What Makes a Brand Successful?
How not to ruin your brand with design and ensure its market success?
Outcrowd addresses this article not only to designers, who view this as a professional endeavor but also to their customers, who are often at a loss as to what info that they need to provide designers with to help them make their brand popular and successful.
A brand is like a living being. It is born, it lives, it develops, it transforms. It can be felt and touched, desired, and loved. A brand may wither and die, like a flower that doesn’t get enough water.
Many users think a brand is an image, with some even confusing a brand with its logo. That’s the same as saying architecture is a house. But what is forgivable for customers is unacceptable for designers.
A system within a system
If you ask an average designer how he or she understands the concept of the brand, they will rattle off the usual items: the name, the logo, the mascot, the couple of house colors, the graphic style, the trademark. Well, they have just told you that architecture is a house, a garage, and a toolshed!
The brand as a whole means much more than just visual identity. It is the physical, mental, and emotional core of the company, a set of objectives and visions that establish its reputation in the marketplace. To get a better idea, imagine the company as a person; the brand design is the clothes that make him or her noticed and recognized from afar.
Branding is a system of interactions and strategies. It aims to create a unique image and foster a specific attitude among the target audience. Professional brand designers understand that they only represent a subsystem, a part of the larger machine. Their creativity must fit into the system and support it. Without a clear understanding of the essence of branding, a designer risks creating a product that does not work to strengthen the image — not only unhelpful but outright harmful. As strange as it may sound, simply designing a nice-looking logo, picking some fonts and a color palette will result in losses for the company. Divorced from reality, a design can ruin the brand’s consistency and ultimately damage its image. Does any want to be responsible for damages? Obviously not. But a misunderstanding of the concept of branding is a curse that haunts the designer community.
The information basis
Brand design is first and foremost a comprehensive mindset focused on problem-solving and helping companies in their marketing. This is the only approach that can create a design system scalable for all devices, products, and platforms and capable of supporting the overall consistency of the brand image. Behind every successful product you will find strong and consistent branding. And its visual element is just a small cog in the Big Ben.
So what determines the success of brand design?
The answer is working in tandem. The designer needs to have information. A good tailor will always take your measurements, ask what kind of suit you are envisioning, what event you are attending, and what kind of impression you want to make. The customer should share their vision of the branding strategy, the details of their business objectives, and the market research findings with the designer — at least as much as they can. The designer should ask for this information if it’s not shared at the outset since customers often don’t realize how important it is. At the very least, the designer should ask the customer for a list of four to five keywords describing their business and objectives as they envision them at the current stage.
Absent an in-house marketing team, the designer should do their own market and target audience research. Sadly, sometimes neither party is willing to do this, especially when it comes to small companies that forego in-depth analytics. This doesn’t end well: small companies either remain small or vanish from the market. And that’s not something we want to happen. So what is the proper way to go and where do we start?
The main stages of brand design
Designing a brand is an investment, a decision based on understanding the current and projected market situation, an analysis of market capacity, and the product’s potential.
Stage 1. Taking measurements. Establishing goals and priorities
The first stage in creating a product brand is always comprehensive market research. This is the stage where the company should establish its priorities and values so that the branding team can see the direction where they are headed. The brand has to be in sync with the company’s ideas. To create a strong brand, you need a strategy: a consistent view of its further progress. Goals may change along the way, but it’s essential to have some initial guidance. The designer should know how to ask the right questions to scope out the nature and goals of both the company and the product on offer. This will enable him or her to lay out the full terms of reference in accordance with the customer’s wishes.
Stage 2. Researching the market, competition, and users
The second stage of branding is forming a hypothesis and drawing up a concept for positioning the future brand. It’s essential to understand what kind of product you’re offering, its values, and the target audience. In designing a brand, answering these questions helps you to better understand the brand itself, its essence, mission, vision, values, and prospects.
The designer should immerse themselves in the future brand’s environment, identifying the features that will affect its success. This is necessary for any type of design, whether it is a simple logo or a mobile app. The designer collects data about the market, the target audience, and the competition, seeking out the information that will help make an impression on the consumers and win their trust.
