3 Amazing Branding Tips To Try Right Now!

Try out these 3 amazing branding tips and see what a difference it makes to your business.

Branding doesn’t have to be difficult. In fact, the simpler you make it the better, as your customers will be more likely to “get it”. Think Nike swoosh, McDonalds golden arches. Now think about the brands behind those logos.

Chances are you thought of trainers or gym wear when I mentioned Nike, and you thought of Burgers, coffee or muffins when I mentioned McDonalds. This is great branding because you get it. Now let me explain why you get it and how you can achieve the same with your branding

You can be as clever or as creative with your brand as you wish but these 3 branding tips will help you to stand out and get noticed among your competitors.

Make sure you are noticeable

To be recognised you first need to clearly identify yourself. Remember I mentioned Nike and McDonalds earlier? These brands are instantly recognisable anywhere in the world and anywhere online. Why is this?

Well, they have carefully considered their name, logo and strapline. These symbolise what they do and the products/services they provide.

Let’s take Nike as our example. In Greek mythology, Nike is the Winged Goddess of Victory. The logo is derived from goddess’ wing, ‘swoosh’, which symbolises the sound of speed, movement, power and motivation.

As a noun sport is defined as an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment. Sportswear then needs to be able to help the wearer achieve these aims.

So, Nike have thought of a name that represents a super-human being, a logo that symbolises easy and swift movement and a strapline (just do it) that encourages participation and activity. The whole brand is encapsulated in those three things – and you are easily able to identify with the brand because of it.

They are also consistent with their messaging. You will see their swoosh on every item they sell. You will also see it on every billboard advert, every TV advert and every magazine article that shows their product. They are all about sport and this is clear in their messaging across the internet as well as offline.

What about McDonalds? Well the name comes from the brothers that originally created the concept of “fast food” or, more specifically, “fast burgers” in the USA. It conjures up a family and wholesomeness and this is why it stuck even after the brothers no longer had anything to do with the business.

They are also consistent. You will see their golden arches on EVERY restaurant in the world. No matter where you go it will always look the same, the restaurants will always look the same, the food will always look the same and taste the same.

McDonalds are successful because they have been so consistent with every aspect of their business. They have made it easy for you, the consumer, to identify with them whether that is as a fan or not, and this is why it works so well.

Don’t Overcomplicate things

Your brand needs to be easy for people to understand. Don’t be tempted to go down the route of clever wordplay or complicated ideas.

If possible, try and include what you do in your name eg ABC Accountants or Severn Graphic Design as this will make it obvious from day one what your business is and what service you provide.

Sometimes this is not practical or possible but try and think of a simple name that will not be too difficult to call to mind. The last thing you want is for people to be saying “oh what did they say their name was again?”

As with our two examples, Nike is used to represent the winged goddess and McDonalds is used to represent the illusion of a family run business.

Also make it crystal clear what you do. What EXACTLY is your product or service. How does it help your customer and what benefits will they get from using it.

In the case of McDonalds it was literally producing take-away food faster than anyone else. In the case of Nike it was producing high quality sportswear at competitive prices.

The last thing you want to do is to confuse your customer. You need to be clear and consistent with your message, your adverts and your logo placements. Your customer needs to completely understand what you do, why you do it, and who you do it for.

Let Your Brand Tell A Story…

If you can let your brand tell a story this is even better. Let’s take sopme branding tips from the experts. Here’s an example of how Starbucks do this…

There is only so much you can say about a cup of coffee isn’t there? And yet Starbucks have thousands of stories that they tell with their brand. Here on Instagram they are inspiring and nurturing the human spirit, one person, one cup and one neighbourhood at a time.

and here’s another post…

Their Instagram posts tell a story about the brand – and their customers. They are representative of caring, sharing, laid-back people who love coffee.

Here are a few more examples of how they are getting this to work for them…

Over To You…

Okay, so there you have 3 amazing branding tips that you can try right now. They are not difficult to do, they just need some thought and a strategy behind them.

First think about how noticeable you are. Ask your staff or clients to give you a score out of 10 for each of your social media platforms as to how much of your content they actually get to see (or notice).

Think about where you are placing your logo. Is it on all your images, posts, pins and social media profiles? Are you as easy to spot as McDonalds or Nike yet? If not, go and see where you can make improvements.

Next, look at your message. Is is simple? Does it make it obvious to your customers what you do? Having clever phrases or overcomplicated straplines is not going to help your customers understand your brand. KEEP IT SIMPLE.

Finally, tell a story with your brand. Think about how you can represent your brand, your ideal customers, your products or services with the images and copy you use in your posts. Look at Starbucks, Nike or McDonalds for ideas and inspiration – after all, they’ve spent millions on getting it right so why should you have to go and reinvent the wheel?

Need some help?

Although these are fairly simple and straightforward ideas they do take a lot of time to actually implement. You will need to do research to get the ideas and inspiration – and that’s for ALL your platforms not just one.

You will also have to do some research on how to write captivating copy for your posts so that they get noticed during the scroll process that your customer goes through. If they don’t attract attention they will simply just get missed.

There is also the small matter of what type of content works best on which platform. I mean, you can’t post the same thing on Facebook that you do on Instagram because they are totally different platforms with different audiences who expect different things.

If you have the time and patience to do this yourself that’s great. Go ahead and start making a difference to your marketing from tomorrow.

If you don’t have time to do all this yourself we can help you. We have over 50 years combined marketing experience and have worked with some of the most recognised brands in the UK. Would you like to be the next one?

We offer packages and prices to suit all businesses and budgets so we know that we will be able to provide the perfect solution for you. We are also so confident that we can help you with your marketing that we offer a completely FREE and no obligation 1-hour consultation where we will learn more about your business and give you branding tips and an action plan to take away with you.

So, what are you waiting for? Give us a call and book your free consultation today.