Most buying decisions stem from emotions, and it is the job of your branding efforts to capture these emotions. Your brand does most of the initial heavy lifting for the perceptions of your business, so careful consideration needs to be placed here to ensure the best reception your brand can get.
Analysis
Market research and the analysis of customers and competitors are imperative steps to targeting the correct audience and shaping perceptions. Knowing who you will be targeting, what they need, and what you can provide to them are important questions to shaping your projected image.
Definition
Having a concise focus on your brand can make it easier for target audiences to identify with. To help you, think about what makes your business valuable and can be easily recognized. Try to condense this image into four or five words that you can incorporate into the visual medium.
Branding Assets
These are the mediums that will be conveying your branding message. Mapping these assets out will give you a way to list out the specific visual elements that you will need for your brand to be able to adapt to. For an example, take a look at the custom candy packaging available on The Packaging Lab. Other branding asset ideas are things like social media, webpages, video assets, digital advertisements, apparel, business cards, email headers, print ads, and window decals, to name just a few.
Name
The name of your brand is what can carry the weight of your intentions through to your customers. You’ll want something that isn’t too mouthy and that will be memorable, but that also covers any future growth you may envision.
Visual Style
With your name in place, you now need to anchor this to the visuals for your brand. Colors, fonts, and styles need to convey and stir feelings in potential customers. Typography can be used as a way to communicate your brand message without spelling it out. You’ll want a few variations of fonts for different things like headings, headers, and body copy.
Slogan
Like your value proposition, your slogan needs to be brief and descriptive and give a clear sense of your message. If possible, try to word it as a mild call to attention for your customers. Your slogan can evolve as your brand and vision do, so this shouldn’t be something to get fixated on.
Brand Guidelines
Your last plan will be to establish some brand guidelines. The basics of your brand should be covered here, as well as how your brand should be handled across the different mediums that it will be appearing in. In the beginning, you might not have everything covered, but build and continue to refine this guide when new elements are added and it will give you a good reference point should anything new need to be created. If you can afford it, your best option would be to work with a design firm to help you set the necessary guidelines from the beginning.
The final step is for you to take your hard work out there and start building your brand. Keep these ideas in mind and you can lay the foundations your business needs to thrive.
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