Do not regret the time and effort spent on this type of research. It is the cornerstone of success — not only for the company but for the whole designing process.
Stage 3. Visual identity
The third stage of brand design is designer branding itself: creating the trademark, the brand name, and a system of visual communications. The comprehensive brand design may include not only the logo, but also marketing materials, website, menu, uniform, and physical space.
Visual elements of the brand:
- logo
This is the main symbol of a company’s style, the most prominent representation of the brand’s image, and the foundation of an efficient marketing strategy that helps it build a relationship with the target audience.
- mascot
Mascots are symbols of user design created as symbolic representations of the brand. They can be integrated into the logo or serve as a separate brand element. More than anything, the mascot creates a psychological bond with the users. It serves as a tool of communication and interaction, sending a message in an unconventional way. People begin to see the mascot as a company representative who is offering them a product or service. An efficient mascot guarantees brand recognition and memorability, effortlessly capturing the user’s attention.
- typography
Many logos are created using typography or contain fonts, but typography doesn’t end there. The banners, business cards, and correspondence used by the company must also include elements of corporate style. Designers often create exclusive fonts for companies to make sure they are unique even in the smallest details. Experts can also help select a combination of common fonts best suited to a particular brand. Users will have no trouble remembering a brand that is consistent in every little detail.
- color palette
A set of corporate colors is one of the constants of the company style that will be associated with the brand for years to come. The color palette will guarantee a unified stylistic impression across advertising, informational, and other platforms, enhancing brand recognition. Surveys show that color makes a brand 80% more recognizable.
- online presence and adaptiveness
Website branding is a must for any company seeking to establish itself in the marketplace. The website is where people first encounter brand face-to-face. Website branding can be commissioned at the initial stage (simultaneous with launching the site) or for a preexisting website that needs an upgrade.
A Google study found that 42% of online shoppers base their impression of a company solely on its design. 67% said they would be more likely to make a purchase on a website that is mobile-friendly. 52% said that a bad mobile experience made them less likely to engage with a company.
- Corporate style
Once the logo is done, the color palette was chosen and all the visual elements prepared, they are combined into a unified corporate style. Various features of the business may become a corporate element depending on the type of company. Here are some common brand details used by different companies:
Business card. Today it is a must-have element of business communication, so it’s essential that the card properly represents the brand.
Correspondence. Business communication is always formalized. To present the brand as a reliable partner and service provider, designers must work on its presentation. Letterheads and envelopes should bear elements of the corporate style attesting to a high degree of professionalism.
Billboards and banners. These are part of branding and marketing, so customers often ask designers to come up with creative ideas for outdoor advertising and web banners.
Vehicle branding. Companies that offer delivery of products or services need efficient vehicle design. Elements of the corporate style on the company’s cars and trucks are a great way of outdoor promotion.
- Attire
Clothes branded with corporate symbols facilitate the company’s team spirit, which is why employers normally care about these things. Corporate tee-shirts and headwear can be a great alternative to uniforms and may also be used as giveaways.
- Style guide
That’s it for the visual stage. The designer’s last remaining task is to make sure the customers make proper use of all the resources. A style guide is a manual containing guidelines on the correct and incorrect ways of using the graphics created for the brand. Traditionally, the style guide includes an explanation of the ideas behind the logo and a presentation of the corporate color palette that can be used for multiple purposes.
Stage 4. Promoting the brand
Now that you have a ready-to-use trademark, it’s time to move on to the fourth stage of branding: building a system of marketing communications and brand promotion, advertising, and image management.
Stage 5. Performance management
The fifth and most important stage in designing a brand is brand management: managing and assessing the performance of all marketing activities, finding ways of improving and developing the brand. This stage demonstrates that branding is a continuing process rather than a one-off job or short-term project.
Conclusion
A successful brand is the result of cooperation between a company looking to advance on the market and a team of brand designers. It is always a work in tandem. The foundation of branding is a market research and brand strategy. This is the groundwork for building a relationship between the business and its users, raising the audience’s loyalty and awareness of the product. Brand design helps accomplish these things and make the product popular and recognizable.
