What is brand or branding when it comes to your business?
Some brand agencies and even some brand departments within a large organisation will often overcomplicate brand. They bamboozle you with flouncy terms. So we thought we would simplify brand for you, to help you with your own brand decisions.
The different aspects of brand
In essence, your brand is the DNA of your business. It is who you are. It’s what you stand for (your values), it’s you’re USP (Unique Selling Point). Brand is a set of key messages which run through all of your communications. For example you may want to pick a few words which sum up who you are, such as: Integrity, Innovation, Sustainable, Accountability, Diversity or Social responsibility.
Brand is what makes you different from your competitors. It’s also about your employees and their behaviour, the personality of your business and little things like having a recycling bin in all offices. This shows your business cares about the environment. It’s about your processes within your business. It’s what makes your business - your business. Brand is what makes you unique and how you want to be seen by your audience or customers.
A simple example of this is supermarkets. They all sell food. Sometimes it’s the same food but with different packaging, branding and price point. But they all do it differently.
M&S- positions itself as a high-end supermarket. It’s soft whispering voice in it’ adverts: “This isn’t just cauliflower. This is M&S cauliflower” - as if you’re getting extra special cauliflower. When at the end of the day it’s just a cauliflower. But the soft, seductive voice and lighting on the adverts make us want that cauliflower! We are buying into a lifestyle. Buy that cauliflower and your dinner times will look like an M&S advert. Hmmm…
Aldi - prides itself on low prices and likes to have a bit of fun. We all remember the Colin the Caterpillar fiasco! It’s a no-nonsense supermarket. It knows it can’t compete with M&S and Waitrose, so it’s positioned its brand as a value for money supermarket and you can pick up a deckchair from the middle aisle along with your weekly food shop. I mean, who doesn’t want that?
Another quick example of excellent branding is Jo Malone candles. At the end of the day, it’s just a candle. But her branding and visual brand elements - posh packaging, the gorgeous shop interiors and the well turned-out and polite staff have positioned her candles to be something really special. You could argue that the candle is of very high quality and smells amazing. But if that same candle didn’t have the branding that it does, they wouldn’t be able to charge what they do.
Visual brand identity
Your visual brand is just as important as your messaging and USP. It’s what people see so it’s important to get this right. Working with a reputable design agency, like Spi-des-ign will help you get this correct.
Colours influence without us even thinking about it. Blue makes us think of the cold. Red is seen as being hot or danger. When designing your visual brand these small details are important. You can’t just go with your favourite colour as colours influence us, often without us realising it. For example, most of us ladies will instantly recognise and swoon over a little turquoise coloured box tied with a white ribbon. Tiffanys!
Sound can also form part of your brand. When you hear: “The holidays are coming, the holidays are coming…” jingle we all think of the Coca Cola advert. Suddenly, a brown sugary drink which is available all year round, becomes associated with Christmas. Clever!
When it coms to designing your visual identity your design agency will choose fonts, colours and other visual elements that reflect your brand and business. Fonts / typefaces can be fun, serious, traditional, handwritten or look futuristic to name a few. Your designer will offer guidance on which ones best reflect your business and brand.
When working with your design agency, they should fully get to know your business, so they can design you an identity that communicates what you stand for.
How we can help
Here at Spi-des-ign we will walk you through this process. We will make it our business to thoroughly understand your business so we can create a visual identity (logo, packaging, websites, signage, van livery etc) that will deliver you results.
Give our friendly team a call on: 01359 518060 or email: enquiries@spi-des-ign.co.uk
Let’s start your creative journey today!
Thank you! Your message has been sent.
Someone from Spi-des-ign will contact you soon.
