04/05/2018
Have you had trouble branding your business? Or maybe you’re not sure you know the difference between your business and your brand? Luckily for you, we’ve got everything you need to know in our blog post!
We don’t like to toot our own horn, but after 10+ years working on websites and in digital marketing, we know our stuff. Especially when it comes to design. See, when you’re building a website, it’s key to make sure that it’s in line with a business’ brand. Why is branding so important? Some of the biggest companies in the world have a key focus on their branding. It’s one of the most important pieces of marketing you’ll ever do because a good brand sells a business. It’s what defines your business without saying a word.
Branding is so much more than just a visual aspect, it’s how you present yourself, it’s your business ethics and mission and it’s your message to your customers. Branding is everything. Getting it right is key to launch your brand into a global success. We’ve even written a massive blog about Nike’s global brand journey! That’s how important branding is.
Our design team knows everything there is to know about branding. We pride ourselves on researching your business in depth to come up with the best brand possible to meet your business. If you’re still unsure about what branding entails, we’ve got a handy blog post to explain it all. Everything from defining your business to following a leading brand’s example. Here is your guide on how to brand your business.
The number one thing for any designer or company to do when trying to brand a business is to try and define their brand. This step comes before the visual aesthetic you create for a business. Branding can’t truly begin until you write down what a business is and the key points surrounding it too. What are these key points? Well, they are:
After all of this, it means a business’ new branding journey can begin. Now’s the time to enlist expert designers and marketers to begin branding a company. Sitting down with this team means the brand work can begin, but remember, customers are always at the heart of a business. Without them, there would be no profitable business, right? The key to branding is building a defining link between your customer and your business. Remember, customers need a positive response to a brand. It’s key to understand the heart of a business before branding.
After a business is defined, the real work begins. Yes, it’s time to design a business’ brand. For business owners, this is probably where you should leave it to the pros. All is fair if you don’t like something a designer has done, but when it comes to building a brand they know their stuff and they’ve done their homework. If you use the right designer, you’ll love your business’ new brand. It’s ideal to be involved in the branding of your business, because ultimately it is yours – but trust the designers and their work. But, back to the design…
One of the key ways to start building a brand is creating a logo. It sets the style for the overall aesthetic of a business. Pulling ideas from the definition and nature of a business, a graphic designer can begin to craft a logo that represents a company. A logo becomes the face of the business, something that customers will associate with a brand. Logos act as a signifier for customers to recognise your company. The colours, fonts and imagery used in a logo help to form an idea of what the overall brand of the business will become.
The message or mission statement of a business contributes to forming a brand. It’s the way of conveying to customers what a business is, what they do and who they are essentially. Some of the most famous mission statements of brands do what they say on the tin. Take Nike’s mission: ‘To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world. If you have a body, you are an athlete.’ Nike primarily design sportswear, it’s where they came from and a large part of what they do. Their innovative products push boundaries of design as well as technology too. A brand mission statement should be applicable through all elements of a company. Employees should know what it is, and how to uphold the values of the statement.
Regarding branding, consistency is key. Like we’ve said, a brand needs to maintain the values and message of a business throughout everything. It’s reflective in the way phones are answered, emails are signed off and so on. A brand’s colours, tone, style and more needs to be reflected on stationary, a website and any materials used both internally and externally. Without consistency, branding is useless.
The Tone of your brand is dependent on the nature of your business. We’ve spoken about tone of voice on social media, and this applies to branding too. A high-end fashion company will have a different tone of branding to a coffee shop. A brand needs to have the right tone, so it doesn’t alienate its customers from it. Whilst branding is the presentation of a business, it needs to appeal to customers as well.
It’s key to have a catchy strapline or tagline to accompany your brand. This is short and to the point, it sums up the business in a concise manor. The tagline should be consistent with the tone of a brand and in line with the mission statement too. For example, Nike’s is Just Do It (sometimes the best taglines are no more than 3 words).
An integral part of branding is to be consistent – as we’ve said many times. Large companies and businesses use brand guidelines to make sure employees are familiar with all the set standards of the brand. As part of branding, brand guidelines should be included in the branding process. It has info on the font, colours, tone, text and more of a business. Ensure that brand guidelines are part of your branding.
Customers make or break a business, we cannot emphasise this enough. Without customers and clients, a business can’t make money. This means when it comes to branding, a business should know their audience. Because a brand can be directed specifically at a target market. By having the ideal demographic in mind, a business’ branding efforts can be focused towards the right people. Everything about a brand should not only reflect a business but appeal to consumers too. The key to finding a business’ audience is to look at the data to hand, to see who the ideal demographic is.
A brand should be in line with a mission statement of an organisation, which means knowing where a business has come from. A huge part of branding is explaining the story of a company, where it’s come from, where it wants to go and everything they’ve done to make it there too. This usually lands on the About Us website page, but it’s a great way of branding a business professionally.
Many businesses have found themselves establishing their brand through affiliates and influencers. Influencer marketing is a growing trend that clothing brands especially utilise to market their products or services to consumers. By finding the right person for a business’ brand, it can actually help market it to the right audience. Social media is just another platform to get a brand across, but it has to be in keeping with guidelines (e.g. tone, style, colours etc.).
Alright, we don’t mean copy them, but aspiring businesses that want to be like the big brands should look to these big players for inspiration. For example, Coca-Cola one of the most popular brands in the world is instantly recognisable from its logo, font and iconic colour. A brand so powerful it changed the colour of Santa Claus (yes, he used to be green). Coca Cola has been consistent for almost 100 years, sticking to the same colours. It’s so popular and is still widely sold all over the world to this date. All the work that goes into Coca Cola’s branding helps them maintain and cultivate their image and brand. Through the right design and marketing, Coca Cola have cemented themselves as one of the most powerful brands in the world.
Branding a business properly can help launch it into a global success. Done properly, branding can be one of the most powerful marketing tools. The key is to not only convey a business and its mission statement through it, but also please a select demographic too. That’s why branding takes a lot of work.
Luckily for you, we’re experts in branding and design. If you’re looking to take your business’ brand to the next level, give us a call. We’re ready to discuss your brand and bring your business into the big leagues. With the right branding, you’ll be a heavy hitter in the business world.
You know where to find us…
