"Branding," and its apparent continual evolution, is evolving even more. I found that out recently when I stood in as a substitute speaker at a business networking group.  With the script of the original speaker in hand, I started out following the party line. Somewhere along the way, I went "off script." Here's how it went: I started telling the group that traditional branding was dead; don't waste money on identity logos - just get a logo, any logo. I didn't mean to go off script. It just happened.

When it happened, that's when the speech turned into a dialogue with the audience.

The audience was mentally at a static point in "branding" - that branding is the basic building block for every successful endeavor. Without the image, persona, and appropriate logo design, tag line, and overall look-and-feel, businesses have no chance of success. There's another angle on this, which my readers should know very well: Move people from interested prospects to loyal clients by the shortest and least expensive route possible. 

Branding is defined as, "a traditional advertising method used to create a response from a target audience based on cumulative impressions and positive reinforcement." Marketing is defined as, "The process of organizing and directing all the company activities which relate to determining the market demand and converting the customers buying power into an effective demand

for a service and bringing that service to the customer."  

According to this, branding is the strategy of developing a company's message. Marketing is the tactical implementation of this message.

Seemingly, close cousins.  

As the dialogue continued at this event, the audience understood that the successful strategy is one that doesn't differentiate between marketing and branding. 

Today the definition should be "an interactive communication method that allows the prospect to be engaged by the company's message and leads to a

direct buying response."   Isn't that what we're all trying to do? What

small business brags about the success of their branding campaign? (What small business can afford to "brand" in the traditional sense of the word?) The bragging for small business is more about the successful marketing/sales tactic employed that exceeded the goals that were set. Small businesspeople are all about tactics that sell. The spend has to generate sales on the limited resources common to small firms.

The take-away: A branding message is not static but a "concept in motion".

It will change as the market shifts. Marketing efforts should respond quickly to perceptual shifts in the market. The internet has made our communication medium a fluid environment. Static messages don't work.

Customers are no longer targets of branding and marketing, but are participants in them. Big difference. 

This is actually good news to small businesses. It means that conversations with prospects and clients are more likely to generate sales than any branding effort. Listening and thinking about what engages your clients and prospects is a catalyst for sales, and small businesses are better at this than the big guys. 

So, don't worry about having the perfect logo. The odds are that your business will not look the same two years from now anyway. If it doesn't, you're probably responding to what customers really want and not what you thought they wanted, and that's always a good thing.