What’s in a name? What’s in a brand? Is it just a great graphic design? Is that all there is to the mystique of branding?

We answered these questions by returning to old west, and the origin of the term, burning an emblem into the hide of a steer or a horse with a red-hot branding iron. A steer bearing a sideways Q on its hip would symbolize the lazy Q ranch. This symbol meant more than a sign of ownership. It represented the owner and the workers of that ranch. It represented how the ranch did business, and how they treated their customers, their neighbors. It represented how they took care of their cattle and the quality of their beef. The brands of successful ranches became known by anyone in the cattle business. Branding today is far more than a company’s fiery brand on a product. Branding includes everything that says, ‘This is who we are. This is how you should think of our company.’ The look and feel of everything related to the company from the text, visuals and overall feel of a website, to the letterhead, to the company policies that dictate employee image and how they are to handle customers can fall under branding.

You can open any newspaper and see a full-page ad you can recognize without reading a word of it. That’s branding. The color, the style and the typeface alone tell you whose ad it is.

A famous soft drink co-opted Santa Claus into its depression-era advertising making St. Nick part of their brand. A well-known amusement park strict rules about how employees should dress and act; this became part of their brand. In the 50’s oil companies had TV and radio theme songs. Again, branding.

Your brand should conjure a complete identity and proud history in a customer’s mind at a glance. Most don’t.

Our creative team makes its branding magic by getting with you, looking over your business, examining your products or services, getting the entire spirit of your enterprise into our veins, then helping to you to create that perfect package, that brand that tells the world, ‘This is who we are.’

We do it through artistry and imagination, market research and application, by comparison with better-known companies, or by making you stand out as the unique and dynamic industry leader that you are.

When you’ve gained the edge of instant recognition and appreciation, you’ve half-won your battle for recognition before you’ve fired your first shot.