Holistic visual branding basics for entrepreneurs and small business owners.
As a small business owner or new entrepreneur, you are motivated to succeed in your business while facing many challenges along the way. He must wear several hats and prioritize his spending since he is on a limited budget.
This article will cover 5 practical branding steps necessary to differentiate your company from the competition, position your business as a premium provider and instill confidence in your customers.
1. GASOLINE BRAND
Think about your favorite brands. How do they make you feel? What do they represent for you? Do you have an emotional connection to them?
As Scott Montgomery, creative director of Bradley and Montgomery Advertising, says, “A brand is exactly two things: it’s the promise that your offer makes to people, and the clothing that promise is dressed in.”
Branding is about how your customers feel about the services you provide or the products you sell. This includes their overall experience with your business from first contact to seeing your visuals, using your product or service, and staying in touch.
You can influence how your target audience feels by carefully distilling the answers to some of the following questions and following through on your brand promise every time a customer interacts with your company:
- What does your business represent?
- What is the essence, the deep conviction and the long-term objective of your company?
- How unique are you from your competition?
- What is your target audience?
2. TRADE NAME
Once you understand the essence of your business brand, it’s time to think of a name. The name should be meaningful, unique, memorable, and easy to pronounce.
There are multiple brainstorming techniques that you can use to think of various words. Some can be metaphorical, based on the place of origin of the company, descriptive, others made up of two words combined into one or completely new sound combinations.
Then compare your ideas and see which name:
- sounds louder
- it feels good
- work internationally
- It has a strong emotional appeal.
- Easy to read and pronounce.
Other important considerations also include the availability of the URL of the chosen word, as well as the availability of the trademark.
3. LOGO DESIGN
The logo is one of the most important steps in the visual identity of your company. It is the face of your business and the main visual icon that represents all the business essence you have discovered. The visual execution of a logo design should not be taken lightly and should be based on all the information discovered about your brand, competitors, and target audience.
Each industry has its own visual language, it is important that the designer you work with:
- Explore the existing competitive landscape to ensure your logo stands out
- Brainstorm and use free association as they are valuable techniques that help come up with unique combinations.
- Outline multiple ideas to make sure your logo goes beyond common ideas
- Skillfully design/draw the final logos
The final logo selection should be based on how well the image represents the essence of the brand. On a more practical note, you need to make sure that the logo works well in smaller sizes as well as in black and white for use in various applications.
4.CORPORATE STYLE
You did a great job discovering the unique personality of your business, came up with a wonderful name and gave it a face full of essence… Now you need to discover its aura, its style and its emotional/visual presence. This step is important as it works as the foundation for all the visual materials on which they will be based.
Images
It is important to consider your choice of images when creating a look. Have you seen photos of people with fake smiles that just don’t look genuine? Or perhaps you’ve come across clip art that just doesn’t communicate professionalism?
Your choice of visual language should be true to what your brand stands for. You need to communicate your values and your true convictions.
I think it is always better:
- Show real people with genuine emotions and a caring attitude
- Carefully choose royalty-free illustrations and photos on the basis of professionalism and authenticity of the images.
typography
Typography is another important component of overall branding. Just like brands, fonts have personalities: they can be serious, light-hearted, casual, and friendly. As with images, you need to be careful when selecting fonts: some (Comic Sans) simply don’t communicate professionalism, and others (Arial) simply lack character.
Look through multiple source resources to buy:
- Unique fonts that highlight your brand and have a great personality.
- The fountains are inexpensive and worth every penny.
Color palette
The last Corporate Style consideration is Color. Colors not only influence us visually, they make us feel and behave differently. Various colors are used in healing settings to aid patient recovery or for pain control. Colors are also known to induce appetite (orange), relax (green) or excite (red-orange).
- See which color combinations work best with your brand essence:
- Pick a couple of primary colors that would be used as your primary brand identifiers
- Also choose some children for the background elements.
- Select accent colors that can be used in limited quantities to highlight important elements
Once the general style has been established, all findings should be entered into a Brand Guidelines document. It can be as basic or as elaborate as necessary.
The basics generally contain the corporate style elements mentioned above and help in the creation of consistent, professional-looking visuals.
5. VISUAL MATERIALS
Depending on your Sales and Marketing strategy, choose several places of communication with the customer.
You must consistently and creatively apply your established corporate style to:
- Social media pages (Linked-in, FB, Twitter)
- Website + Online Communications (depth of information and credibility)
- Stationery (business cars, letterheads and envelopes)
- Printed materials (brochures, brochures, advertisements)
- Presentations (PowerPoint)
- Commercial documents (Billing, Estimates and Forms)
Following the 5 steps above will ensure that the very essence of your business shines through with success. They will have done a great job uniting their minds, hearts and souls. You will have created a visual foundation for your business to succeed in differentiating your business from the competition, positioning your business as a premium provider, and instilling trust in your customers.