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How to Build a Brand that's Bigger than Your Logo
November 08 2012
November 08 2012
Branding is much more than creating a logo or a clever ad. It's a Venn diagram where your personality, your values, your customers' experiences and your graphic identity overlap. A good branding design can reinforce your strengths for current customers and give a snapshot feel to potential customers. And in turn your reputation will affect your visual branding. The company with terrible customer service and a beautiful logo and the company with great service and an outdated, client-repelling logo are both in some trouble. Like friends that vote for opposing candidates and cancel each other out. If you want the perpetual, chicken-egg, life-giving synergy that comes from a good reputation-good visual branding combo, it's important to give some thought to both.
Before Creating a Brand
1. Back to the basics. Start from scratch and re-evaluate what you do and how you do it. Make sure your intangible ethos is strong before trying to create a visual symbol of your brand.
2. Know when to pivot. What niche is contributing the most to your success? Are you focusing on the right part of your audience? If your business is widgets, but 90% of your sales are from your widget lubricant, maybe it's time to pivot.
3. Your vs. Customers' Tastes. Try to distinguish between what you like and what your clients like. Communicate as much as possible about your target audience to your branding firm and recognize that the visual style that keeps the short attention-span of your audience may not be exactly what draws you in.
4. Trust. Find a branding company you can trust and trust them.
The Branding Process
1. Capitalize on your best features. The key to good branding is to understand what value you provide and then find a way to summarize that in your design and marketing. Apple branding says that they engineer high quality, beautifully designed products that are not cheap but are easy and fun to use and will make you cool and happy. Dell, on the other hand, appeals to people who want a solid computer at a good value and are less concerned with design and personal ego. Each brand is successful because they know their market niche and they are communicating their value proposition to their customers. What makes you unique?
2. Don't try to tell the whole story. Some branding is very overt like Target and Apple and Shell. Some branding is very simple like Pottery Barn and American Apparel. And some corporations have embraced a symbol that doesn't really illustrate what they do or sell like Nike and Starbucks. All of them are professional and memorable and clearly very successful. It's good to know if you want your logo to evoke a feeling or actually illustrate what your company is about. But remember that in either case it doesn't have to say everything about you. It's a just a tool.
3. Trust your branding firm. Did we already say that? They will do much better work for you.
Building on Your Visual Branding
1. Attract Evangelists. Whether you are a small church, a realtor, a local business or a huge corporation, you have something unique to offer. And branding is the thoughtful and necessary process of helping people understand what that is. Once you have a visual identity designed, find and develop brand evangelists that will tell others about you. Ask your biggest fans why they are passionate about your company, service or product.
2. Build on the what Works. Build on your strong points and give your clients a reason to love you more. Loyal fans will be your biggest promoters, and referrals from fans will bring more high quality fans that love you for the same reasons.
3. Keep it Fresh. The demographics of your audience may change over time, and design aesthetics certainly shift. So keep listening to your customers. Make sure you still know who they are. Check out the branding of the competition. Are they changing in their visual approach? Do a little focused testing with updated logos or messaging in your customer base. Perhaps let your customers vote on which design or logo evolution they like the best. Empower and involve them.
4. Hire Gutensite. Did we say that out loud?
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—Kenneth Brown
Pastor, Christ Community Diablo Valley