The power of perception — branding essentials in 2020
Have you ever passed by a billboard with a large yellow ‘M’ on it and thought, “that must be a McDonald’s advert?” That’s branding.
If you’re unfamiliar with the term, branding is the marketing practice of creating a name, symbol or design that identifies and differentiates a product or company from others.
Brands, particularly in today’s hyper-connected world, have numerous touchpoints — websites, products, social media, business cards, corporate PowerPoints, company merchandise, etc. Even your employees become ‘brand bearers’.
As we’re rapidly scaling at Upgrade Pack, we’re focused on making sure that our brand stays consistent — and relevant across different markets. Making Upgrade Pack a recognised brand, we’re focused on a handful of basics:
Simplicity is key. In a noisy, digital world, consumers are time precious and attention poor. Less interested in long statements, complex iconography, and overdone imagery. They want short, sweet, and to-the-point. We’ve taken the KISS approach with short and pointed copy, a simple and elegant brand palette, and imagery that clearly sets out our stall. It’s about getting the essentials right and building from there.
Source: Medium
2. Be consistent
Every single thing that represents — and builds — your brand externally needs to be consistent. Colours, fonts, imagery, tone of voice. Every single thing that has your company’s name and / or logo attached to it (even if that’s the humble branded pen given away as conference ‘swag’) needs to reflect what your brand stands for. For us, it’s our now-legendary tote bags, which you can check out here.
3. Pick one and stick to it
Markets change. Your audience changes. Your business objectives change. It’s pretty easy to get caught in the feeling that your brand needs to change and evolve constantly too. But don’t give in. As your business grows, keeping your brand (and its) values consistent over time is as essential as ever. Did you know that consumers see 5,000+ adverts and messages every single day? This reminds us how important it is to have are cognisable brand that is something that doesn’t change every two months. Skyscanner is a great example of this. When it decided to change its logo last year, the team there made sure their timing was right, clearly communicated the reasons behind it to consumers, and ensured that their rebrand was an evolution rather than a complete transformation. And it worked. Brilliantly.
