December 29th, 2009

Every business needs a great Brand Design

It is important that you are distinctive and stand out as a brand when you are entering into a new market. Consumers like to buy goods and services from organisations that share their values. In today's marketplace, those businesses that succeed are those that manage their brands effectively and present the right image. When you consider that brand design is one of the single largest factors in your business success but only a small fraction of your start up costs, it makes sense to get it right from the outset.

5 Steps to a great brand identity -

When you mention brand design, most people immediately think of logo design. Logo design is an important part of your brand design. However, it is not the only element that you need to consider. Follow these steps to create a strong brand identity:

1. Establish your niche - Work out what it is that makes your business special, and what distinguishes it from the competition. Emphasise the benefits of your offering in terms of saving money, saving time, making money or making the customer feel good.

2. Summarise - Sum up what your brand stands for in just a few words. If you can't describe it briefly in a way that your target customers understand, then its surely not clear what your brand stands for. Before investing too much time and money in your brand identity, make sure you get this right.

3. Name your brand - This is the single most important aspect of your brand’s identity. It should be memorable, distinctive and simple and should communicate the brand's main qualities whether functional or emotional. You can ensure that your name is not used in your industry already by searching the internet and checking trademark directories. If you choose a more abstract name, use a descriptive slogan to explain what you do, and if you have a very descriptive name, use an emotive slogan to explain why anyone should care.

4. Design your logo - Only now should you design your logo. As a general rule, simplicity is the key to a great logo. A logo that might be in horizontal format for your website header might not look right on your staff's uniforms or your packaging. Make sure you've listed all the applications that you think you'll use your logo in and add it to your brief. It is a good idea to get more than one variation of your logo if you have diverse applications. Ensure that your designers provides you copyright to your logo design and gives you the original artwork in vector format .ai, .svg, or .eps. A vector graphic is essential for logo designs as it allows them to be enlarged to any size without blurring or pixelating. You might want to have your logo printed on more applications than just your business card and compliment slips. And any large applications will need the original vector file so make sure that you ask your designer for it.

5. Everything else - Your brand presentation isn’t just about a catchy name and eye catching logo. If you went to make a great impression then everything you do needs to be presented to a high quality and in a consistent style that reinforces your brand's credibility in the eyes of your customers. A co-ordinated brand design should be displayed across all your marketing materials. A brand style guide can save you a lot of trouble by documenting your brand's important elements such as fonts, colours and style along with the other visual elements. Even if you work with more than one agency or many different designers, your brand will be presented consistently at all times.

There's nothing ground-breaking or revolutionary in what we've explained here, but it hopefully gives you a simple framework for managing your brand design and therefore ensuring that your business gets the attention that it deserves.

Related Blogs

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 29th, 2009 at 2:29 am and is filed under marketing online. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.