Happy New Year, and welcome to my second ever marketing blog, and the first for 2026. I have to tell you, I’m excited about this year – it feels different already, I can’t explain why but I have such a good feeling about the year ahead and feel more than a little ‘fizzy’ in my tummy. For someone who has lived her whole life in the flow, guided by gut feel, I pay attention to this feeling.
Here’s hoping we all enjoy the best year ever.
So, onto the topic of the month – my particular passion and the constant core of every piece of work I produce – brand.
Brand is the anchor, ensuring a business is tethered to its purpose, preventing drift.
Brand is the heartbeat driving every decision.
Brand is the lens that frames every initiative.
It’s the unseen thread, the grounding force, the calm at the centre of all activity.
In short, everything begins and ends with brand, informing every decision, big and small. Your brand is your story.
The Daily Brief beautifully describes how “Before logic enters the room, branding has already done its job.” Though, personally, I would say the ‘brand’ has done its job, rather than the “branding”.
Lately, I’ve seen a lot of posts on LinkedIn about this very subject, often coming from a similar angle to what I’ve described above. Now, I appreciate that opinions vary on all things, but rarely have I seen such vehement, if not scathing opposition from the ‘Marketing before Brand’ advocates. I won’t go into detail, but the summary argument for the marketing-first contingent, was about how marketing establishes the strategy, the market positioning, the customer profile, etc. etc., and this must happen before the brand can be designed. In my opinion (seemingly shared by many) they are missing the point, designating brand creation and development as purely a design / creative function. But without first establishing the brand’s raison d’etre and brand strategy, any ‘marketing’ endeavours have no soul or substance. Essentially, brand and marketing should walk together in harmony - it’s not a competition, but a union (albeit, led by brand).
If a business is not working, a product not selling, it’s rarely a marking problem – it’s almost certainly a brand problem. Marketing without first getting under the skin of a brand and building its heart and soul is simply noise – in an already deafening environment. It has no chance. The only way to achieve enduring cut through is with a business or a product that touches people and really means something to them. Then your marketing is amplifying the right message and values that will attract and connect with the right audience.
There are arguably some exceptions, of course – typically single, innovative products that hit the right spot at the right time. The kind of products we might find beautifully presented on insta or tik tok. But I would like to bet (even if these products don’t have what many might perceive as a brand – i.e. a logo), that (perhaps unwittingly) the values and passion of the producers of these products have shone through, inadvertently creating an organic, inchoate brand.
So, let’s clarify what a brand actually is.
Well firstly, it’s not a logo – that’s just a badge that identifies your product or service from another. Nor is it the whole creative expression of your brand – it’s incredibly important, but it’s simply an essential ingredient.
A brand is everything you say, everything you do, your whole way of being, your presence, your purpose, your raison d’etre. That’s why, as brand creatives, we must start here, so all design work captures and exudes the brand values, unique personality, and individuality.
One of my true pleasures in life is helping our clients to discover (or re-discover) who they are as a brand. Digging deep and revealing all its wonderful nuances and (in the case of re-discovery) resurrecting all the special things they once loved about it and seem to have lost along the way, allowing them to fall in love with their brands again…
…and then sharing it with the world, so that everyone else can fall in love with it too. Or at least the people they want to attract.
Here’s a scenario that might sound familiar.
Someone starts a new business – maybe alone, maybe with a partner or relative. It’s exciting, they launch and, despite a few early wobbles, the business starts to fly. Anyone who has been in this position will relate to the fact that for founders, there is so much of them interwoven with the brand, it’s hard to separate that brand from the people who created it. It’s their baby, perhaps their life’s purpose. The brand and the owners share the same values, the same personality, the same way of being. It’s only natural. These founders don’t even realise they are building a compelling brand. They instinctively make the right decisions for the brand, based on their own values, which attracts like-minded customers.
So, everything goes swimmingly for a while, but as the business inevitably expands and the founders take on staff and maybe work with other businesses or suppliers, they start to feel disconnected to their brand. They begin to feel the business is running away with them – that it is drifting into territory they don’t feel entirely comfortable with, and they can’t seem to put their finger on what feels wrong. It just doesn’t seem like fun anymore, and they feel somewhat out of control.
