Creating a Powerful Brand that Stands Out
How well do you know your brand?
If your business was a person, how would they dress? What would they say? What music would they listen to? What would be their favourite food? Their favourite colour? Their favourite movie?
Like you, your business is its own unique entity with its own distinctive personality. In order to be successful, your business needs to project its personality with strength and confidence. Your company’s brand needs to be able to speak for itself, even when you’re not there to speak for it. As with people, first impressions are critical. Like you, your brand makes an instant impression the moment it comes into contact with others, so let your clients know what they can expect. That’s why it’s crucial to know your brand like you know yourself right from the outset.
What makes a strong brand?
Consistency of “voice”—both aural and visual—is essential. If a potential client gets a different impression or feeling from your business card than they do from your website or even a phone conversation with you or one of your employees, your brand is having an identity crisis and you risk losing your clients’ trust and confidence. You may think, as many do, that your brand is your logo. But a great logo is only a reflection of your brand, not the brand itself. Without knowing your brand’s personality, you will have trouble creating an effective logo and communicating a consistent message with a consistent voice. And without a consistency of voice across all of your marketing materials and team members, your brand will seem unsure of itself.
Honesty and integrity
You shouldn’t lie or obfuscate about who your business is. If you do, eventually your customers will figure out who you are and, even worse, that you are not who you say you are. No matter how incredible your logo or tagline is, if it’s a lie, your business will die. So, if your logo says you are luxury and you charge luxury prices and package your product with expensive frills, your products better live up to that message and the promise implicit therein.
Doing your research
In addition to knowing who your brand is, you will need to know who it will be mingling with in the marketplace. Your business needs to stand out in the crowd. You don’t want to show up to the party in the same outfit as someone else. But you sure don’t want to show up to the party in a Hawaiian shirt if it’s a black-tie event. This requires in-depth advance market research, including competitor profiling and SWOT analysis. Your homework early on will help you identify who’s who and where the opportunities are for you to get in the game and make your mark in the most effective manner possible.
Aligning your team behind your brand
Creating an idea board goes a long way to help develop your voice and personality that all your team members can get behind. This allows for deep discussion and team building about your brand, your business, and your business strategy. Working with the outcomes of the competitor profiling research, the idea board will explore the right colour, style, voice, and typeface, that will fill a gap in the marketplace and at the same time allow your team to articulate the personality of your business. Differences of opinion can and should be aired and worked out with key decision-makers among your management and employees while developing your logo. Aligning key decision-makers on your brand while developing your logo will speed up the brand development process and save money in the long run. By involving your key decision-makers in this process, they will be more likely to understand and buy-in to your brand and will have an easier time communicating and championing it to the rest of your team as well as your customers.
Developing your logo
Now that you know your brand, understand how it fits in and stands out in the marketplace, and have the buy-in of your team, you’re ready to start designing that cool logo you’ve been dreaming of! Your logo is such an important and exciting aspect of your brand. Think of your logo as the face of your brand. It needs to reflect the personality of your brand and it must be memorable. What makes a logo memorable? If it stimulates just the right amount of brain power, it will make an indelible impression. If your logo leaves nothing for the brain to work at, it will be more likely to be easily forgotten. Think of examples of logos that are memorable, such as Nike (Is it a check mark? Is it representative of movement or speed? Is it the wing of Nike herself?) or FedEx (Is it just letters? Or is there an arrow hidden in there?) or Coca Cola (the distinctive script forces you to work a little at deciphering the letter forms). Now think about the colours of these logos. The colours have become iconic along with the logo. A good designer can find the right balance of clarity and ambiguity that will help define your brand and leave a lasting impression.
But wait… you’re not done yet
Now that you’ve created your logo, you need to understand that it’s just the tip of your branding iceberg. Following closely behind your logo are all the rest of your marketing materials that need to correspond and speak with the same voice and attitude. This consistency will create a sense of confidence, reliance, and trust in your brand with your client base. From your website and online interface to your brochures and packaging to your signage, uniforms, and vehicles, you will be creating a brand identity with its own distinct character and personality. Even training your employees on how to embody your brand when interacting with customers is part of the process of brand creation. Every point of contact with your brand must be coherent and project your company’s personality. When all of your brand’s parts are moving together in unison, your company will be ready to make its grand entrance in the marketplace and turn heads.