Sometimes when I’m around designer friends and there’s a lull in the conversation one of us will blurt out, “What is branding, anyway?” Then we shrug our shoulders and chuckle, knowing that the answer is far too complex to sum up in a sentence or two.

有時，當我和設計師朋友在一起時，談話變得平淡無奇，我們中的一個人會脫口而出：“無論如何，品牌是什么？” 然后，我們聳了聳肩，輕笑著，知道答案太復雜了，不能用一兩句話來總結。

It is a crucial question, however. And answerable. This is my attempt to answer that question in a series of writings. I’ve been working on and thinking about branding for more than a decade now. First, at an agency working with global brands, then at my own startup and for the last several years embedded inside a growing, venture-backed tech startup.

但是，這是一個關鍵問題。 和負責任的。 這是我試圖通過一系列著作來回答這個問題的嘗試。 十多年來，我一直在研究和考慮品牌塑造。 首先，在一家與全球品牌合作的代理商中，然后在我自己的初創公司中，以及最近幾年嵌入在一個由風險投資支持的成長型技術初創公司中的公司 。

Why is branding so hard to define?

為什么品牌很難定義？

First, we should make a distinction between an organization’s brand and its visual brand.

首先，我們應該區分組織的品牌和視覺品牌 。

A visual brand is made up of logos, icons, fonts, color palettes, slide deck templates and so on. This is most often what people, especially designers, mean when they say they’re “working on branding,” though what they’re actually doing is working on the visual brand.

視覺品牌由徽標，圖標，字體，調色板，幻燈片模板等組成。 這是人們(尤其是設計師)在說自己正在“進行品牌塑造”時最常表達的意思，盡管他們實際上在做的是視覺品牌。

An organization’s overall brand is something much bigger and harder to define. I’m now convinced that an organization’s brand is mostly just its core values: the things that drive every decision of every team everyday. Every organization has a brand because every organization has values, whether they realize it or not. Sometimes those values are explicitly stated and other times they’re more ambiguous. But they’re always there.

組織的整體品牌要大得多，也很難定義。 我現在堅信組織的品牌主要只是其核心價值：推動每個團隊每天做出決定的事物。 每個組織都有品牌，因為每個組織都有價值，無論他們是否意識到。 有時，這些值被明確聲明，而其他時候則更加模棱兩可。 但是他們總是在那里。

Branding helps to answer the question, “Why are we doing this?” and is much more nuanced than dealing with the question, “What are we doing?”

品牌有助于回答以下問題：“我們為什么要這樣做？” 并且更加細致入微不是處理這個問題，“我們在做什么 ？”

Establishing an organization’s core values is grueling work. It must always start with the CEO, too, since it’s ultimately the CEO’s responsibility to ensure that everyone in the organization knows why they’re doing what they’re doing.

建立組織的核心價值是艱巨的工作。 它也必須始終從CEO開始，因為這最終是CEO的責任，以確保組織中的每個人都知道自己為什么做自己的工作。

Furthermore, an organization’s core values can shift and transform over time. The best brands remain consistent, though, and have strong opinions about what makes their product or service, and, therefore, their culture, unique. Brand is inextricably linked to culture, too. More on that another time.

此外，組織的核心價值會隨著時間的推移而變化和轉變。 不過，最好的品牌保持一致，并對什么使他們的產品或服務以及因此其獨特的文化具有強烈的見解。 品牌也與文化密不可分。 再來一次。

In the same way a person spends years developing her own strong opinions, an organization’s brand is built only after many hours of learning and wrestling and hard conversations.

與一個人花費數年時間發展自己的強烈意見一樣，組織的品牌只有經過許多小時的學習，角力和艱苦的交談后才能建立。

Who owns branding?

誰擁有品牌？

After years of reflection, starting with the premise that design teams should own branding, I now believe that branding is a shared process among every team and must be championed in the c-suite.