This is often the time in a company’s evolution that the owners approach me, and they seem so lost. This is where we stop and take a breath, travel back in time to when they started the business and dive deeply into heart of the brand, uncovering everything that makes the brand special and unique, all the thoughtful and uplifting things they do for their clients and their teams, all the quirks, the smiles, the common thread of belief.
It's an incredibly rewarding process.
Here’s the thing – these business owners were initially operating on instinct and an innate sense of what’s ‘right’ for the brand. But because this was so natural to them, they never thought to articulate what the brand was all about – what it meant to them, and ultimately what they want it to mean to the people they hope to attract. So, when they began to hire people, they were not able to instil the brands values, personality, and heart into the minds of their team.
Ditto with partners and suppliers. Each party was left to draw their own conclusions, which would inevitably differ from theirs – and each other’s. Even with every individual working with the very best interest of the brand in mind, friction begins to creep in and confusion takes over. If the team and partners are confused, the customers have no chance!
Frustrated business owners might, in this instance seek help from external marketing agencies. I have one such example, where the owner engaged a PR agency, a social media agency, and a web agency, in the hope they would collectively steer the brand in the right direction. But the same issue applies – my client was not able to effectively articulate the brand to any of these agencies, so they all created their own vision from which to launch their campaigns / projects. The problem was exacerbated as the agencies were not collaborative – each one competitively vying for expanded scope from one or both of their fellow agencies. The result was a confusing mass of mixed messaging and brand image, which took months to unravel.
As a side note; creative / marketing agencies can be hard to manage. If you are not crystal clear on exactly what you want from them, you can find yourself being sold whatever they are best at doing – not what you actually need. And if you are not crystal clear on your Brand DNA, they will assume one for you, often with little consultation. It’s critical to build your brand vision and detailed guidelines before engaging external agencies, so you can give them an unquestionably clear brief. Before launching Velvet Creative, I spent a lifetime managing agencies, and for the reasons noted above, once we have created and established a full Brand DNA for our clients, we continue to act as their brand guardian, which may include the direction and management of their marketing agencies).
If any of the above resonates with you and you’re ready to work on your brand, it can be difficult to know where to start? Here’s what I’d recommend:
Set at least one day aside and get away from the office and any distractions.
Enlist the help of some people you trust, who are most aligned with your thinking – around 6 people is a good number.
Take a few pads of A1 sized post it sheets and fix them to the walls around the room so you can apply notes in a number of important categories, then start brainstorming and assign a scribe to commit all your blue-sky ideas onto the sheets.
Set some headings to brainstorm – who we are (really, deeply), what we do (emotionally) how we make people feel, our brand values (please, please, please, avoid words like ‘quality’ and phrases like ‘great-service’ – nothing generic – your values should be truly defining and explicitly distinguish it from competitors), cultural values (think more internally, as opposed to brand values, which are more consumer-facing), our brand personality (how you are, your style, your way of being), our tone-of-voice (your communication style and language). There’s more, but these are a great starting point, and you can add some headings of your own that are important to you.
Note: It can feel a bit awkward when you first start brainstorming, so start with something easy, and you’ll be amazed what gems people come out with once the group warms up. Just be patient, and if you need a second day, that works too – it will be worth the investment.
Second note: This is a highly emotive process, so put your logical, business brain aside for the day and just do it from the heart – you won’t go far wrong. It can be easy to revert to commercial, business/process, or data-driven thinking but save that for later, once you have a cohesive brand to guide you. And remember that every single buying decision is an emotional one, so open up and connect with your feelings for this exercise.
Once complete get your raw notes into a document and begin crafting them into something meaningful. You may need the help of a good wordsmith for this. Then you can begin curating your visual image brief, but that might be a whole other article, and this one is already longer than I anticipated.
It all feels a little too daunting, I’d love to help, so feel free to reach out any time.
In Summary…
Once your brand is explicitly defined, you’ll find:
Your messaging aligns
Your decisions come easier
Your customers understand faster
Your confidence is palpable
Your voice is unmistakable
Your values are integrated
Your path is clear
Your image becomes memorable
And your brand becomes a magnet for your desired audience.
Ultimately the result of a clear brand strategy, DNA, and creative expression is authenticity and trust – the true foundations of a successful brand. These cannot be built through persuasion but through clarity, congruence, and consistency - and the quiet confidence of knowing exactly who you are.
This is how you build what is known as Brand Love and Loyalty Without Reason.