Visually Appeasing: And Other Factors To Consider when Branding Your Company

Many people think that the creation of branded graphics and the implementation of a great brand is all about making things visually appeasing. This is only partially true. While yes, the graphics that are used to uplift your brand should definitely look good, here's a list of four more qualifications of a well branded company.

Well defined and represented brand message. What is the message that you want to send with your brand? Who do you want to send this message to? Have you taken the time to define your target audience and what you want them to know, think, and believe about your company? Here's a hint to help you determine who they are, the answer is NOT "everyone"! Spend some time and really get to know your brand. What do you offer? What makes you different from others offering the same thing? What are your goals for the company? Who would benefit most from what you offer? Take a moment, open your word processing app, and create at least 2 avatar profiles of your perfect customer. Give them a name, then go online and find a stock photo to give them a face too. How old are they? Man or woman? What's their race? What do they like? Whats their education level, marital status, and annual income? Do they have children? What do they do in their spare time? And most importantly, where do they spend their time? Whether online or in person, you need to determine where you need to be and how your brand needs to look, feel, and sound in order to get their attention. This helps you to target your brand message as well as the graphics. Once you create these profiles, then determine what you need to tell them about your brand to get them to notice you, remember you, and patronize you. This is your Brand Message and this is the first qualification of great branding.

Social Alignment. Who will people associate with your brand when you're not around? Who's promoting your brand and how? We all have that one friend that wants to share your stuff on social media who you'd rather not have as a representative of your company. They share everything that you post and they comment on all of your photos. They are the exact opposite of the avatar profiles you created above. You know they mean well but they're actually hurting you more than they're helping. First of all, they are definitely not relaying the message that you want to send. And secondly, if they haven't taken the time to cultivate their own brand and they post craziness, then their association with your brand raises questions in the minds of your actual target audience. In no way am I saying that you should stop them from sharing, but your social alignment is another very important part of your branding. Take the time to align yourself with the people who more closely resemble your target profiles. Find their social media profiles, comment on their posts, get them to know and like you. Then they will begin to share your content and help you with their very own social aligning.

Knowledge, wisdom, and understanding. Knowledge is the education you amassed to get to where you are. Whether that education was gained in school, online, or from mentors, it's the things that you have learned from other sources to place you in the position you're in and give you the confidence to start your company. Wisdom, however is gained from experience, experience is gained only with time. Wisdom is those things that you can't learn from books, school, and others, you gain wisdom by doing and being; by living life. Then there's understanding. Understanding is the sum you get when you add knowledge and wisdom. We have all been in situations when the knowledge we've learned in school didn't work but the wisdom gained from experience helped to make a better decision to deal with the situation, this is an example of understanding. As an entrepreneur, in order to gain the trust of those who will utilize your brand, you will need to employ and exude all three of these characteristics. Gaining the trust of your audience and making them feel comfortable is a vital part of getting your customers to trust you with their money, making this an a top 4 characteristic of a great brand.

Visually Appeasing Graphics. Ok, let's be honest here, I'm a designer at heart, there's no way that you believed I would create this post and downplay the effects of having visually appeasing graphics for your brand. Let's face it, people buy new things for 1 of 3 reasons, they either really need it, they were convinced by the marketing and the pricing, or they like the way the branding looks. We use our eyes to choose lovers, vehicles, homes, clothing, and most everything we buy. Choosing to patronize a brand is no different. Selecting the right color combinations, fonts, and imagery plays a major role in the success of your brand. Haphazardly choosing these things can hurt your brand without you even understanding why it's happening. Should you make these decisions because of personal preference rather than using the brand messaging, target audience, social alignment, or the knowledge, wisdom, and understanding, you could be making a very costly mistake. There must be a combination of factors used to create the branded graphics for your company. Visually appeasing sounds easy enough but in reality, clashing colors, bad logos, and non strategically placed imagery will destroy your brand if you're not careful. Visually appeasing graphics play a vital role in qualifying your brand as being well designed.

So there you have it, visually appeasing is a vital factor in choosing your branded graphics but definitely not the only factor. Do you have more factors that I may have missed? I'd love to hear them.