When designing your brand, an appealing look matters just as much as leaving a mark. With companies now competing on a global scale, having a brand that stands out from the rest can make your business the go-to in its respective field.
Everything from the font you choose to the color scheme you pick can affect the overall feel of your company, which makes branding a pivotal part of providing good first impressions.
If you plan on entering a market saturated with competitors, allow your branding to explain what sets you apart from the others. As business magazine Entrepreneur puts best, “Your brand is derived from who you are, who you want to be and who people perceive you to be.”
Not only do you need to define your company’s goals and values, you also want to show consumers why they should choose your business over others. Doing so will generate revenue, establish credibility in the marketplace and help spread your brand’s name.
Your target audience will determine what approach is best for you. For example, if your business is a hotel or resort, giving your brand a respectable and inviting tone will make prospective guests feel welcome. Contrarily, companies that specialize in zipline tours and other types of attractions can use daring designs and bold colors to attract new customers.
It’s also important to build an emotional connection between your company and clientele, as this creates a loyalty that goes beyond the product itself. This runs in tandem with the theory of reciprocity, which states we are likely to reward those who perform kind actions for us. In the case of a company, these “rewards” could mean customers purchasing products or investing in one’s services.
A key factor in the right branding is consistency. Whether it’s through print ads, your website or social media, you want your brand to be unified across multiple platforms. If each of these are drastically different, your identity will become muddled. Another reason why good [and consistent] design matters is to improve brand recognition, which makes it easier for people to identify your product.
That said, many companies have rebranded over the years. As this list from Canva shows, some of the world’s largest businesses updated and made changes to their look — mostly for the better. For more recent examples, Instagram, Taco Bell and Uber all underwent redesigns to maintain their modernity.
While unique branding helps with recognition, avoid being different for the sake of being different. Your brand should reflect what your company is about, and straying too far from that can confuse new customers.
It’s important to keep your ideas in check when promoting your brand, as well. An excess of innovation can lead to “vampire creativity,” a term used for advertising that’s too original and entertaining — to the point where people remember the ad but forget the brand itself.
If building the right brand seems like a lot, that’s because it is. Fortunately, the designers at Vector & Ink are well-equipped to help you in these creative endeavors. Whether you want to build a brand from the ground up or freshen the look of an existing one, our team has the experience and skills to help you where it matters most.