Two Major Rules For Visual Branding
Brands here, brands there, brands everywhere. The world is on a total branding high. With over 40 million small business in the U.S alone, there is nothing more imperative than having your brand stand out. Today, brands are competing for visibility like never before and with social media advertising and search engine marketing costs at an all time high, brands are paying tons of money to be in the faces of consumers. If you have any hope of standing out in this concentrated landscape or are considering spending advertising dollars, you may want to consider these two visual branding rules to get the most return on your investment:
Rule #1: Originality
We strongly believe that mimics are gimmicks (We’re turning this phrase into a song later). In order to build a brand that makes an impact, it is imperative that you find a unique voice, tone
and message that truly resonates with what your company is about. This helps you stand out from the competition and gives customers a viable reason as to why they should choose your brand over others. Think of your brand as an individual, a person with their own quirks, behaviors, inclinations and habits. Once you have decided on that, you can start to build out a personal style, a voice and a (dare we say) “swag” that only you can embody. Everything from your flyers, mission statement, website, social media posts and even employees should embody this original personality. Also consider adding a touch of human emotion to your brand messaging. Brands that capture audiences focus on meeting human needs. They depict this in the types of visuals and language they use. Don’t be scared to use a little slang or some common words that your audience is familiar with.
Rule #2: Consistency
Consistency is hard to keep up with in a time where things are always changing. As a brand, it’s important to be visually consistent so that your customers are familiar with you and can recognize what you offer. Say you LOVE and I mean really LOVE going to FroYo. You go there up to 3 times a week after a long day at work. On this particular day, you're
exhausted but excited at the thought of a nice little treat on your way home You grab your bag, say goodbye to your boss and head over to FroYo's location. You're salivating at the thought of your cookies and cream slow churn. You get to the shop but there's no FroYo logo on the store window, You see in large letters on the window: Sun Go. The logo is a cartoon of the sun wearing sneakers with an ice cream cone in its hand. You peek in the window and you see the shop walls are now painted yellow and brown. We're sure you would feel super confused and probably hesitate before convincing yourself to try the store out. Maybe you would even Google the nearest FroYo. Imagine doing this to your customers. Humans are creatures of habit and seldom like drastic change. If you do need to make changes to your visual brand, they should be very slight without loosing the factors that make your brand memorable. For example, Dunkin’ Donuts recently dropped the “Donuts" from their logo to expand their offerings but they did it strategically. They did not change their colors or their fonts. Another branding giant, Coca Cola, has been changing its branding over the years but has never changed the cursive writing of its logo. Brand consistency builds trust. Customers want to buy from brands they know. The more consistent your branding, the more customers will trust your brand.
We hope you enjoyed reading this. If you need help creating any of these, our team is here to chat. Contact us now to set up some time.