Tuesday, December 14, 2021
7 minutes
In a competitive global market, you will compete with the very best brands with loyal customers and an unlimited marketing budget. That is why, when developing your brand strategy and style guide, you need to find the differentiating ways and methods to build a solid brand that will stand out from the crowd.
"Branding is one of the most significant factors for your product's existence and your business" ⁽⁴⁾, and here are six steps to creating a brand style that converts. Let's dive right in:
1. Introduce your brand story
2. Use logo guidelines to create a memorable brand identity
3. Establish a strong brand colour palette
4. Select your font type
5. Define your brand voice
6. Specify the imagery and iconography that makes up your visual style
You are probably wondering why branding is vital for your business. Well, have you seen what Nike has been doing? Nike is a worldwide, iconic brand that not only focuses on selling its products but also on selling a particular lifestyle. From the recognisable logo to their inspiring brand story and slogan, as well as the powerful imagery used in their advertisements, Nike has established itself as a successful brand that empowers all who interact with it.
When you think about your business, you need to consider what your customers will be going through when they see, purchase or use your products and services. It is essential to be aware of your customer’s experience and perception of your brand and have a strategic plan and style guide to ensure you leave a consistent, lasting impression in your customer's mind.
If you want to take your business to the next level, you need to consider the following:
- Branding builds recognition and loyalty
- Strong branding helps you communicate with your target audience
- A strong brand helps with recruitment and staff retention
- Great branding gives you a competitive edge in the market
- Branding enhances credibility and ease of purchase
You can not achieve great branding overnight. Therefore, it is essential to take the time to establish a brand style guide that indicates how an organisation should present itself to its audience. This is a reference tool that will help you maintain a consistent and cohesive brand identity and enhance credibility. This is how you do it.
A brand story is a simple summary of your brand, which includes your vision, mission, and core values. Your brand story and mission statement give people insight into the heart and soul of your brand, as "it helps them understand how to represent your brand". Customers want to be able to relate to the brand on a more emotional level. It is not all about pushing products, but rather about establishing a valuable connection with your customers. By having a brand personality and a powerful brand message that is coupled with a purposeful tone of voice, you can interact and engage with your target audience by using human emotions.
Your brand’s logo must speak to the ethos of the company. This is a visual element that will appear on everything. This makes a brand identity recognisable and memorable in the consumers' minds. In your brand style guide, outline proper usage of your logo to ensure the correct configuration is applied across all platforms, and so that your logo is always used in the way it is intended. With this guide, you can prevent mistakes from happening that would most likely send the wrong message to your audience. You can also incorporate how NOT to use your logo.
Take, for example, Nelson Mandela University. When the university was re-branded, a brand manual was developed to ensure the new identity was applied in the correct layout and format. Another feature added to the brand manual is how the logo should not be applied. This is important for all internal stakeholders to understand and grasp to ensure the correct logo configuration is used on all platforms.
When it comes to branding, define a core colour palette that speaks to the brand to create a consistent look and feel. Studies indicate that "colour increases brand recognition by up to 80%."⁽⁵⁾ Therefore, incorporate colourful, striking and memorable colours to be distinctive among your competitors.
Most brands have a primary colour and a secondary colour, with an option to include two other additional colours that do not stray too far from the hues of the primary and secondary colour palette. In your style guide, have swatches and information needed to reproduce your brand colours accurately. It would be best to incorporate the colour codes for Pantone, CMYK, RGB and HEX in your brand style guide.
For Nelson Mandela University’s Ocean Sciences Campus, the University’s brand blue remained the primary colour, while teal was selected as the secondary colour to complement the dark blue. In Figure 1 below we can see that the colours combined create a clean and simplistic look. Figure 2 provides Pantone, CMYK, RGB and vinyl colours, where Pantones are used for printing one colour or two colours for business cards and letterheads. In comparison, CMYK is typically used to print and process four colours. RGB is be used for digital applications such as presentations and social media, while HEX is used for website applications. ⁽⁷⁾ Vinyl is often used for vehicle and signage applications.
Another essential brand identity design element that forms part of your brand style guide is the font you choose. You can either select the same font for your brand collateral that is used in your logo, or you can use a different font to create some contrast. A branding company can assist you in selecting a typeface that is complementary to your logo.
As seen in Figure 1, the font selected is the same as the font used in the Nelson Mandela University logo, which is Avenir. It is vital to use your brand’s selected font on all print and digital applications to ensure consistency.