經過多年的思考，從設計團隊應該擁有品牌的前提開始，我現在認為品牌是每個團隊之間共享的過程，必須在最高管理層中擁護。

The visual branding process should be owned by the design team. And because a visual brand serves as a constant reminder of the organization’s core values, it’s imperative that the design team work closely with the c-suite and many other stakeholders, including HR.

視覺品牌化過程應歸設計團隊所有。 而且，由于視覺品牌一直在提醒著企業的核心價值，因此設計團隊必須與最高管理層和包括人力資源部門在內的許多其他利益相關者密切合作。

The core values of an organization help determine all kinds of visual brand decisions. An education startup focused on elementary schools, for example, might employ bright and bold colors and flourishy fonts — just no Comic Sans, please! — while an insurance company might go with a more traditional color palette and font.

組織的核心價值有助于確定各種視覺品牌決策。 例如，一家專注于小學的教育創業公司可能會采用明亮大膽的顏色和蓬勃的字體-請不要使用Comic Sans！ -保險公司可能會選擇更傳統的調色板和字體。

The visual brand is as important as an organization’s core values because nearly every customer touchpoint with the brand is made up of some combination of colors, fonts and graphics. Each touchpoint always reinforces the brand.

視覺品牌與組織的核心價值同樣重要，因為該品牌的幾乎每個客戶接觸點都由顏色，字體和圖形的某種組合組成。 每個接觸點始終可以增強品牌形象。

A design team can do much more than make the visual brand beautiful, too. They can often help the c-suite work through processes to determine core values and figure out the best ways to share those with the rest of the team. Designers have a unique skill, a way of solving problems that includes deep empathy and thoughtfulness, and this skill can be applied to myriad problems inside an organization.

設計團隊所能做的不僅是使視覺品牌更漂亮。 他們通常可以幫助高級管理人員通過流程來確定核心價值，并找出與團隊其他成員共享這些價值的最佳方法。 設計師具有獨特的技能，一種解決問題的方法，其中包括深層的同理心和體貼，并且這種技能可以應用于組織內部的眾多問題。

Put your design team to work on strategic problems. Every designer I know is eager to apply their design processes to other problems throughout the organization. This is often referred to as “design thinking” and many successful organizations are realizing that this is great for business.

讓您的設計團隊致力于戰略問題。 我認識的每個設計師都渴望將他們的設計過程應用于整個組織中的其他問題。 這通常被稱為“設計思維”，許多成功的組織都意識到這對業務非常有用 。

Is brand different from reputation?

品牌與聲譽不同嗎？

I’ve often heard people equate an organization’s brand with its reputation. They’re not quite the same, though.

我經常聽到人們將組織的品牌與聲譽相提并論。 但是，它們并不完全相同。

A crisp, white box with a gray Apple logo informs you that the product inside will be user friendly and thoughtfully designed. A Honda logo on the front of a car lets everyone know that the vehicle is well built and will be reliable for a very long time.

帶有灰色Apple徽標的白色酥脆盒子告訴您，產品內部將易于使用且經過精心設計。 汽車前部的本田徽標使每個人都知道該汽車的結構合理，并且在很長一段時間內都會可靠。

Apple and Honda are established companies that have earned a reputation over a long period of time. Since reputation building takes a long time, an organization can have a brand and not yet a reputation.

蘋果和本田是已經建立了很長時間的聲譽的公司。 由于建立聲譽需要很長時間，因此組織可以擁有品牌，而沒有聲譽。

But they do go hand in hand. A person earns a reputation by being consistent in her values and carrying them out in many situations over a long period of time. The same is true in business.

但是它們確實是并駕齊驅的。 一個人的價值觀是一致的，可以在很長一段時間內在許多情況下貫徹始終，從而贏得聲譽。 商業界也是如此。

That’s all for now. What else would you like to know about branding from a designer’s perspective? —Chris

目前為止就這樣了。 從設計師的角度來看，您還想知道什么有關品牌的信息？ -克里斯