
Branding
A HUGE part of your branding is your communications strategy. There should ALWAYS be a strategy in place for all of your communication. If you don’t have a strategy it means your communication will be sporadic (at best) or you will just forget to communicate at all (NOT GOOD). Knowing what to say is KEY for your branding because branding is all about building relationships!
Here is an example: Do you just walk into a party and say the first thing that comes to your mind? NO WAY! You listen to others and think about how you are going to respond. Otherwise it is going to get AWKWARD.
Finding the key phrases and expressions that define your business is extremely important. These are the major keys to your branding and they are most effective when you find the right audience to share them with. This is how you get likes, shares, and engagement, sure. But it’s also how you build something bigger than your service. It’s how you build a movement.
Brand
This is it. This is YOU as a business. Your brand is the center of your being.
Think of it this way: Your design is the outer shell of a car. If you drive a blue Mustang, people will know what it is just by looking at the outer shell of the car. That is your design. Your branding would be the wheels (how you move) and your muffler (how you communicate). Your brand would be the engine. The power center. The core of the vehicle. The place where all of the energy works together to make the car move.
Your brand needs to trigger a strong emotional response. This is where your profession comes into play, you are bringing babies into this world in the most natural and beautiful way possible. That WILL trigger an emotional response. That WILL make people feel connected to you and your brand. You are already in the driver’s seat, you just need to learn how to make the car go!
When you have a strong brand, people like to take action. They read your posts, they comment on your social media, they share your information with friends because they feel connected to it. Your audience will develop a sense of loyalty to your brand and they will want to choose you and promote YOU over other options.
Isn’t that AMAZING? We think so, too.