Understanding Your Basketball Training Brand, Identity & Logo
This may shock you, but your logo is not your Basketball Training brand, nor is it your identity. Your Logo, identity and branding all have different roles, that together, form a perceived image for your business.
Brand
The perceived emotional company image as a whole.
Identity
The visual aspects that form part of the overall brand.
Logo
A logo identifies your business in its simplest form via the use of a mark or icon.
What is branding?
Simply put, you could describe a ‘brand’ as an organization (your Training Program), service or product with a ‘personality’ that is shaped by the perceptions of your audience. It should be stated that a designer cannot “make” a brand – only the audience can do this. A designer forms the foundation your brand.
Most people believe a brand consists of just a few elements – some colors, some fonts, a logo, a slogan and maybe. The Truth is, it’s much more to it than that. The fundamental idea and core concept behind having a ‘company image’ is that everything a company does, everything it owns and everything it produces should reflect the values and aims of the business as a whole.
It is the consistency of this core idea that makes up the company, driving it, showing what it stands for, what it believes in and why they exist. It is not purely some colors, fonts, a logo and a slogan.
As an example, let’s look at the well known IT company, Apple. Apple as a company, projects a humanistic corporate culture and a strong corporate ethic, one which is characterized by volunteerism, support of good causes & involvement in the community. These values of the business are evident throughout everything they do, from their innovative products and advertising, right through to their customer service. Apple is an emotionally humanist brand that really connects with people – when people buy or use their products or services; they feel part of the brand, like a tribe even. It is this emotional connection that creates their brand – not purely their products and a bite sized logo.
What is Identity design?
One major role in the ‘brand’ or ‘corporate image’ of a company is its Identity.
Identity design is the visuals used within a company, usually created within a set of guidelines. These guidelines that make up an identity usually administer how the identity is applied throughout a variety of mediums, using approved color palettes, fonts, layouts, and so forth. These guidelines ensure that the identity of the company is kept consistent, which in turn, allows the brand as a whole, to be recognizable.
The Identity or ‘Image’ of a company is made up of many visuals:
- A Logo (The symbol of the entire identity & brand)
- Stationery (Letterhead + business card + envelopes, etc.)
- Marketing tools (Flyers, brochures, books, websites, etc.)
- Products & Packaging (Products sold and the packaging in which they come in)
- Apparel Design (Clothing items that are worn by trainers and athletes)
- Anything visual that represents the business.
All of these things make up an identity and should support the brand as a whole. The logo however, is the corporate identity and brand all wrapped up into one identifiable mark. This mark is the avatar and symbol of the business as a whole.
What is a logo?
To understand what a logo is, we must first understand what it is for.
A logo is for… Identification.
A logo identifies a company or product via the use of a mark, flag, symbol or signature. A logo does not sell the company directly nor rarely does it describe a business. Logo’s get their meaning from the quality of the thing it symbolizes, not the other way around – logos are there to identify, not to explain. In a nutshell, what a logo means is more important than what it looks like.
To illustrate this concept, think of logos like people. We prefer to be called by our names – John, Jane, Tim – rather than by the confusing and forgettable description of ourselves such as “the guy who always wears gold and has a Silver beard”. In this same way, a logo should not literally describe what the business does but rather, identify the business in a way that is recognisable and memorable.
It is also important to note that only after a logo becomes familiar, does it function the way it is intended to do much alike how we much must learn people’s names to identify them.
The logo identifies a business or product in its simplest form.
Summary:
Brand –The perceived emotional company image as a whole.
Identity – The visual aspects that form part of the overall brand.
Logo – Identifies a business in its simplest form via the use of a mark or icon.
Hopefully you’ve developed a more indepth understanding of the roles, that Brand, Identity and Logo play in building your Basketball Training brand. Enjoyed this article? Ready to start building your training business online?