There is something that every successful company has, but it’s an intangible asset that combines several factors into one. This untouchable factor can make or break a company’s growth, revenue, loyal customer base and profits. It’s called a company brand. Branding comes from years of dedicated, hard work on the part of everyone at the company. It usually starts from the heads of the company and filters downward towards everyone who works there. If you struggle to find your company’s brand, or you’re just starting out owning your own business, this is your guide to visual branding.
Branding is how everyone perceives your business. When customers see your company name or view your brand’s logo, they know what to expect from your business. Customers know what products or services you sell and how they get those products or services. Consider the original use of the word brand. Branding means to leave a permanent mark on something with a branding iron. Cattle ranchers used this technique to differentiate their herd from someone else’s herd. If the herds mingled or if someone stole cattle, ranchers would prove which animals belong to them by looking at the brand. In essence, a brand marks your company permanently. It helps you stand out from the crowd. A quick glance makes you are instantly recognizable.
Brand Strategy
An overall brand strategy takes a lot of effort on your part. Before your customers can recognize your brand, you have to define your brand. As you start your journey into entrepreneurship, ask yourself a few questions to answer what your company’s brand is all about.
Once you answer these questions, do your research. Find your target audience, determine the demographics of your prospective customers and then start designing some of the physical aspects of your brand. Your goal is to make your brand appealing to your target audience. This encourages them to take action when they see your brand.
You’ve got your brand identity in hand, now it’s time to convey your brand to your potential customers. Put some ideas together and view them objectively to find the one that fits best. There are several ways to show your customers your brand.
Mission Statement
Start with a mission statement. Every company needs a mission before setting out to meet its goals. Write down your mission statement and publish it to your company website. A mission statement can be a few sentences or several paragraphs long. It serves as a written manifesto for your company, employees, and customers.
Tagline
A tagline summarizes your mission statement and attitudes of everyone who works at your company. For example, if you own a pizza parlor that strives for fast service, a tagline could be “30 minutes or less!” Put the tagline on every page of your WordPress website. Have employees answer the phone with the tagline. It becomes an integral part of what your business represents and offers.
A Distinctive Voice
Your overall brand voice includes the kind of communication you use with customers. Is your brand voice formal, casual, friendly or upscale? How you communicate can be a huge part of your brand. Make sure your voice resonates with and relates to your target audience’s needs. This helps to transform website visitors into customers.
Simple and Compelling Graphic
A simple graphic that summarizes your brand includes a company logo. Think about every famous brand you know. Just about every single one has a distinctive logo.
A distinctive logo leads to instant brand recognition without words. It conveys a lot of thoughts, feelings, and perceptions in just one simple graphic.
Famous Logos
Consider several companies that have a famous logo. Coca-Cola has a red circle with the two words in it. AT&T has its stylized blue globe. Michelin uses its rubber-like, cartoonish guy who is made of tires. Culligan’s distinctive logo is a drop of water.
Make a Memorable Statement
All of these logos do a few things. In some respects, they show what the company does. AT&T’s globe connotes how the brand’s mission is to bring people all over the world closer together thanks to mass communication. Michelin tries to humanize its tires by showing a guy made of its product. A simple blue drop of water shows that Culligan is a water company that provides an alternative to tap water.
Your logo can be a stylized concept of what your business does. For instance, going back to the pizza parlor idea, your “30 minutes or less” for pizza logo could show a guy in a chef’s hat carrying a pizza in one hand while running to deliver a pizza. That visage seems to convey fast pizza. You might also have a pizza with swishing lines to the left of it to connote the pizza is in motion. Consider pizza with wings or wheels as a transportation-based theme. All of these logo ideas convey fast pizza.
Add Color
Your logo should have distinctive color patterns that people can recognize outside of your logo. If your pizza chef delivers fast pizza, he can wear a yellow scarf flowing in the breeze behind him. This yellow scarf can serve as a base for other visual elements of your company. These logos lead to other distinctive visuals of your brand, which is why choosing the right logo is so important.
Matching Colors
Coca-Cola’s website features bright red colors on each of its pages. The logo is a bright red circle, so the company incorporates this color everywhere. Its bottles and cans of soda also have red coloring that match the logo. Eventually, customers associate that particular color of red with Coca-Cola. The same thing happens with Michelin’s blue and white Michelin man. The company website uses a blue and white color scheme. Michelin takes its logo one step further. MichelinMan.com is a website that shows people information about its tires. Your company logo can match other aspects of your business. The pizza chef with a yellow scarf can translate into yellow colors on your website, yellow-colored pizza delivery boxes, yellow on your storefront and even yellow on employee uniforms. Your company logo, colors, and mottos all combine to brand your business with your customers.
Your company’s visuals and phrases help your customers identify your business in several ways and make it stand out in a unique way.
New Business
Once your initial customers know your logo and motto, your brand can help bring in new business. Customers and clients like well-defined and well-established companies. An official logo and motto lend credibility to your business. And that makes people feel as if you’re a professional company with a lot of experience behind it.
First Impressions
Visual branding creates a first impression. The logo conveys this impression without words, and people come to associate your logo with a psychological feeling about your company. Back to the pizza example, your running chef can convey feelings of hot, fresh pizza delivered to your table fast when you’re on a lunch break from work.
Feelings
A visual brand makes people feel good about your company. When someone sees the running pizza chef, a customer might think about the time he ordered a delicious pizza with great toppings and delicious sauce. It might also conjure pleasant memories of a pizza party where the pizzas were delivered very quickly. These good feelings of nostalgia eventually make customers return to your business or recommend your business to others, and a strong visual brand summarizes feelings in a concrete way. Without good feelings, customers have no reason to return to your business.
Trust
Perhaps the most important aspect of visual branding with regards to a logo is trust. When customers trust your brand, they come back to your business over and over again. It may take some time for a solid customer base to build trust in your brand, but your logo is a visual manifestation of that trust.
Remind Them of What You Offer
Your fast-moving pizza guy builds trust that people get high-quality pizza, delivered quickly and with great-tasting ingredients. Eventually, people come to trust your business’s consistency when you deliver great products quickly. The logo connotes a fantastic product (pizza) and service (fast delivery).
Pressed Solutions can help you optimize your WordPress website by creating a logo design that conveys your company’s power and presence. Pressed Solutions can work with you to make a logo that gives your company instant physical and emotional recognition. Your visual logo goes everywhere as you build your company’s brand. We take your ideas and make them a reality with comprehensive services for your WordPress website that help you get noticed.
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