What is Branding? How Identity and Perception Shape Business Success
- Nicolas Loveland
- Apr 21
- 3 min read
Updated: Apr 25
It’s lunchtime.
A friend sets a plate down in front of you with two burgers and says, “Pick one—I’ll take the other.”
Which one do you choose?
Is it a difficult decision? Or do you not care very much, believing that they’re essentially the same?
Now imagine you knew that there was a difference. Each burger came from a different source.
Now which one would you choose?
Was it an easier choice? That’s branding at work.
What is a Brand?
At its most basic level, a brand can be defined as context. This context helps people choose between two things that would otherwise feel the same.
Two mutually reinforcing elements shape context: identity and perception.
Identity is internal— fully within an organization’s control, it is the way in which an entity presents itself to the world (who are we, and what do we stand for?).
In contrast, perception is external— defined by how the world reacts to the organization’s identity and how it defines them within larger cultural contexts (How do customers experience and describe us?). It cannot be directly controlled, but it can be influenced.
How Branding Works
The concept of “branding” can be defined as follows:
Branding is the process of building identity to influence perception— thus creating the desired context (brand) in order to drive long-term success.
Let’s explore an example.
Misfits Market is a grocery delivery service that launched in 2018 by selling “ugly” produce—fruits and vegetables that don’t meet supermarket cosmetic standards. But they weren’t the first to use this model. That distinction belongs to Imperfect Foods, the original “ugly produce” brand, which launched with a similar mission three years earlier.
So why is Misfits Market more culturally relevant today— and how did they end up acquiring Imperfect in 2022?
The Power of Branding
The Rise and Fall of Imperfect Foods
While Imperfect Foods had first-mover advantage, over time, their brand identity drifted.
After its pandemic-era boom, stakeholders believed that Imperfect had “lost its way” and “struggled to honor its eco-friendly mission.”
In its early days, the company’s identity was built around the simple but powerful idea of eliminating food waste. Its signature anthropomorphized “ugly” fruits and vegetables resonated with eco-conscious consumers across the nation.
Source: Imperfect Foods on Instagram
But as the company expanded, the brand shifted focus— from sustainability to convenience, and from “ugly produce” to a broad, less differentiated catalog of grocery items. In doing so, it lost the clarity and emotional resonance that had once set it apart— and became harder to distinguish in the growing field of delivery services.
This inconsistency in messaging and visual language created a context gap: the identity they were projecting no longer matched the perception customers had of the brand. It became unclear what Imperfect was— and what it truly stood for.
The Clarity of Misfits Market
Misfits Market, on the other hand, stayed committed to a clear, consistent brand identity: rebellious, values-driven, and waste-conscious.
They deliberately built and reinforced an identity they knew would resonate with their target market—25-to-49-year-old Americans seeking more affordable and less wasteful grocery options.
Everything about Misfits Market— from their brand name to their packaging and tone of voice— sends a unified message:
We’re here to battle against Big Grocery— taking on the broken food system to make food shopping more affordable, convenient, and sustainable.
Their identity was clear. Their perception matched it.
The result?
Strong, resonant context— creating a brand so influential that it allowed Misfits to overtake its competitor, leading the category it once followed.
This is the power of branding.
Imperfect Foods had the product. But Misfits Market built the context.
What Branding Really Does
Branding is how modern businesses:
Differentiate in saturated markets
Increase long-term loyalty
Build community and cultural influence
It’s how “googling” became a verb, and how a phone app made taxis obsolete.
Remember: a brand is not just a logo, a color palette, or a clever tagline. A brand is context.
But the goal of branding isn’t just to contextualize a product— its greater mission is to create meaning.