Should You Call Your Business a Brand When It’s Just a Business?

Business vs brand starts with the understanding of what a business exists to do. 

“Support my brand.”

“Patronise my brand.”

“My brand sells ready-to-wear.”

“I just launched my brand.”

I have seen this quite a number of times, especially among people selling online through WhatsApp and Instagram.

At first, I thought nothing of it.

Then I started noticing how frequently the word brand was being thrown around until I began to wonder whether we were slowly stripping the word of its meaning.

And perhaps this is an unpopular opinion, but I think we need to have this conversation:

Not every business needs to call itself a brand.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with saying:

“I have a business.”

“Patronise my business.”

“I sell shoes.”

“I run a food business.”

“I sell wigs on Instagram.”

There is nothing less sophisticated about that.

In fact, there is something refreshing about being able to say exactly what you are doing without trying to dress it up in language that sounds more impressive.

However, the problem begins when “brand” becomes a fancy replacement for business.

Your Business Is Not Automatically a Brand Because It Has a Name and Logo

Primarily, a business exists to create and exchange value. It solves a problem, provides a product or service and, in most cases, makes money from doing so.

But in the business vs brand conversation, a brand is a different layer.

Seth Godin defines a brand as the set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that influence a customer’s decision to choose one product or service over another.

That definition immediately takes us beyond the logo, Instagram page, packaging or business name.

It asks a more important question:

What exists in the customer’s mind beyond the fact that they bought something from you?

Imagine Amaka starts selling women’s dresses through WhatsApp.

She finds a supplier and posts pictures of the clothes.

Customers send her messages, she collects payments and sends the clothes to them.

If her main concern at this point is getting products to customers and making money from each sale, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

She has a business.

Now imagine another business selling similar dresses.

This one has deliberately decided who it wants to serve, what it wants to be known for, how customers should feel when they interact with it, what promise it wants to make, what it will consistently deliver and what customers should remember about it.

Now, it has moved beyond simply asking:

“How do I sell this dress?”

It is asking:

“What do I want this business to mean to the people who buy from me?”

The Problem With Calling Everything a Brand

The issue isn’t that small businesses are using the word brand.

The issue is when the word becomes disconnected from what it actually represents.

If someone has an Instagram page, a logo, a colour palette and a WhatsApp number, that does not automatically mean they have intentionally built a brand.

Those things are part of branding but are not the entirety of a brand.

A business can have the prettiest logo and still have no clear reason why customers should remember it.

It can even have a nice brand identity and still be operating like a business whose only objective is:

“How much money can we make from this customer today?”

And again, there is nothing inherently wrong with wanting to make money.

That’s what businesses are supposed to do.

But if that is all there is, why insist on calling it something more than what it is?

But Isn’t Every Business a Brand?

This is where things get interesting.

Technically, a business can develop a brand whether or not the owner deliberately sets out to build one.

Every interaction leaves an impression.

Say the way the business communicates, the quality of its products, how quickly it delivers and how it handles complaints.

All of these and more contribute to what people associate with the business.

This is why Godin’s definition is useful.

He has also explained that a brand is not simply a logo and that a brand exists in the expectations, memories, stories and relationships people attach to an organisation.

So yes, you may already have a brand without knowing it.

But that is different from intentionally building a brand.

And that is what many business owners miss.

There is a difference between having a reputation and deliberately building what you want to be known for.

There is a difference between being remembered and giving people something specific to remember you for.

Also, there is a difference between selling repeatedly and becoming a preferred choice.

So, What Are You Really Calling a Brand?

Let’s go back to Seth Godin.

He has also described brands through the lens of promises and expectations. In one interview, he explains that brands that keep their promises are consistent and that the brand is the story people tell themselves about you.

Now consider the business owner who says:

“My brand sells clothes.”

Okay.

What does it stand for?

What does it promise?

What should customers expect every time they interact with it?

What should they remember?

Why should they choose it over another Instagram clothing seller?

What relationship does it have with its customers beyond collecting their money and delivering the product?

If there are no answers yet, perhaps the business is simply a business.

And that’s okay.

Because in the business vs brand conversation, a business does not become more valuable because you call it a brand.

The name doesn’t create the substance.

The substance creates the name.