Setting your brand in motion can be scary.
Of course, for many people, running a business itself is a scary concept. But knowing that your brand message and purpose is unified, there is no reason you should worry about how your brand is received by your customers.
Here are four areas to evaluate if your brand is unified:
Messaging
How your brand uses language to communicate your products, services, and advertising can impact how your brand stands with your customers. The words you use can work for you or against you. To figure out which side your messaging falls on; it is important to do the proper research. How do the words you choose to present your products and services help or hinder your brand?
The easiest way to figure this out is to look for your target audience and understand how they communicate. Is the audience using certain lingo that your brand doesn’t focus on? Trying too hard to market to this group can be easily detected. Unless you’re a company that started from within your target audience, the best way of understanding your audience is to do your research.
Ask yourself “is your message is being received as it is intended”? Even with the right lingo, you could be sending the wrong message about your company. Cultural differences and language barriers are other ways where your message could “get lost in translation”. So doing a review on what words your company is using can greatly improve the impact you have on your target audience.
Logo
A logo is the face of a brand. For many companies it’s the only thing separating their products and services from an overseas equivalent. It makes sense to invest in a logo that can carry a brand for decades to come. You’ll invest exactly how much you believe in your own products and services. An investment in a company’s logo could involve a five dollar logo service, a freelancer, an agency, or an old acquaintance from art school. Every level of service is different and serves your brand’s purpose in a different way.
Your logo serves the purpose of creating an easy-to-identify mark that uniquely represents your business. It’s important that the symbol you choose creates a good impression with your audience. A good designer researches the industry to make sure that the design will be current, timeless and aligned to the goals of your company. It is easy to try and shortcut this process; which can end up hurting your brand in the long run. A quick search on the internet for “logo mistakes" can represent why it’s important to invest in a great design process.
Branding
The logo you choose for your company is just a child of a bigger system. You see this when you think of larger companies. Industry giants know the importance of having their image unified under a specific brand. It goes much deeper than slapping your logo onto a cup. Your customer pays for the experience they get when choosing you over the competitor. They chose your coffee stand because of the logo you have. They chose your magazine because it’s the company that uses brash sarcasm in its marketing. A unique experience is the key to sending your brand to the top.
Design agencies specialize in creating this type of experience for your brand. A great brand guideline acts as a filter for new ideas and for your products. You can reach a high level of brand recognition with an investment in unifying your brand.
Content
The idea of reaching your audience through content marketing is not new. Creating consistent content is still a great way to help your customers more than your competition. The way you run your company should reflect a greater understanding of your products, services, and the audience you are trying to reach. Having a platform to share this knowledge is important for the way you drive interest to your company.
What is important to understand is that having content, for the sake of content, is just noise. If you are putting out content for the purpose of seeming knowledgeable; your audience will see right through it. A company that has deep history is better equipped to understand the needs of their audience. Having resources dedicated for customer support is helpful. Even having your company on social media and an e-mailing list equips your company with the resources to survey or respond to questions. The difficult part is answering them in a way that allows everyone to benefit from the answer. Fulfilling those needs with the medium you choose: a website, email, or social media, it should be put through your brand guidelines to unify your brand.
Each step involved is one that we’ve taken at KeySpark to improve our brand. We want to help other companies achieve their next level of brand awareness.
Please leave us a comment, or send us a message, on how you think we can help you and your brand succeed.
Darian Rosebrook is the Design Lead over at keyspark.io His creative eye is driving us forward as an ever-growing, ever-improving brand.
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