Our previous blog post looked at brand equity and why branding is key to developing it. This blog post will focus on branding design and explore five steps in its formation.
But first, what is branding and branding design?
Branding is what solidifies the foundation and presence of a brand. It creates the face, character, and message of the business. And it is its most valuable first step to defining the brand.
Creating branding takes skills, knowledge, and flair. Every aspect needs to be narrowed to the specifics of the brand and its audience. It must be based on actual values and purposes and serve a vision that can be measured over time. Branding goes above profits and, in many cases, political preferences and technology.
Branding is a multi-layered, short business plan-like manual with guidelines in the form of a PDF or physical book, also known as a branding book. Its pages explain the business vision and present guidelines for achieving it. It introduces the brand's values and purpose and identifies the most likely audience they will resonate with. If that differs from the brand's desired audience, how can that audience be reached?
The branding book presents differentiation in innovation, authenticity, or any business specification. Often, it is a combination of the brand's positioning in the marketplace (current and desired), brand character, voice, and visual appearance. Branding works internally, externally, and philosophically, creating a foundation and consistency for the brand's development.
Building a brand from start to finish is a process that takes time, money and much research. But if you want success for your company and a strong brand image, you need branding design. In that way, you will cultivate the reputation you want with your audience. Here are five steps you can take in creating your brand.
1. Define your business goals and brand personality.
This step is foundational for the whole branding development process. You need to define the goals and values of the company to receive the expected results. By setting up business goals and brand personality early on, you are setting up the direction the branding will go.
Of course, the goals can be changed later on, and it is expected that some change will happen during the creative process, but it is essential to have a direction for development. Also, before any work on the visual part of the branding begins, the company's character should be identified to be presented correctly. That is vital when designing a brand.
You can start with a single purpose or mission statement. That should communicate what you want your brand to achieve. The statement needs to align with your business plan and core values. The mission statement answers a few fundamental questions about your business: What problem can your product or service solve? Why does your company exist? What makes you different from your competitors? The mission statement guides the company's activities, from product design to marketing.
2. Research your market and target audience.
This step is also vital to the process. With this research, you gain information on the environment of the future brand, its competitors, and what might influence its success or failure.
Knowing the competition can help build an effective logo and a brand identity that will stand out amongst the rest. Also, it is essential to explore the good and the bad examples. Seeing what doesn’t work can help build a successful brand. Researching your competitors will give you an idea of how to create a unique brand.
It would help to examine everything about your competitors – social media presence, websites, brand voice, pricing and everything else. You can also use keyword research tools to find out what exactly is targeted by your competitors and what isn’t.
Researching your target audience is crucial as well. Who is your brand for? Different people respond to different tones, aesthetics and brand personalities. Consider what your audience wants if you want your brand to engage and connect with people.
You can create a rough sketch of the people you want to sell to. That should include stats such as age, location and income. The more information you include, the more targeted your brand can be.
3.Design your brand's logo.
Your logo is one of the first impressions of your brand. That is why a logo that stands out is crucial in branding design. It is the mark of brand identity, the symbol of the brand image.
Your logo sets the foundation of an effective marketing strategy and helps your brand connect with the target audience. Often, designing a logo incorporates a variety of visuals. That is why it is a whole process which includes many steps, such as setting the task, user research, creative research, choice of style, choice of colour palette, choice of typography and many more.
When creating a logo, it is essential to research logos of competitive companies. That way, you can avoid creating something similar, strive to create an original brand identity, and truly stand out.
After creating your logo, testing how it will look in different environments and placements is important. Sometimes what looks good on the screen won’t look appealing on a pen, for example. Logo design plays a big part in branding and is worth investing resources into.
4. Design the visual elements of your brand.
The other visual elements of your brand also deserve attention. You can personalise your brand to make its character stand out.
An essential element of your brand's design is the typography. You should choose a font that represents your brand voice and personality. For example, a bold,wide font implies strength. A serif font is associated with authority.
Your chosen font doesn't just mean the font used for your logo. It includes business cards, banners and all other marketing materials. The typography should be applied to all brand correspondence to signify its identity. Fonts can speak for your brand. Custom fonts can also be created, which will make your brand unique.
Another vital element is the colours you choose. They can convey a message and resonate with your audience. It is good to research this in depth because colour can psychologically affect your audience. You want your brand's colours to solidify what your brand represents and how it makes people feel.
5. Create a branding book.
It is time to create the branding book when all the visuals are done. The book is a detailed manual with guidelines. Its pages explain the business vision and present guidelines for achieving it over time. It introduces the brand's values and purpose and identifies the most likely audience they will resonate with.
It also provides instructions on correctly using the graphics to achieve branding success. The style guide is detailed and includes an explanation of the idea behind the logo, the steps in creating it, and the presentation of the brand's colour palette, which can be used for different purposes. It is a good idea to include examples of correct and incorrect usage of the visuals to avoid pitfalls.
These are just a few steps in creating a branding design. The process is long and complex, and each step must be well thought out for everything to work. The business goals and the target audience's needs should always be kept in mind. Otherwise, the branding design might not achieve the desired results.
At Metaka Branding Studio, we understand the importance of creating unique branding designs to succeed. Reach out to us for expert guidance and support. For more valuable insights on branding, visit our website's blog section.
