THE CORE ELEMENTS OF BRANDING AND WHY IT’S IMPORTANT

When taking the step towards setting up a brand, Most would rush into a logo or website but the concept of brand identity revolves around how customers will perceive your brand and whether or not they can relate to it in some way. 

All the components related to product, service or person is the essence of Brand Identity. Gone are the days of pure hard sell. People don’t want to be sold to, they instead want all the information about a service or product and the customer what to have the power of choice. The concept of branding comes from the idea that, back in the day, when someone was a small business owner they had personal relationship with their customers. Take Henk, who in the 1940s owned a butchery, He knew all his customers by first names, how the kids where doing and how the old knee was holding up. This interest shown by the owner not only made an emotional connection but also when a long way in establishing a brand with those customer, who would in effect become brand loyal.

“A brand is a person’s gut feeling about a product, service or organization.”

– Marty Neumeier for the book the brand gap.

Your Logo

Your logo is your first point of contact for your prospective customers. It identifies your brand in  a way that embody the essence of your company. A logo is not meant to be a salesmen but rather an identifier. It is like your name tag in a crowded room. These are a few tips to keep in

mind where your logo is be created:

• Keep it simple. As your customers are overloaded with information everyday, a simple balanced logo will cut through the clutter. for example the nike tick is one of the iconic symbol in the world and because of its simplicity it is easy to recall.
• Make it memorable. The best logos in the world are the easiest to remember. For example: UPs deliver, Puma, McDonalds, Google, Apple. 
• Remember to whom you are selling. Your logo, should in a way, be create around your target audience. For example take Metalica’s logo if they used a soft script font with pastel colours, would they still appeal to their current fan base?
• Make it fluid. A great logo has the ability to change over time without loosing its essence. For Example Coke Cola or Shell. Both have changed their logos on numerous occasions but if you look at them today you can’t think of them any other way.

Color Palette

Colour is general an oversight when it comes to logo design, just make green or blue but with the psychology of colors being widely studied around the world the importance of colour is increasing everyday, each and every colour evokes a different emotional response, which if done right, could help create a link between that chosen emotion and your logo. If you had to take McDonlad’s for instance yellow is seen as a “joyful, happy” colour which is indicative of McDonald’s brand essence, Or Coke Cola with their unmistakable red “Pantone 484”. To ensure consistency a company’s colour must be as important as the logo itself.

Typography

Typography is one of the most difficult aspects of brand-building efforts.

While written communication generally refers to the content of the text that we deliver to a given audience, typography refers to the style of text design use to deliver a message. For example Nando’s use a hand draw loose style of typography which reflects their off-beat humorous type of communication.

Here are a few typography tips to get started with:

   ?   Limit the number of fonts your brand will use – too many can make your brand design appear busy and cluttered.

   ?   Choose appropriate font sizes based on the specific use cases – the size of your text will impact your audience’s reading experience.

   ?   Establish line spacing standards – because good typography is all about the proper use of whitespace.

Visual Elements

In the same way that we use written or spoken language to communicate our brand, there is also a visual language that will need to be considered in order to make your business unique. Focusing on the visual components that convey your brand values can help customers create a frame of reference regarding what your business stands for. The saying “a picture is worth a thousand words” is no lie when it comes to developing your brand’s visual language. Everything from the type of person, the clothes they wear, the setting they are in and the overall colouring in your images will tell a story, so you must ensure that every element has been thought  out. The most important aspect to establishing a clear visual language is consistentancy. 

Brand Voice & Tone

A brand voice is simply the ‘personality’ of your brand or company as expressed through the written or spoken word. Tone of voice guides what you say, and how you say it – the content and style of textual communications. While it’s possible to focus on very nuanced elements of your voice and tone, establishing just a few broad guidelines can go a long way in establishing your style. For instance, Harley Davidson brand voice and tone could be broken down into these simply characteristics: Edgy, Witty and Rebellious. Simple copy recognizes that too many words can be off-putting and that every word we write needs to serve a purpose.

Every headline, subhead, body paragraph, and call-to-action should make important information and next steps absolutely clear.

Brand Strategy

When considering your brand pillars, you should ask yourself, “Where do we fit within the competitive landscape?”

This isn’t just a question to ask yourself when developing your core offerings or value proposition, but it’s also something that you should ask when developing your brand design strategy. Understanding how your competitors have designed themselves into the marketplace can show you where your potential strengths might lie or where there’s an opportunity to design yourself in a way that’s different from your competitors, thereby opening up a competitive advantage.

Conclusion

To develop your brand identity a deep considerations for these aspect will definitely benefit your business in the long run. In the same way people connect purely on personality, in a crowd marketplace, your brand personality is all you have and it will help create these needed connection. In order to increase your customer base while maintaining profitability. it’s necessary to provide a personality that help your customers understand that your brand is the brand to do business with.