When identifying your target audience, it is vital to develop a tone of voice that they can relate to and that resonates with them, because a "brand voice strongly affects how your audience feels about you."⁽⁶⁾ When you have established your brand’s personality, you will know your brand's type of language and tone of voice. This tone of voice is how you will communicate with your customers at every touchpoint.
Visual imagery has a more significant impact than text. Therefore, selecting the right visuals is vital because it represents who you are as a brand. In your brand style guide, show images that have performed well for your brand, or collect pictures that portray a feeling you want people to get when they engage with your brand. Nike, for example, is well-known for their powerful imagery because of the bold message that they convey to their audiences.
In a competitive global market, you will compete with the very best brands with loyal customers and an unlimited marketing budget. That is why, when developing your brand strategy and style guide, you need to find the differentiating ways and methods to build a solid brand that will stand out from the crowd.
This is how you can further build your brand:
Taking the time to understand your target audience is crucial because it's the foundation that builds the brand. When outsourcing services to a branding company, they keep in mind the target audience you are reaching out to for them to tailor your brand message and brand image to meet your market's needs. This is when developing a brand persona comes into play because you will identify your target audience's likes, requirements, and preferences.
Customers want to be able to relate to the brand on a more emotional level. It is not all about pushing products, but rather about establishing a valuable connection with your customers. By having a brand personality and a powerful brand message that is coupled with a purposeful tone of voice, you can interact and engage with your target audience by using human emotions.
The brand you have created should be reflected in everything that you do. The aim is for customers not to forget who you are. Therefore, integrating the visual brand image and brand message at every customer touchpoint can leave a lasting impression in the customer's mind.
Consistency is key. Once you have established your brand style guide, this 'brand bible' will help you to maintain a cohesive brand identity. A branding company can design and develop a brand manual that thoroughly explains and covers every aspect of your brand identity and how it should be applied. This should be distributed to every internal stakeholder to ensure consistency.
"Effective branding can promote recognition for your business. If your brand is consistent and easy to recognise, it can help people feel more at ease purchasing from you."⁽³⁾ It is vital to establish a clear branding company message that will effectively and efficiently reach your target audience – a message which they will understand and internalise. Another thing to remember is to communicate the benefits of using your product or service. Through your brand message, it is crucial to highlight the key benefits of your products or services for customers to keep returning for more.
"In a highly competitive global market, it is crucial to stand out from the crowd."⁽³⁾ For your brand to compete in such a market, it needs to be unique, identifiable, memorable, and provide a solution that meets the needs and requirements of consumers better than your competitors.
As an example, Leavurmark™ is a naming agency based in Cape Town that both creates and legally protects brand names via the process of trade mark registration. A company offering both of these very significant services is seemingly rare, as you would usually have a branding company that only focus on one or the other. This unique combination of naming and protecting services makes Leavurmark™ a South African first and sets them apart from their competitors.
"A strong, consistent brand will allow the customer to know exactly what to expect each time they encounter your business". Having a clear brand promise is crucial because your brand is being communicated to your customers every time they come into contact with it. The brand promise represents the brand and what customers expect to receive from the brand at every touchpoint. A strong brand presence and genuine commitment "will build credibility and trust." ⁽³⁾
The values and benefits embedded in a brand help create an emotional connection with your customers and how your brand makes them feel. When it comes to Nike, it is more than just the products they sell, but the actual "lifestyle that everyone feels they need to have" (Arianna Pride, 2017). By using various marketing tools and the idea of incorporating influential well-known celebrities in sport, Nike has created a brand image that has made it desirable and valuable for consumers.
Whether you're a branding company or any other business, it is crucial to understand the impact branding has on your products and services. With over 21 years of branding experience, we have and will continue to successfully develop distinctive brand identities and ensure the brand message is communicated clearly and effectively.
You need to ensure your brand identity is consistent and cohesive throughout every customer touchpoint when it comes to branding. As a branding company, we specialise in building brands focusing on helping you create, develop, maintain and improve your brand. We start by developing a brand strategy to understand your business and outline your goals and objectives to use the right communication tools for the right audience. For a free branding consultation, contact our branding company and we can help you take your brand to the next level.
Reference:
1. Laura Lake
2. Nicholas
3. WURKHOUSE
6. Shirley Chan