The art of effective branding is one of the most powerful tools available to businesses today. With many competitors in the market place, even if you’re the first to market, you’re likely to be quickly followed by a copycat business. Often one of the only things that separate you from them is your brand and what you stand for.
The careful implementation of branding across all customer touch points including digital platforms and social media channels is more important than ever as your competitor is only a click away.
With the rise of quick-fix, cost-cutting design services available online, there are many products and packages around that offer a plethora of services for a DIY cut-price approach for branding; from the design your own logo for free companies “use our quick and easy logo maker tool” to the digital services that allow you to create your own website “create your own website – it’s hassle free”. It’s no wonder that many business start-ups and indeed even established businesses feel they can do it themselves.
My advice would be for anyone wanting the best for their business – if you are not an expert in this field and have never created a website before, it will never live up to their claim and be ‘hassle free’. You’d also lose any consideration for the user journey and experience, and maintaining the brand experience would likely become impossible.
At Nalla, we are frequently approached to design a website only. For many business owners they understand their current site is not working for them and want us to help them in designing an easy to use and creative site. We are eager to help businesses understand the bigger picture and talk through the disadvantages of just looking at their site.
Looking at only one aspect of a company’s communication without considering all of it could easily leave their brand looking unbalanced – A holistic approach is essential.
In today’s world, brands have to be adaptable across a number of mediums and with digital being firmly embedded in our everyday lives these fresh challenges can leave brands feeling slightly overwhelmed by being on show 24/7. From the website, to the advert, to customer service – the challenges of how a brand translates itself across a variety of touch points all comes down to how good your branding is.
A good design agency will ensure that a brand is given a visual language that can be flexible across all touch points, a tone of voice that customers can relate to and pull out that why for what you do. The right agency will also understand that the Internet is so deeply ingrained in everyday life its essential that it is part of building a brand from the very beginning. Treating it as a separate entity is asking for problems. It’s important to integrate it as you would with any other more traditional medium.
The Internet throws up a whole host of different opportunities. The instant and open nature enables consumers to voice their opinion and potential disputes to thousands of customers, thereby spreading anti-brand messages across the globe. However, it can also be used to positive effect; a great message or concept can spread like wildfire and trends can quickly catch on.
For many customers, the Internet is often the first place they come across a brand, so careful consideration of how your website and social media reflects your business is vital, especially in a world where referrals are king. I’m often left feeling frustrated by an excellent off line experience that subsequently results in a loss of confidence when then dealing with the brand online.
Many businesses appear disjointed; great customer service, price and product, but don’t look at their website; they’ve not updated it for years.
A fundamental part of how to look great online is to get the branding right. Branding is an art and it is something that is often misunderstood. Many still think of branding in a traditional way: a logo, a typeface and a set of colours and that’s all explained in a set of trusty guidelines that usually involves a long list of do’s and don’ts —all carefully controlled by a ‘brand police’ approach.
Brands need more than a logo and a set of guidelines; they need to create a brand experience. An experience that communicates the aspirations and generates an emotional connection to what the business offers. Recent theories have noted that the most successful brands, the top 5 best performing are those with a strong emotional attachment. It’s no longer enough to simply say what you do, you need to tell your customers why you are doing it.
So businesses face the challenge of positioning their brands in the right way and not only this, to do so across a range of mediums. A way that engages the customer and makes them realise this is the right product, business and brand for them. One of the key things a brand must do is communicate that all important ‘higher purpose’ explaining why they do what they do – something that must remain consistent across all communications.
An example of this is how we could talk about my business Nalla:
“We’re an independent design studio, working with clients of all shapes and sizes to create original, distinctive and memorable branding across print and digital platforms.” In this statement we are saying what we do, describing the services and painting a picture of what you get as a customer, nothing wrong with this you might think.
Here is how we actually talk about Nalla: “Everything we do embodies design, brand and technology, always thinking ahead to create emotional connections between brands and people that lasts years not months. Nalla is an independent design agency. We focus on providing our clients with outstanding design solutions coupled with excellent relationships – something that many of our clients will happily endorse.”
As you will see, the second of the two statements is more engaging and gives you a sense of experience and an emotional connection to what we believe. We’ve put the why first rather than the what. Brands need to do this but visually as well as verbally.
A successful brand will also have consistency and coherence. The more consistent your customers experience is, the stronger their faith in your brand becomes. This consistency ensures that all customers have the same experience every time they use your product or service, be it across The Web, in-store or even overseas. Consistency gives a business a strong persona and a voice that ensures strong relationships are built and reputations are grown.
There are some great brands out there that have a great consistent approach. Yes we all cite Apple a lot but they truly understand the power of branding. However, it’s important to differentiate your brand, yes imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but a market can’t support several companies that look and act the same.
It’s also worth noting that brands, like people, do have a lifespan if they don’t continually evolve to keep up with developments in the marketplace be it digital or otherwise.
As such, they require tending to and updating. Much like how fashion tastes change, a brand has to be flexible enough to adapt and evolve in response to consumer’s behavior changes and opinions. Take careful consideration in looking after a brand and it will look after you.
