Do you really need to create a brand for your business and is it important? I see this debate on many forums, on multiple platforms and those discussions often get extremely heated. I have had a lot of intense exchanges with graphic designers and marketers resulting in a plethora of diverse responses and views.

Before stating my beliefs, please understand that it’s MY personal opinion and based on MY experience.

I am seeing multiple companies that are succeeding without any branding whatsoever. There has been much commentary, many articles expounding on the subject and books written on this topic including; “No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies”.

You probably have a brother, a sister, an uncle or a close friend working in a company with multiple employees at a big distribution center and neither you nor the general public actually have an idea about what they do or produce.

With the rise of the Internet and social media, many individuals have been able to personally brand them selves, but that comes with some important questions. What does your brand say about you? Why are you choosing a certain brand to be your “public” face? Is your brand helping or hurting you?

I have seen the birth and death of multiple businesses with no effort to create any identifying branding. Movie and TV production companies often operate this way. The open a company and then close it when the production is done. Some times they remain identified only as a numbered company but they spend very little time maintaining long term logos or branding.

So why is it so important to create a brand if branding doesn’t always seem necessary?

So the short answer is that; if you are building a long term project that will exist for a longer period of time and will interact with a continually growing customer base – you will have to create a brand to solidify recognition and consumer loyalty. This brand will be the rallying banner under which you launch new products, marketing campaigns and media attraction. It should excite and incite YOUR audience to keep buying what you’re selling.

Personally, I think it’s easier to work with a company that wants to keep and improve their brand. It shows a will to build staying-power and creates mutually beneficial long term partnerships.