Watch Video on YouTube:
Why Reputation is the Real MVP in Branding
Welcome back to my little corner of the internet where we chat about all things business and branding. Today, I want to spill the tea on something super important: why your reputation is the real MVP when it comes to branding.
So, let's get real for a second. When most folks think about branding, they picture logos, colors, and fonts. Sure, those things are important—they make your brand look professional and help people recognize you on social media. But here's the kicker: a logo won't make people pull out their wallets.
In my world, it's all about reputation. It's not just about having a slick logo or amazing brand colors. It's about what people actually think of you and your business. Do they trust you? Do they want to work with you? That's what's real.
So, if you're out there hustling to build your brand, remember this: your reputation is everything. Deliver top-notch work, be reliable, and treat your clients like gold. Your reputation will do more for your business than any fancy logo ever could.
In a nutshell, while logos and colors are fun, they're not the whole story. Your reputation is what really defines your brand. It's what people remember and what keeps them coming back for more. So, focus on building a reputation that reflects who you are and what you stand for. Trust me, it's worth it.
Thanks for hanging out with me today! If you like this post, hit that subscribe button for more insights on business and branding.
#Branding #ReputationMatters #BusinessGrowth #TrustInBusiness #LogoDesign #BrandIdentity #CustomerTrust #BusinessTips #EntrepreneurLife #BuildYourBrand
Hello internet friends and welcome to the Dana Show, where we BS about business and branding. Today we are talking about your branding in terms of reputation. Because your branding and your reputation are basically the same thing. Your logo, the purpose of your logo and your brand colors and those other things that people usually think of when we say the word branding. Those things are important.
You want to have a logo, you want to have fonts, you want to have colors, you want to have those things to remain consistent. So you can be easily recognizable when someone sees your product or your services or your website or your social media or whatever it is. So those things matter. But your logo in particular,
is so people can instantly recognize you. It is not because people are going to buy or not buy based on your logo. People don't buy and people don't make decisions, business decisions, purchasing decisions based on what your logo looks like.
I would say the better your logo, the more professional you'll be perceived and the better the chances are that you'll be hired or someone will purchase from you. But it is not a deciding factor. Your reputation, whether people want to work with you or not and why matters so much more than what your logo looks like.
So we're gonna do a little experiment, a little project today, not really an experiment, but I'm going to share with you some well-known logos, some of them you may or may not recognize. And I want you to imagine that you're a graphic designer and I'm coming to you and saying, hey, I'm starting this business and I want a logo that looks like this. And whether or not you think these logos
are good if they say what you think they should perhaps say about the business.
And then I'm going to reveal for each one which logo it actually, who it actually is. So we're going to start with this one, which I didn't immediately recognize on just seeing this logo. But once I knew who it was, was like, obviously that's who that is. So.
If you were a graphic designer and you had someone coming to you and say, want this shield with these books and non-English words, right? This is Latin for veritas, which means truth. And you might, most people don't know Latin. It might come off as a little hoity toity, which might be fine depending on who you want to cater to.
But for a lot of people, this would be confusing. And then you find out this is the logo for Harvard University. And everything changes, right? Well, of course it's the hoity-toity, right? Latin word for truth logo for Harvard University. Everyone knows Harvard University. And they do have a modernized version with the H on the right that has the same shield shape.
But in general, the one on the left is their logo. The one I showed you doesn't have the laurels and the words, but that is the logo. And they've had this logo for about 150 years since, I believe it was 1863. Harvard was founded in the 1600s, so it's been around a while. And they've been pretty consistent for a long time in this logo.
They're pretty committed. I think it's safe to say they're pretty committed to it. you know, everyone knows who Harvard is. Harvard has a reputation for being a top tier, world renowned reputation for academic excellence, research and prestige. Harvard is basically the goat among university education.
It carries so much weight saying that you went to Harvard. And if someone tells you I went to Harvard, you automatically assume that they're smart and they're qualified just by saying, I went to Harvard. Three words. I went to four words. I went to Harvard.
and there's no logo that's going to change that.
