Brand is more than just a logo, it’s your whole identity. It is the basis for all things that are rolled out by your company, and it’s pretty darn important. Whether you’re creating a brand from scratch or spicing up your current brand, it is important to look at all aspects, to ensure that your basis is perfect. A brand needs to be clear, concise, authentic and unique to a company. Developing an amazing brand that speaks to your customers is vital to business success and is much more than just a snazzy and eye-catching logo. Every brand has a story, mission and vision that shape your brand’s ‘look’ and ‘feel’.
The Look
One of the major components of a brand is ‘the look’ or the face of a brand – it’s what people instantly identify and recognise. A logo design should be simple enough to be memorable but powerful enough to leave a lasting impression of the brand on its customer. While logo design is only one part of a company’s brand, it serves as the foundation for the entire narrative on which the brand is built. To complement your brand’s logo, a strapline, brand colours and font needs to be established that aligns with your company’s mission and values. These elements will later translate from your logo onto all of your branding materials including business cards, collateral, email straps and anything else your brand desires.
The Feel
The Look is not the be-all and end-all when it comes to brand, especially in this day and age where consumers are looking to form a connection with brands. This connection stems from creating a brand voice. Brand voice refers to the personality and emotions that a company’s communications emit. It can encompass everything from tone of voice and brand values to key messaging and any other factors that make the brand unique. It is important that your company consistently delivers clear and concise brand messages to define its tone of voice. The best way to do that, is to step into your customers shoes and think how they would like to be spoken to? What kind of messaging will remain with them? Knowing your brand’s tone of voice will help you create your marketing assets, write your copy and say what you want in a way where your customers will listen.
Why it’s important
So, with all of this being said, why is branding so important? Why should you invest so much time and effort into establishing a look and feel for your brand?
Branding improves recognition & recall
Recognition is crucial to your brand. The logo of the business is one of the most significant parts of branding as it is essentially the face of your brand. One look at an apple icon and you know it is tech giant Apple- this is the power of branding. A well designed logo will get you noticed and increase your brand recall. Brand recall plays an essential role in customer brand loyalty and repeat purchasing.
Establishes credibility & trust
Consumer trust is one of the most important success factors for a business and effective branding is a key component to create this. A professional appearance builds credibility and trust where people are more likely to purchase from a brand that appears polished and legitimate. If your brand is consistent and easily recognisable, people will feel more at ease purchasing from you. Buyers are drawn to familiarity and authentic brands.
Stand out from the crowd
A good brand helps you differentiate your business from competitors and appropriately position your brand in the market. Developing a professional, creative identity through the look and feel of your brand can help you stand out to potential customers.
Branding harnesses the power of emotion
If you give your customers a good enough reason to feel strongly about your brand, they have more reason to make the transition from consideration to purchase. In order to do this your brand must make an emotional statement each time your potential customer comes across your business through key messaging, tone of voice and engaging storytelling.
Here at made4media, we understand how important a brand is, and we hope you do too! We are here to help your business with all of its branding needs, whether you‘re looking to start from the ground up, a brand tweak or a full brand refresh. Get in touch with us today to get your brand into the strongest shape it’s ever been!