The Brand Isn’t the Logo. It’s the Promise.

Clarity, consistency, and credibility aren’t just design goals. They’re trust builders.

Welcome to Part 4 of the 5 Elements of High Performance Communications series. So far we’ve talked about strategy, leadership, and listening.

In Part 4 we’re focusing on the element everyone sees, even if they don’t always recognize it: branding.

If every department is doing its own thing … if your signage, website, and tone are out of sync … if what you say doesn’t match what people experience, then you don’t have a branding problem. You have a credibility problem.

Branding isn’t window dressing. It’s the lived expression of your values. It’s how your agency looks, sounds, and behaves in the eyes of the community. Done right, branding doesn’t just increase recognition, it builds belief.

Branding builds alignment

Branding isn’t about appearances. It’s about alignment. When your agency’s look, tone, and actions all point in the same direction, people notice. And sometimes, that alignment shows up in the form of a small paper bag filled with warm donut holes.

During Round Rock’s downtown redevelopment, we didn’t just design new streets—we designed a new story.

Every Friday, our team handed out bags of donut holes to motorists stuck in construction traffic at downtown’s busiest intersection. But not just any donut holes. They came from Round Rock Donuts—the beloved, internationally known bakery in downtown that locals take visitors to as a rite of passage.

It was a gesture of goodwill that doubled as a brand touchpoint. It told people: We see you. We know this is inconvenient. And we still care.

The #DONUTDROP didn’t just ease frustration. It flipped the media narrative, said Courtney Ainsworth, the downtown manager.

“The overarching thing that always has stood out to me is that we knew we weren’t going to be able to control media coverage of a nasty construction project. And so, the fact that we’re able to get positive media coverage while also getting the message out there that, yes, there’s construction down here, but yes, we’re still open for business. All of the earned media we got was largely positive. And they also reported, look what else they’re doing in downtown Round Rock.”

That’s the real power of branding. It makes your intentions visible. And that doesn’t start with a logo. It starts with values.

And it must be grounded in more than gut instinct. As the public sector branding experts at Mighty Citizen put it:

“Research kills opinions.”

A brand isn’t something you invent; it’s something you uncover. The most effective government brands aren’t aspirational, they’re authentic. They reflect what your community already feels and believes about you at your best. Research doesn’t just guide the process, it ensures the result is rooted in truth, not trends.

Beyond the logo: Why research matters

The best branding doesn’t come from a brainstorm. It comes from a deep dive.

Will Ketchum, president of North Star, a public sector branding firm, says it this way:

“Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not around. Branding is what you do about that.”

That’s why branding done right starts with research. Not just to make a case for change, but to make sure the change reflects reality. It’s how you discover what your community values, what it fears, and what it’s proud of.

When CoCo Good became the new communications chief in McKinney, Texas, developing a citywide brand was one of the first big tasks on her plate. And with that came strong opinions—lots of them.

“The minute I sat in my chair, I had people telling me what the brand should be for McKinney and it was all over the map … I said, what we have got to do is have research. And as I told everybody all along the way, it really doesn’t matter what an individual thinks. It’s more about how people look at us, how people view us, and what the research tells us is going to be the most lucrative for us.”

McKinney’s Unique by Nature brand emerged from that process: grounded in data, rooted in community, and built to last.

Branding is the experience

You don’t experience a brand in a conference room. You experience it at a festival. At city hall. On a website. At the park. On hold with customer service.

And yes, your website is part of your brand. As I wrote in Does Your Website Suck?, most local government sites are built around how the organization is structured, not how residents think or behave.

Strong brands fix that. They bring clarity to complex systems. They help people find what they need. They give your agency a voice that’s approachable and human, not robotic and vague.

But a great site on launch day isn’t enough. As Mike Steckel, VP of UX and research at Mighty Citizen, says:

“A website is a living organism. If you’re not updating and maintaining content regularly, you’re eroding trust.”

Smart agencies don’t treat their website like a one-time project. They treat it like a platform that reflects the brand every day. That’s why website governance—policies that outline who updates what, when, and how—isn’t just a tech issue. It’s a brand issue.

When content gets outdated, links break, or your site still lists employees who left two years ago, residents notice. And their confidence in your professionalism takes a hit.

Governance, not just graphics

One of the most powerful points Will Ketchum made in our interview was this:

“No one ever moved somewhere or took a vacation because of a logo.”

Logos matter, but only as a shorthand for everything else.

Strong brands are governed well. That means having systems in place to ensure the visuals, the voice, and the experience are aligned. It means saying no to ideas that don’t fit the strategy. It means protecting consistency across every channel, every department.

When we rebranded Downtown Round Rock, we created not just a new logo, but a brand vocabulary, a list of words and phrases that fit the tone and personality of the district. I kept it in a folder next to my computer. It made every press release, every flyer, and every tweet a little more consistent. A little more aligned.

Practical takeaways

Ask yourself and your team:

• Do our visuals, tone, and behavior send the same message?

• Are we making branding decisions based on research—or opinions?

• Does our website reflect what our community needs, or just our org chart?

• Do we have brand governance to protect our identity across departments?

• Are we telling stories that reflect our community, not just our agency?

Take a walk through your community, online or in person.

What do people see?

What do they hear?

What do they feel?

That’s your brand.

Make it count.

Let’s play the long game.

Onward and Upward.

📚 Related reads on the road to High Performance

Authentic branding doesn’t start with design. It starts with listening, alignment, and internal trust. These agencies didn’t just talk brand—they lived it.

📌 Crafting Connections — What CoCo Good’s first big task in McKinney reveals about branding, research, and leadership

📌 The Perfect Gift — How McKinney, Texas used storytelling to make the brand real for residents

📌 Does Your Website Suck? — A field guide to fixing one of the most visible parts of your brand

📌 Branding in Government: Triumphs, Insights, and the Occasional Blunder — A roundup of wins, lessons, and cringe-worthy misses from real agencies