Branding is crucial to running a business since it defines how you interact with and are remembered by your customers. As such, figuring it out becomes imperative before your business gets off the ground. To help you do this, here's a beginner's guide to branding and why it's important!
Building an identity
The first thing we'll cover in this guide to branding is the impact it has on a business' identity. A good branding approach will make you memorable and easily recognizable. It will focus on your employees' sense of belonging and your customer's loyalty. On the other hand, lackluster branding can result in a lack of workplace cohesiveness and an equally inadequate response to your marketing. After all, a good design philosophy applied to branding makes for a perfect addition to any marketing campaign and will easily catch the eye!
Picking your audience
Your ideal audience is the first thing you need to figure out when building your brand. These are the people you want to be your primary customers. As such, it is only smart to base the design of your brand around what they're most likely to find appealing. This will help keep customers engaged with your brand to maintain a connection that ensures customer loyalty. As such, make sure to do your research and consider the current most popular brands and what's working for them before proceeding with your branding work.
Sort out your font
The thing you need to understand about fonts is that it's not all about picking the best-looking one. Now, you want to choose a pretty font that will help you get as much visibility as possible for your brand. But, if you only end up chasing after the most appealing fonts, you will run into issues later. For example, you need to select a crisp and clean font. It should still be recognizable even shrunk down onto your products or promotional merchandise.
This is not always possible for fonts, and you end up with some weird smudged text that's just hard to read and not really doing anything for your brand. In fact, it is arguable that in these cases, your branding suffers since it looks like a lack of professionalism and planning.
Settle on a color scheme
A good color scheme can absolutely boost your brand's popularity and appeal. Now, interestingly enough, you do want to note that your color scheme selection is somewhat limited if you want to follow the typical 'signaling' brands use. Confused about what we are talking about? Well, think about this: all techy companies tend to have their logos in chromatic colors. Meanwhile, all businesses in the food industry tend to have warmer and brighter colors. While clothing and beauty products typically come with branding done up in flashy or bold colors. This lets you immediately associate a brand with a particular line of business. And 'signals' to the customers what to expect.
Exceptions do exist, and companies that insist on standing out can be successful. But it can be a bit rougher for them at the start since they don't benefit from the instant association that others in their business get.
Take the time to figure out the best colors for your brand.
The right approach for your logo design
When discussing branding and its importance, we also need to discuss logo design philosophy. Your logo is the foremost part of your brand. And the one aspect of your branding your customers or clients will associate with you the most. Think about Apple, Windows, MacDonalds, or other 'big' names in their industry. The very first image that pops into your head is their logo!
Similar to the previous point we covered, however, there are some trends that people in a particular industry follow for designing their logos. For example, people in the food industry often have a mascot as their logo. Meanwhile, when was the last time you saw a tech or software development company with a mascot for a logo? Instead, it's typically some unique symbol they opt to adopt as their logo. Again, this isn't a requirement but a good trend to follow.
Your logo is the most visible part of your branding
Setting the tone
However you decide to handle the color, font, and logo of your brand, note that they will help 'set the tone' of your business. They will dictate a ton of your design choices and philosophies in the future. For example, you will also need to follow the design philosophy of your logo during the creation and design of your site. If your brand is associated with a particular color palate, you can hardly go and do something else for your site! Similarly, the design for your employee's uniforms, if they require them, will be set as well. Even the way you design your landing pages and other unique pages on your site will be affected. So, be very careful when building your brand identity!
Branding plays a large part in website design
Stay original
The final point we'd like to make in our beginner's guide to branding and why it's important is this: find your own brand identity. Despite talking about some trends earlier, they still leave you with a ton of space to express yourself. You can find a perfect branding approach that fits you. Your logo should be unique and appealing in its own right. It might be easier to try and copy popular brands in your line of business, but this rarely ends well.
Aside from toeing a line that could potentially get you sued, you never want to become known as a copycat. Take, for example, Coca-Cola and Pepsi's situation. Even though the latter has existed as its brand for ages, the company is occasionally mocked and often seen as a lesser, cheaper copy. Don't put your business in this position willingly!
Final comment
With the help of a beginner's guide to branding and why it's important, you should not better understand what you need to do. Just remember that building up proper brand recognition and loyalty will take time, no matter how good your branding is.
