Branding tips might seem like a dime a dozen. After all, you probably already know that you need to create your logo, use it far and wide, and spend the majority of your advertising dollars targeting a specific audience. Is this enough to really help you build a well-known, trusted, and respected brand? At the very least, it’s a good start. Here are some solid branding tips that you can use to bring more awareness to your company.
Your Brand Defines Your Business
Of all the branding tips you’ll find online and in books, this one is likely the most important. Your brand is more than just your logo. It’s not your company name, and it’s not your slogan. It’s a platform that gives you a competitive edge through emotion and rationality. Success in brand building comes when people can look at your logo, hear your tagline, or hear the name of your company and immediately put three of together. Your goal, then, is to define your business carefully through graphics, text, business models, and a good reputation.
Think of Your Brand as a Foundation
Your brand is the very foundation upon which you will build every single aspect of your business. It’s not just one ingredient that provides the perfect base – it’s several things all wrapped up into one. Here are some branding tips that you should consider when building the foundation of your business:
A Vision Statement – A vision or mission statement gives the general public your ultimate goal and what you hope to achieve with your business. First, state your purpose; then, explain how you plan to deliver your solution.
Operating Principles & Mission Statements – Separate from a vision statement, these guidelines ultimately dictate how you will run your business whether you have one or one million employees.
Personality Traits – What kind of emotion or sensation do you want your brand to stir in your audience? Trust? Love? Hunger? Happiness? With your vision statement and operating principles in place, you can start building your brand’s identity based on its personality.
The Facets of a Brand Identity
When it comes to various lists of branding tips, logos are often the main focus. Though they aren’t everything, they are certainly important. Think of your logo like the face of your company. Like a human face, it does not represent the entire body, but based on its expression, it can encompass it and portray any emotion you choose. It is up to you to smile and draw people in. Building a logo might seem simple, but there are many things to consider.
What color represents the emotion you want to elicit? Different colors are known to spark different responses in people. For example, brown – the color chosen by UPS, a major parcel carrier in the US – represents trust. Purple, on the other hand, which is the color chosen by UPS’s biggest rival, FedEx, often signifies royalty and dignity. You can use this same color psychology to your advantage but be sure you pay close attention to your competitors and choose an emotional response that is all your own.
Should your logo be images, text, or both? Some businesses choose to leave their company names out of their logos and instead provide a recognizable symbol. Starbucks and McDonalds are perfect examples; their modern logos do not even include the name of the company. Other companies, such as Hershey’s and Time Magazine, opt to use no images in their logos. For the most part, if your company is brand-new, it’s a good idea to include your company name in your logo. You can alter letters to make it unique or create your own font to represent your identity.
Getting Your Brand Out There
Figuring out what a brand represents and the different things that go into making it unique is an important first step. Unfortunately, this is where many company owners stop putting in effort. As a result, their amazing brands go unnoticed and unrecognized. It’s vitally important that you get your new brand out into the crowd and generate a positive buzz around your company. Here are some branding tips that will help you spread your new identity far and wide:
Use your Logo on Everything – Use your logo anywhere you have an opportunity to do so. Put it on your business cards, business checks, business debit card, car, packing materials, flyers, emails, t-shirts, pens, pencils – anything you can think of that people may see or use. The more people see your brand, the more memorable it becomes.
Utilize Social Media – Social media outlets like Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, and Twitter can help you spread the word, too. Try to reward people for sharing, reposting, and retweeting to push awareness even further.
Building a brand for your online shop might seem like a challenge, and to some extent, it is. Once you have made your vision and your mission clear, and once you have defined your brand’s personality, it becomes easier to design a memorable brand that people will trust and respect. Just follow these branding tips, and you will soon be enjoying a new level of success.