And by the way, this information here that you see on the screen is straight from Google AI. just Googled Harvard University reputation and this is what it came up with. So just to cite my sources so you know where this came from. But they are very well known. So I don't think they need to change this anytime soon because
their reputation stands above anything else. Although I do like they have this sort of modernized version, but ultimately this is what their logo is. All right, so our next logo. You may or may not not recognize this. I didn't initially, which tells you a lot about the things I pay attention to, if you know what this is. But if you came to me,
and said, hey, I want to start this business and I want this picture of a horse and these almost primary colors. I might be like, what does the S F stand for? Like, what does this mean? It feels dated, right? But once you find out that this is a logo for Ferrari, things kind of change in your head, right? You're like, Ferrari, I knew I recognized that. I don't own a Ferrari. don't.
really care about cars that much. I just need mine to get me from where I am to where I'm going and I'm good to go. I recognize that there's different types of cars and different standards and that Ferrari is well known for having high standards and they are expensive. I know this. Their logo doesn't change that at all.
And Ferrari has a formidable reputation that was built on a legacy of racing success, technological innovation, and unmatched luxury and exclusivity. Right? So you might look at this and be like, does this say luxury and exclusivity to you? If you were to design a logo today that said luxury and exclusivity, it would probably be gold.
I'm not going to lie. Maybe black and white. Black and white is considered very sophisticated. It would probably not be yellow, red, and green with a black horse and like a black stallion on it, right? But that is in fact what this logo means. Luxury and exclusivity because of their reputation, not because of the colors on their logo. So easily recognizable.
but certainly not what you might think of today in those terms. So everyone knows this. This is of course the Apple logo. And with the exception of the very beginning of Apple, this has been its logo. It started out with a more of a sketch of Isaac Newton under an apple tree, but that's not easy to duplicate.
So pretty early on, they switched to this logo. It's very simple. It has become classic. And it almost, at this point, I had trouble finding a logo that had the word Apple with it. It generally doesn't appear that way. So what's really interesting about this logo is it's one color.
does sometimes have variations, which is nice. It originally started as striped in multiple colors and it has transformed, but the shape has stayed the same. It does have the bite taken out of it and that was designed that way so people, one, knew it wasn't a cherry and two, it gave scale. Like that's a bite size, that's the size of an apple it puts in scale in your head. Those are,
Things that you don't consciously realize, those are more subconscious, but that's what goes into a good logo design. And I don't know if you notice this, but the leaf is actually the same shape as the bite. So basically, if you were to take the leaf and you puzzle it in, it would round out the apple. It just completes it. It's all part of the design. Very, very cleverly done. But if you were to come to me and say, hey, Dana,
I'm starting a new business and I'm calling it Banana. And I want my logo to be a black and white banana. I might be like, okay, okay, let me see what I can do. Right. But I don't know how exciting that would be. Might be great. But Apple's reputation is generally strong.
When you see the Apple logo, you think of high quality, high quality products, seamless integration, commitment to privacy, strong user trust. You might not think of those words exactly, but that is generally what people think of Apple. They faced some criticism, wages, labor, practices.
you know, some other things that have been a little shady. But I will say I have, I'm recording this on a MacBook. I have my iPhone right here. My iPad is sitting over here. So I enjoy Apple products. I use them every day. And I do like how they all connect to one another. And it's all seamless for the most part.
few bumps here and there. But we recognize Apple as Apple. And we generally, you either love or hate it, which is fine. But the people who love it, love it. And they're loyal for the most part.
So our next logo, if you're not American, you probably don't know this. If you're not from the Southern US, you probably don't know this logo. But if you know it, you know it. I myself live in Pennsylvania. I had not heard of this company until I saw a YouTube video that someone mentioned it in. And I was like, what?
Are they talking about? And then I had a business trip to Texas and I had the pleasure of visiting this location. It is a retail location. I don't know if you would know that by the cartoon of the Beaver, what this company does, but their name is Buc-cee's and this Beaver's name is Buc-cee This is Buc-cee the Beaver and Buc-cee's is a
gas station and convenience store located all around the South. I think the closest one to me is in Kentucky. So if you don't travel by car in the Southern US, you will not know what a Buc-cee's is by personal experience. It's almost hard to explain a Buc-cee's to someone who hasn't been in one.
It's a gas station. They probably have a hundred pumps and I'm not exaggerating. Both diesel for trucks, for diesel trucks, like truckers and you know, regular pumps for the rest of us. They also have a huge interior store with clothing and seasonal items and food, hot food, fresh food, packaged food.
Um, they have fried chicken. Uh, they have fudge. They have a beef jerky wall with like 50 flavors of beef jerky. Um, I don't remember the exact number. I just remember I saw it and took a picture and sent it to my son and said, for you. Um, cause he's a beef jerky fan and there was so many options. was like, I don't know what to pick. Um, their fudge is amazing.
