By Faith on 7 Aug in Brand Branding … the world’s most famous brands are instantly recognisable and haven’t changed their branding probably since inception … Coca Cola, McDonald’s, Guinness, Nike to name a few. Branding is one of the most important and defining ways to identify your business. Potential customers will understand what they can expect from you, your products and services once you’re branding is ‘on point’. In short, a great brand give your business an identity, allowing customers to recognise your company and relate or connect to it. Good branding is also unique, memorable and sets you apart from your competitors. A good brand also means you understand that you can’t be all things to all people … some folks will prefer Pepsi, others Burger King and yet more will prefer Budweiser. Therefore, the first stage of your branding is to consider the audience you are targeting. Your potential audience will help you define your brand, yet a great brand will not narrow down the opportunities of additional audience opportunities. Your brand takes into consideration who you are, who you want to be and how people perceive you to be. It can take time and effort to ‘get it right’. Brand name This could already be sorted out or you could be at the start of your exciting branding journey. If you haven’t quite got your branding in the bag, the first thing to consider is your brand name which should represent the true spirit of your business. The fun part is the design process, the graphics, colours and appearance. Where your brand is used In the case of the brands above, let’s use Coca Cola as the example, the logo is used globally. Now of course if you are a more modest concern, this will not necessarily be the case for your branding. However, there’s nothing wrong with thinking big! One of the key aspects of branding is to remember it will be used on all your products: clothing, stickers, leaflets, merchandise, business cards, website, social media platforms and media advertising. Therefore, the message has to be ‘on brand’, inherently and cohesively relaying your business ethos and values. There is one brand logo that sticks out that we’ve not mentioned thus far. British company Boots has an instantly recognisable brand and one that’s been used since the beginning. Where Boot excels with its branding is its branding guidelines. An experience branding developer would develop a brand code: the colours, the fonts, the size, shape etc. Boots is well known for being super-strict about this and as a result, have you ever seen a Boots logo that has looked wonky, blurred or pale? Probably not. All the above help create awareness of your brand. How a great brand works A great brand will communicate implicitly your products, services, positioning, acuman and culture. Great branding can eventually increase sales as it becomes synonymous with your company as a symbol of great service or products; this in turn creates trust, loyalty and inspires recommendations; it triggers confidence and also will inspire interest. So, if someone spots your branding on an email or emblazoned on a quotation, then more than likely it will inspire someone to read that email or accept that quote. Your customers also help consolidate and build your brand by word-of-mouth recommendations, reviews … you could ask your existing customers what they liked about your business. This will help highlight your key strengths and by default may outline areas that perhaps need a bit of development or improvement. If you have employees, you can share the good news and develop other areas to your advantage. Yet some great brands change over time … why is that? While the above-mentioned brands have altered little if at all since the beginning, there are some well-known brands that have reinvented their branding, including their logo, over the years. This include the clothing and interior retailer Next. This is quite acceptable as this type of business would need to ‘move with the times’ and alter their branding alongside certain key trends in their industry. The new branding helps the business stay fresh and powerful. However, the key fact remains intact that the brand is still recognisable, as it their reputation for quality products. Can I develop other brand messages? Your brand is, in a sense, the result of lots of hard work that’s gone on ‘behind the scenes’. There are certain elements that can help strengthen your brand. Do you have a mission statement? A company vision or values? What about a tagline? Also, an area that is important for your brand is your brand voice. Can you imagine what your brand would sound like? Would it be relaxed, friendly, formal? What language would this voice use? This aspect of your branding is quite tricky to define yet identifying your voice will help you define your audience. A good example to use is the brand voices of Guinness and Budweiser are totally different and appeal to different audiences. The words Guinness uses a rich poetic one; Budweiser has a ‘no fuss’ approach, often verging on the tough American landscape to promote its brand. Branding … easy, right? Getting your branding ‘bang on’ isn’t easy. However, you will know in your gut when it’s right. Our branding experts can help you ‘get it right’. And while you might not be on the scale of Nike or McDonald’s, at least not yet, they too will have gone through some branding decisions and ended up with ‘the right one’.