Making Your Mark

Building a brand is an essential part of any business, yet it is often overlooked by new business owners. Unfortunately, this failure to consider branding often leads to lost potential and revenue.

What can a business do to ensure that they’re building the perfect brand? Continue reading to understand more about the basics of branding - and how it’ll make any company stand out, even in a crowded market.

What Is Branding?

Before we begin, it’s important to understand branding. It is, in essence, all the visual elements that accompany a business. This includes more obvious elements, such as a logo or website. It also includes more subtle details, such as font choices, color palettes, and even the letterhead design. It all goes into branding.

A good brand tells a story, which helps sell the company (or the products/services created). To look at it another way, a brand is the company’s identity. It helps customers tell businesses apart and overall makes it easier for people to remember (if done right).

Sometimes, an example makes this easier to understand. Think of the company Nike. The odds are good that in addition to thinking about shoes, you pictured the famous Nike swish of its logo. Additionally, you might have even thought of the company slogan (“Just Do It”). This branding is effective because it’s simple, memorable, and reminds customers of what Nike is here to do (sell shoes and similar products).

Steps to Designing a Brand

Naturally, designing a brand isn’t something that can be done overnight. However, if you take the time and do it right, it will have a powerful and lasting impact on your company. Consider the following points to ensure that you’ve covered all the essential elements of branding.

• Identifying Niches: A company does best when it has a specific niche it identifies with. Take the above example - Nike falls under footwear and athletic wear. Those are their niches. An older company can deviate from the niche slightly, but a newer company should be careful to focus on establishing a presence before doing too much.
• Identify a Purpose: Next, consider the company’s purpose in detail. Purposes and actions speak the same language. Let them work together to help create the foundation of your branding strategy.
• Tell a Story: Branding is a form of visual storytelling. The best stories are compelling and memorable. Create a visual story that is cohesive with the company goals. Consider the purposes and potential personality of the brand and incorporate that into the visual elements of the company brand.
• Consistency Is Key: No matter what design features you land on, you must, above all else, remember to be consistent with these elements. Taking the time to design a brand won’t help at all if the company doesn’t apply said branding principles consistently. In other words, create a set of branding rules and rubrics and stick to them.

Additional Tips

• Get Creative: Often we tend to fall into these habits of thinking, which can stagnate creativity. Remember that there are no hard branding rules, and it’s okay to get creative. This is especially true if the company’s niche exists in a more creative space. Whatever you can do to help stand out will be beneficial.
• Adapt: Remember that, at the end of the day, it’s okay to change things that aren’t working. Likewise, a company’s brand is allowed to change and grow alongside it. However, an ounce of caution should be used here. Changing significant portions of the brand overnight can be confusing (and even upsetting) for customers. Keep this in mind during the process.