I actually, when I got on a plane, I was driving from Galveston to the Houston airport and we stopped at a Buc-cee's and I bought some fudge to take home. And when I went through the TSA check line, they pulled out my bag and opened the top and the TSA agent looks at it and he goes, it's always Buc-cee's. I was like, what are you talking about? Well, apparently the
fudge, it's like, you know, a brick of fudge basically, looks a lot like an explosive that you can't see through it. It's solid, it's the right shape, it's the right consistency on the scanner. So they have to check it. And I was traveling with some coworkers at the time, and they had gone a few people ahead of me. I went and checked my bag, they didn't have to.
So I was the third person in like two or three minutes that at least that had the Buc-cee's fudge. So the time he got to me, like, it's always Buc-cee's. was like, oh my gosh. you know, Buc-cee's is well known. They have a very fiercely loyal and positive reputation among their customers and Google AI calls it a near cult following. And I would completely agree with that.
if, like I said, if you know Buc-cee's, you know Buc-cee's. it was, it was just a wild, it was just like how it's hard. It's so hard to explain and it sounds so silly. Like it's just a store, but, it's an experience and people go out of their way to visit a Buc-cee's and, so, so yeah, their little Beaver Beaver logo, people know that and people love it and people recognize it. And I actually have a.
ornament for my Christmas tree of Buc-cee the Beaver because I like to collect ornaments when I'm traveling and then they're like, you know, travel down memory lane every year when I put my tree up. So I've now got a Buc-cee's Beaver that lives on my Christmas tree. So definitely recognizable and a good reputation. So I think we all know the Amazon logo and this is
This is an example of really good logo design as well. They started out to my knowledge with this logo. This, so this is what we would call in the business a word mark. It is the word. This would be the brand mark. Okay. So this doesn't have the word. They're both versions of their logo. So the brand mark is just the A with the arrow smiley face on the bottom.
And if with the uprise of social media, companies who didn't have to be worried about having a square or a circle version of their logo before, now they have to because you need it for everything. You need it for your profile picture in all of your social media. So these kind of logos kind of emerged.
from their full logos. And so this is just like, because this is hard to see really tiny on your phone and the little circle, you need to have it something bigger. So you also have to consider most people view social media on their phones and those little circles are really tiny. And so it needs to be big in comparison. So the interesting thing, a little side note on the Amazon logo is there's a few things that
are built into this that you may not consciously recognize. The first one is not an arrow, but a smiley face, right? It's an arrow, but it's also a smiley face. It's a smile. Because Amazon wants you to feel happy about buying from them, right? Everyone loves getting their Amazon packages. And I will tell you there's an Amazon truck on my street more than once a day.
more than once a day. And I don't live on a large street. There's like 10, 15 houses on my street.
So they're busy. They're not lacking customers. And if you took a peek into Jeff Bezos' bank account, you would confirm that. So they have the smiley face, but also it's an arrow that points from the letter A to the letter Z, because Amazon has everything from A to Z.
So those are things that people don't always realize. And then when they did the shorter version, they just have the A for Amazon and the smiley face arrow underneath because now you recognize that. So Amazon has a generally positive reputation. Everyone loves their Amazon packages. They've had a few bumps in the road recently, but nothing that's really slowed down their profits.
Their working conditions are reportedly not great, but again, as an end user, most people shop on Amazon. It is the easiest way to get things to your house. And in some locations, it's same day delivery. Most of my stuff is two days. Sometimes there's a one day delivery, depending on what time of day, because Pittsburgh, where I live, has multiple distribution centers.
So it depends on where the item is in stock that I'm ordering. people know Amazon, but it is literally the letter A and an arrow. That is their logo, their brand mark, but instantly recognizable.
So most people know what this is. I look at this and I see a mermaid with two tails. However, Starbucks calls us their siren. And I am not a coffee drinker, but my kids love Starbucks. You got to get their Starbys, right? And I never really understood why there was a mermaid with two tails on That's their logo. I did not know. I looked into it a little bit and
When they were coming up with the logo Starbucks and I guess Buccaneers and Pirates, they wanted something that matched Starbucks and they thought a siren was a good choice and a siren calls you in for the coffee. Once I learned that, I'm like, okay, that makes a little bit more sense. But before I read that, I didn't know that. And I'm 48 and just learned this information. So
To me, it's a mermaid with two tails. I don't know what it has to do with coffee, but it's apparently a siren. So people don't know the backstory of your logo. It is interesting if people want to look into it, if it's something like that and has a story, and that's definitely something you can use. But at the end of the day, I recognize this. And I recognize Starbucks for having what people consider to be good coffee. Again, I don't drink coffee.
but a lot of people do. And I see a lot of cups walking around. We have multiple mugs and travel mugs with Starbucks logo on it that my kids use or have used in the past. So Starbucks generally has a good reputation. It's recognizable.
