The impact of a strong brand
What is a brand?
It seems like a simple question, but ‘What is a brand?’ is a question that is anything but simple. A brand is not just a logo or design, it’s not just a colour scheme or tagline, and yet all of these can play a huge part in what a brand is and does. A brand, in the simplest of terms, is the way a company, individual, organisation or product is perceived by those who experience it. Brands essentially exist in the mind of the consumer.
What makes a successful brand?
There is a lot that goes into making a brand successful, and it isn’t something that just happens overnight. A strong brand has a clear focus, knows the audience it aims to attract with a defined mission. A strong brand should u also have key benefits and strong distinctive attributes that set it apart from the competition. Brand values is what the brand stands for e.g. leading edge technology. Personality is the characteristics of the brand and is often explored in qualitative research through projective techniques. A brand needs to be communicated consistently while telling its story and have a strong identity to achieve its goals.
How can design help a brand?
Design plays a huge part in helping brands thrive and the use of a strong identity can dramatically boost a brand’s recognition with the public. If done correctly, this can eventually lead to people identifying companies from specific elements used in their overall creative direction, For example, the distinctive blue colour known as Tiffany Blue® used by Tiffany & Co. has been a leading characteristic associated with the brand, enabling the company to become instantly recognisable purely from its colour.
Logos are the face of a brand and most serve multiple purposes, These can be to educate people on the name of a company and to represent a business or company in a visual way. A well-designed logo, combined with a strong creative identity can really connect with people, becoming locked in their memories and helping to improve recognition.
The identity of your brand is more than likely the first thing that people see. This is what draws people in, and encourages them to read the information you are sharing. Therefore, it is important to create an impactful identity that your company can use to draw people’s attention.
What impact can a strong brand have?
Your brand is everything; it is the force behind what you’re trying to sell that gets people to take interest. Having a strong brand will benefit your entire organisation. It can create an emotional bond with customers, which in turn leads to a vast increase in customer loyalty. Having a unique brand gives you that competitive edge in the market, improving customer recognition.
But how can a strong brand impact your company internally? When a company or organisation understands their brand and their mission, it encourages employees to feel that same sense of pride and work in the same direction to achieve common goals. It is almost like turning your logo into a badge of honour, that your employees are proud to wear.
To conclude, your brand is the soul of your company. It is important to take time in developing a strong visual identity and brand mark that will work alongside your goals and ambitions. To be not only ‘eye-catching’ or ‘nice-to-look-at’, but to build trust and inspiration with the community and your own employees.