What is branding?
A brand is a person’s / customer’s gut feeling about a company / organisation, a service, or a product. It’s not what you say it is, it’s what they say it is.
Marty Neuemier
Your brand is much more than your logo. It’s also verbal and non-verbal communication – it’s Hello, how are you? Have a nice day! Thank you! Branding also includes the smell of your office or shop, the staff uniforms, and most of all the quality of your customer service or product. We can go even deeper, branding includes how fast you respond to your emails, how you handle human interactions.
Your brand is what people say about you when you are not in the room.
Jeff Bezos
Start with a mission statement
Your brand story is the first step towards greateness. Your company steps down as the hero of this story and lets the customers take the spotlight. It’s also a purpose, it’s your why. When asked why are you in your business, your mission statement is the only right answer. Your brand story is crafted towards your target audience and customers. You can also call it your Manifesto – it’s your vision more than a document.
Which famous brands have mission statements?
Google – provide access to the world’s information in one click
Microsoft – A computer on every desk and in every home
Ikea – Creating a better every day comfortable life for many people
Brand strategy
Your brand strategy is a concrete plan of action that defines the future of your brand and positioning. It’s a framework created for your marketing and branding to flourish. This process is defined by several steps: Research, Strategic branding plan, Internal and external branding, and brand audit. The final product of this process is a complex long term strategy that includes:
Purpose (life-long comittment, the WHY)
Vision and Mission (what will happen in the long run – the next 20 years)
Goals and Objectives (what has to happen in the mid run – the next 1-5 years)
Core Values, Promise, Tone of Voice and a Tagline to circle the story.
Branding is the execution of a defined brand strategy
A good branding always starts with a Look & Feel defined by how your customers describe your brand, how your brand behaves in the real world (brand persona), a brand name and a logo design. A great branding agency will invest a lot of time in designing the perfect visual identity for your company / organisation. The symbol created has to be unique and tailor made to acommodate your brand story which will separate you from the competition and make a memorable impression on your target audience. Think of Coca Cola – you will always have a memory of their lettered logo, or the red color, or the shape of the bottle for that fact.
The deliverables of a visual identity
We’ve already covered a symbol, but we’ve got a logotype – the typographic part as well. Our mission as a branding agency is to find the right typeface which will trigger a desired reaction at your target market. A color palette that will compliment the values described in the brand strategy, and much more. We’ve started creating a style guide to increase the value of the visual identities we create for our customer base. The style guide includes a lot of elements, from the basic description and thought process we had creating the logo, to approved and banned usage examples, rules and directions on how to use the visual identity further on. This way we are helping our clients in the long term by defining the very visual system their brand will rely on. Usually we add some design templates as well which is great contribution to the customer experience since there are times when the client wants to create a visual or a social media post by themselves. Other than the visual assets we deliver will ensure that every professional designer you choose to work with can easily start implementing them at any point in time. We believe every branding agency should create as much value as possible to their target market. This is the only right way to great customer service whether it’s a company or personal branding.
Why is branding important?
According to a Nielson survey, 59% of consumers prefer to buy new products from brands familiar to them.
(freshsparks.com)
You are familiar with this process as well. When in doubt, in a normal supermarket scenario, while choosing between 2 similarly priced products, you will most likely choose the brand you trust. Going further on, you will choose a branding / packaging item which looks “more professional”. Branding influences how people percieve your brand and it drives more sales and brand awareness continuously.
Branding for the now
Today’s fast paced world is changing constantly. New trends come and go, social media has taken the internet as a storm, and has become the primary outlet for communication at scale. We take extra care that our visual identities can stand the test of not only time, but also the abundance of devices and usages. It’s extremely important that the logo is represented well in the small Instagram profile photo next to your mighty awesome post as well as scaled up to be printed on a side of the building. Our logos have been featured in news publications, on construction sites, in menus and posters, on social media and walls inside the office, on vehicles and much much more.
The next step
We understand this may seem like a long road ahead of your company / organisation, but we promise to hold your hand along the way, while making sure we deliver the best possible output to support the winning brand strategy. To support your growth, do not hesitate to contact us for a quote. Let’s team up and work together on a deeper level and create brand strategies which will in conclusion be the definition of branding for your company / organisation! Make sure you reach out to us as soon as possible so that we can join you on your wonderful journey.