Again, if you came to me and said, I'm going to start a coffee company and I want to use a picture of a mermaid with two tails, I might be like, maybe we should pick something else. But it is recognizable. They have had a little bit of hit in their reputation, but overall for the people who like them, they have a good reputation. And they are hitting some competition in the coffee world, but there are still multiple Starbucks.
within a few miles of my house. there you go with that.
So when we're looking at logo versus brand versus reputation, it's obviously all connected. And we definitely, you you want to take some time on your logo. I do recommend hiring someone. There are designers who only do logos, depending on the size of your business. The one I work with the most, charges, last time I checked, $2,500 for a logo, but that is all he does.
And he gets us the psychological aspect of it, why spacing matters, why this angle here matters and all of these other things. It's very much an art and a science. I would not recommend going to Canva and picking out some things to make your logo with because you cannot trademark those or copyright those images if they come from
open source or a closed source like that. You need something custom made in order to be able to trademark it down the road. It doesn't mean you can't change it, but you do want to have a logo that is recognizable with your branding to set you apart. So you're recognizable. But again, your reputation matters more than your logo.
at the, like I said before, at end of the day. What do people think about you? What do people think about your product or your services? Do people want to work with you? If someone says, hey, I'm looking for someone in X, are they likely to recommend you? That's your reputation. And that's the most important part of your branding. Having good service. You can change your logo if you need to. Apple did.
Starbucks has made changes. I think every single company has made changes along the way. mean, look at Cracker Barrel. They tried to change it and people had a meltdown and they were like, okay, fine, we'll leave it. You know, sometimes people do feel attached to things. And there's multiple reasons why people have these kinds of reactions. Most of us, people don't really have that strong of a reaction or not really that invested in your logo.
and ultimately in your branding. So reputation, again, when you're thinking about your branding, I want you to think reputation. What is the reputation that you want to have? And reputation can be more than just I like you. Do you have a reputation for being fast, for being high quality, for looking good, for being expensive, for being exclusive, for being luxury, for being
attainable for being affordable. Those are all part of your reputation and part of your branding. Who are you working with? Who do you want to work with? Who do you want to buy from you? And how do you want to present yourself to them? That's your branding and that's ultimately your reputation. So definitely consider all of those things and how important your reputation is to your
branding. If you'd like to support me here for free, this is a new show. This is the second episode. So I'm just getting started. I'd love a like and a subscribe and a comment if you care to. Those are all free ways to support me. You can also, if you're interested in working with me, the way I work is I start with a fit call.
And I have a link in the description where you can go ahead and schedule that with me. I have some preset time scheduled and then that'll pop up on my calendar and then I'll meet with you virtually on a video call. And then we'll chat for 15 minutes to half an hour and determine if I can meet your needs and if you're a good fit for a good fit for each other because that's really important. And then once we decide to move forward, we do what
I called the brand formula. And that starts with an hour and a half to two hour interview where we sit down and I ask you some really in depth questions about your business, your goals, where you've been, where you want to go and your branding. And from that, I do an analysis and I put together your brand formula, which is a PDF file that tells you what you need to know.
in order for your branding moving forward and building your business and growing your business. And that is not a free service. I do charge for that. But the cost of that is then taken off of the third step, which is your brand elixir. And the brand elixir is your deliverables. It's your website, any of your branding needs. If you have stationary, your logo, your
overall branding, your messaging, you have a tagline, anything that is something that you would need to go with your branding, I can provide that for you. And the way we do it is we set aside a day or two depending on the amount of work we've agreed to and would help you the most. And I come to it with some things ready to go for you to look at. And then you give me feedback.
And then I go off and I make edits and I bring it back in an hour or so. And then we look at it and we refine on the fly, you know, live basically, we refine live. And then we launch and publish as we go. So at the end of a day or two, the faster you make decisions and the faster we can get through that, the more you get done and the more you have at the end.
And it's actually a lot of fun. and you, we, we do it all. It eliminates a lot of that back and forth and stretching that time out. doesn't need to take weeks or months to do that. We can really from fit call to end is a month or two, depending on our schedules and you're done. And you've, it's saved so much time and stress and energy, and it's really worth it.
So if you're interested in doing that, schedule a fit call with me with the link below. If you have more questions, you can shoot me an email at dana at danaschulte.com and I'll see you in the next episode. Bye.