Branding is not just a logo… Branding is about the strategy behind your visual identity that ensures it truly represents who you are – the why, what and how of your business.
Your logo is your recognisable mark or symbol. Yes, it should embody the key ingredients of a brand but it serves to identify not explain or sell. In fact, it’s possible to create great branding even with an average logo. Of course starting with a logo that is simple, memorable, and timeless creates a sound base for creating strong branding.
Branding is the clear, concise and consistent communication of your unique offering. Branding creates a certain perception about your business. With good branding you can be clear about what you stand for and hence engage customers with every touch point.
People Buy on Emotion
Did you know 93 percent of shoppers make purchase decisions based on colour and visual appearance?
Branding plays an important role in visually communicating a brand’s offering in an instant. Branding has the power to influence the buying decision of consumers, who generally buy on emotion rather than logic.
Brand Story
Every business has a unique brand story –
- why it exists
- the history of its making
- the bold statement it wants to make to disrupt a market segment.
Communicate your brand story effectively from your brand identity, or logo, to product packaging to corporate stationery, business cards and email signatures to print marketing material and of course to your online presence – website, email marketing and social media channels. Consistency is the key to effective branding that builds value, credibility and trust.
Brand Strategy
Branding is not just about choosing brand colours, creating a logo and font choice but equally about the strategy behind them to ensure your branding truly represents who you are – the why, what and how of your business.
A brand strategy takes into account 3 important factors:
- Purpose – the why, or big idea that is behind your unique brand promise
- Values and vision – what you believe in, how your business operates and where you want to go in the future
- Personality – set the tone for visuals and language to reflect the internal culture of the business and define how the business expresses its offer to the market.
Brand Refresh
Refresh branding periodically as an ongoing investment rather than treating it as an expense. It ensures that your branding remains relevant to your target audience. This is crucial for your credibility. You not necessarily have to change your logo, sometimes a few design tweaks is all that is needed.
Even Instagram has had a refresh since its inception. The logo design at the unveiling of the app in 2010 represented a Polaroid in a realism style which was replaced in 2016 with a modern, flat design. This coincided with a revamp of the app itself which saw less branding on the interface so that people’s content was not cluttered with Insta branding. It also allowed for the brand architecture to span across the full app suite with the same look and feel.
Rebrand
Signs it is time for a rebrand:
- Customer base is shrinking
- Your business offering has changed
- Branding no longer appeals to the target audience
- You have no point of difference from competitors
Summary
Designers are creative problem-solvers that work with clients to really understand their business and translate their brand story into tangible communications. A well-designed, memorable logo paves the way for effective branding. It is the overall branding of a business however that helps to create a certain perception about that business in the mind of everyone that comes into contact with the brand, not just customers but employees, associates and suppliers as well.
If you’re experiencing this, and think you may need a brand refresh, give Mela Creative a call. We have over 25 years of branding experience and can help revamp your branding to make sure your product or service is seen and heard.
