The word “brand” is deeply cursed. It’s overused and meaningless. It gives tech-bro energy. Or manufactured authenticity. Someone who loves branding would probably say, “let’s circle back to our guiding ethos.” An eyeroll.

And yet! The word also shouldn’t only ever give you the ick. Because when done right, branding is genuinely useful and important.

This all came to mind after I read Anne Helen Petersen’s piece about millennial hobby energy, where she talks about our very real tendency to turn literally anything into a business. You might start by growing a few beautiful flowers in your backyard because you love gardening, but next thing you know, you’ve installed a greenhouse, bought a stack of horticulture books, started propagating cultivars, figured out national shipping logistics, and launched a full-blown flower empire. (I fully do this.) And from there, it’s just a hop, skip, and a jump before you’ve then got a logo, website, t-shirts, and a subscription program! Voila, a brand!

It’s overwhelming how much we’ve monetized and brandwashed everything.

‍It also makes me feel incredibly conflicted about my line of work. Us marketing people are out here branding things to death! We are the problem!! 

Despite that, branding does exist for a reason. Unique positioning, good messaging, and clear, cohesive design are the key ingredients of a good brand. They help people understand what you offer, why it’s different, and why they might want to stick around. If none of those things are important to what you do, then great! You don’t need a brand at all. You’re actually just a business. You operate, you earn, you serve your people. I don’t need my corner store to resonate with me emotionally. I need it to stock half and half and not close at 6 p.m.

So what are you?

If people don’t already need what you offer — if you’re trying to carve out space, create demand, or grow into something new — then branding is the tool that can help you get there. A good brand builds rapport. Creates buzz. Inspires devotion. Fosters community. Motivates your team. Compels people to get in on the action. 

Above all, it means something. A brand is something that’s much bigger than the sum of its offerings. If you want people to feel, to care, to keep coming back, to tell their friends, to invest their attention and care in you — then what you’re looking for is a brand. 

Just to be very clear, though: there is zero shame in skipping the whole brand thing. You are very much allowed to just be a business. A solid, respectable, functioning business that does what it says it does and nothing more. You are, however, still very not allowed to have awful design. That’s not branding, that’s manners.