More than a logo
Your brand is your business!
When we think of a brand we immediately think of just a logo but branding is so much more than that! By definition, ‘branding’ is “the process of creating a strong perception of a company in the customer’s mind by combining elements such as a logo, design, mission statements and marketing communications”. Branding is so important to all companies, large and small, that billions of pounds are invested into it each year. In fact, in April 2020, household brand Cadbury spent £1million on a new logo that wasn’t too different from the original. Why? Because ensuring their brand was impeccable was important!
Cadbury isn’t alone in updating their brand ever so slightly, every so often, adding up to a larger change over time. You’ll probably be familiar with the evolution of Apple’s logo from the colourful stripes that made up the apple shape from 1976 to 1998, through to the modern-day slick and clean approach. But branding a company correctly is no easy mission – how can a company make sure they get it right?
Getting Branding Right
Before even thinking about colours and fonts, a company needs to be clear on their target audience – this is the starting point for any good branding. Are they targeting a 25-year man who is interested in sport, or a 37-year-old woman who is interested in interiors? Do they want their brand to make their customer feel excited and energetic, or relaxed and calm? Is the customer going to be spending a lot of money as a one-off or a little bit of money often? All of these points need to be researched intensely before picking up a pen!
Positioning is another thing that’s important to consider to ensure a company’s branding is right. This is how you place your company in the mind of the consumer. Are you a high end, luxury brand, or do you sell budget basics?
Once these things have been researched and firmed up, it’s time to think about the look of the brand. Colours play a highly important role in branding as psychology suggests that colours can dictate how we think and feel. For example, red is associated with excitement, passion, danger, energy, and action, so it’s no surprise Coca-Cola is famously red! Conversely, the colour green is associated with growth, fertility and health so is often used in healthcare branding. As well as decisions around colour being important, subtle choices like fonts and typography can play a big part in how a brand makes people feel. Traditional fonts that use serifs can connote authority and establishment and make consumers feel like they trust the brand, while clean sans-serif fonts can connote a ‘cool’, modern brand.
So, aside from looking great and making consumers feel a certain way, why do companies invest in their brand?
4 reasons why branding is so important.
Sales, Sales, Sales
Well, for exactly the reason that a brand can make a consumer feel a certain way, companies invest in their brand to ensure their customers are in the best mood possible and ready to buy! Contrary to what we like to think, humans are not rational decision makers and buy mainly on emotion, so if a company can get a consumer into a positive frame of mind and thinking positively about the brand during the buying process, they’ll be more likely to end up making an actual purchase.
Furthermore, companies can attract new customers through having strong brand awareness, again bringing in more revenue. Ch-ching!
Employee Pride
As well as investing in branding to attract new customers, companies also invest heavily in branding to attract the best talent. Employer branding is the practice of branding a company as a strong workplace in order to complement the recruitment and hiring strategy. In fact, this is actually where the term ‘branding’ came from – deriving from the Old Norse word brandr or “to burn,” and referring to the practice of branding livestock. A strong employer brand can increase employee satisfaction from being ‘branded’ as part of a great company. For example, a company could use branded uniforms and promotional branded merchandise to strengthen their employee brand amongst their employees.
Make Marketing Easy
One other reason that great branding is so important to any company is that it makes the rest of marketing’s job easy! Having a strong brand is a great starting point for creating a strong digital marketing strategy. With so much of marketing being so visual, having great looking content is often half the struggle, and strong branding is the key!
Take Instagram for example, the home of the aesthetically pleasing social feed! The companies doing well on Instagram are objectively the ones who visually have the best content – the data even proves it, so investing in strong branding can make the job of a social media manager easier, and ultimately feed back into making more sales.
Additionally, other parts of a marketing strategy such as using promotional merchandise can be greatly supported by having a strong brand. For example, a goody bag containing a branded pen, mug, and notepad given out at a trade show event could look spectacular with a strong brand on it!
Your Merchandise is Unique and Memorable.
Additionally, other parts of a marketing strategy such as using promotional merchandise can be greatly supported by having a strong brand. When your merchandise looks amazing (thanks to your stellar branding), customers are far more likely to hold onto the product. For example, a goody bag containing a branded pen, mug, and notepad given out at a trade show event could look spectacular with a strong brand on it! Check out some of the amazing merchandise we’ve created for clients and see just how important good branding is.
So now you know why strong branding is so important to any company – what changes are you going to make to your brand?
