What Makes Your Brand Stand Out in 2016?

A brand is the direct reflection of your business, its purpose and its existence. Yes, definitely it’s existence.

Imagine an Adidas shoe, preferably a high-end one. Now picture it without the Adidas logo or the name. Are you going to be convinced by the built-quality, shape and fabric of the shoe and make a purchase with mere confidence? Most probably no, you won’t.

This means even though the shoe is exactly the same; instead of grabbing your interest, it is more likely to repel you away because without a name, without a shiny logo that reflects the company through and through, it rather looks like a homeless bum in the mighty world of the shoes. We are built to trust brand identities more than actual products and services. A brand is much like the character and outlook of a person. Like a person, a company has its own purpose, voice and identity; or at least, it should.

Branding is also the gateway to your consumer’s minds and hearts. Remember that a mere product with somber packaging and no identity is a dead product, because it is nothing but a piece of material. However, once the product goes through branding, it’s like being infused with a soul that is meant to speak to your audience. We all want our products, services and the business as a whole to be alive and interactive in the market among numerous other identities. To do that, excellence in authentic branding is not optional but imperative.

Think of branding as a stamp that is made for your audience. Now, the more you can stamp your consumer’s mind, the better they will remember you and generate potential sales.

Branding starts with imagery and best depiction of business identity is created through a company’s logo. A logo is the face of your business, the essence of your products or services and a template of the company’s core purpose. However, it is often a complex process, designing the right logo and promoting it the right way. For the very reason, this article is designed to guide your way towards fine branding and how a right logo can change your whole Brandscape.

First of all, let’s make a reality check. Remember that no matter how great the branding and logo comes out to be, without the right strategy and value offered, a logo will do as much as generating mass negativity associated with your company’s image, and we definitely don’t want that! Hence, after the business has to offer what it says it will offer, you can move on to crafting the best identity with the best logo for the best audience. Sounds good? Great! Let’s move on to a few aspects we need to cover while branding your business:

What does branding actually stand for? It stands for defining your business.

Company’s Mission

The company’s mission should be clearly conveyed through the company’s branding. There’s no room for hiding and seeking here. This means the logo has to clearly make your audience understand the company’s aim.

Core benefits and attributes offered

Say what you honestly have to offer; the core value of your business, the attributes and benefits of your products or services. If your logo can convey the true feeling of being associated with your company, then we have a win-win!

Consumer’s Perception

This is extremely crucial. Any and every business needs to have a good idea of how their business is perceived by their consumers. After analysis, if the perception is what’s expected then constant re-definition is required to uphold the image of the brand and retain consumers. On the other hand, if the consumer’s perception is otherwise, an immediate change of the brand is of uttermost urgency.

Do we understand the tricks of the branding trade? Good? Let us move into the application of it all in designing your perfect logo.

Logo-ism

Once you have got your idea clear on what your company is and what it can offer, you can move on to designing a logo that translates all of it. Remember that compromising on quality will lead you nowhere, even with a fabulous logo. Anyway, to answer the question: “Why does logo matter?” we have to comprehend that a logo is a symbol, an icon, a sign, a deliberately made imagery to represent a company. A logo is nothing different from the signs below:

The signs (Left: Wi-Fi icon, Middle: Zebra Crossing, Right: Coffee) shown above are universally understood imageries; these examples are so common that anyone and everyone can grasp the message just by a single glance. This is because each of the icons or signs above has a distinct meaning and that one meaning only, through which these have taken a deep position in our minds and have made it hard to forget.

This is exactly how you want your company’s logo to position on the mind of your consumers so that whenever and wherever a consumer sees your logo, they will immediately recall your brand. With a consistent design through all mediums and one unified logo, a company can take a permanent place in the mind of a consumer. Can you see why this is important for your brand? It’s because a logo is a tapping point that hits your consumer every time he or she catches a sight. Sometimes, it’s more than an icon or sign, sometimes it works as an emblem of the brand; as strong as an emblem of a nation. However, a strong logo comes with time. This means that no logo comes with built-in power to confine the better interests of your consumers. A logo develops with time, hard work and consistent promotion. You can either work with a professional logo designer or buy a readymade logo from specialized stores such as Logo Arena. Moreover, experts say that most successful logos today were quite weak at the beginning. All in all, it’s a continuous process.

Designing a logo

Whilst designing a fine logo, it’s is a necessity to keep in mind the following:

It’s Originally Created

An original logo has better chances of staying in your consumer’s minds than a copied one (no matter how much) because it is unique and, unlike the commons. Like the McDonald’s logo, an original “m” from ‘Mc’ with golden arches that has created a massive identity all around the world, permanently.

It depicts your offering

The logo should reflect the whole business in a unified imagery; if the logo represents only a part of your business, then it’s a bad logo. It has to be the face of everything the business offers to the consumers.

It is at your target market’s level

If your designed logo fails to convey meaning to your target audience, the logo is not coherent with your business. Remember, not all segments of a market respond the same way. This means that the logo has to be readily comprehensible to your target audience.

The logo is adaptable to all Medias

In the year of 2016, we are exposed to advertisements on several platforms. We use desktops, laptops, tabs, mobiles, smart watches and all that spaghetti and jazz. These are additions to traditional Medias. However, making your logo compatible with all sorts of Medias is of immense importance.

It has a describable meaning

Your logo needs to have a clear, distinct and simple meaning which describes your business. Although, it doesn’t necessarily have to be of exact relevance (like the Starbucks logo, which has nothing to do with coffee), but of a simple illustration that is catchy for the consumer’s eyes.

With the key points above, you should have an idea of how to bring your branding and logo into one symphony, playing towards successful identity creation. Hence, branding clearly starts with the right set of ideas expressed in a correct manner to the correct group of people; where the logo is a consistent stamp of identity that creates a business culture. Always remember, your business begins when your logo ends!