Table of Contents
What is branding and why is it needed
Branding, in the understanding of a simple layman, is either something ephemeral or the visual image that represents a product or company. Branding is the combined perception in a consumers mind of the reputation of a brand, which is why branding is also an indicator of consumer loyalty to the brand, sharing the values and culture of the brand, and much more.
The key to understand: a brand is not in a logo or a brand book, a brand is not on paper or on the Internet. A brand is in the customer’s head. This is why many corporations spend big to get their branding right and why working with a top branding agency such as Percept is a great investment.
How effective branding is, can be measured by the words a person would use to describe your product or service if asked about it. In general, a brand is nothing more than a set of ideas about a company or product.
Branding can apply to anything and everything; business, city, person, product or service. If people know about something, they think something about it. People rate everything with their own opinions because it’s easier to segment information into likes and dislikes, positives and negatives etc and the distillation of this is a brand’s reputation. This is branding and it is far more than just a visual identity.
Even if you think that your particular local auto repair shop does not have a brand because there’s no visual signage, it does. Brands are formed in terms of perception and that includes things like customer experience, quality of work and presumptions made from personal viewpoints. Even if you don’t know a company’s name, it can still have a brand that’s know to its audience, such “that brick service behind the bus station”.
Why is branding important?
Often, we without realizing it, our preferences a slanted towards unconscious biases in everyday matters. People have less and less time and energy to make real choices. Therefore, well-known brands are our reference points in a growing number of products and services and an endless stream of advertising. It is easy to decide to go with a brand you are familiar with. It feels comfortable and it’s safe.This is why building a reputation through product branding is so important.
This means that by correctly identifying its potential target audience, evaluating its preferences, and coming up with a simple but personalized, accessible offer, a company can receive at least 80% conversion rate, just for being a known brand. Good branding equals a good profit.
In addition, the company, at the expense of the brand, will, if not forever, then for a long time “bind” consumers to itself, and it will not have to spend huge amounts of money on aggressive customer search and outreach advertising because people become loyal to brands and this return custom is invaluable.
What makes good branding?
The essence of branding is to sell the right image of the product. The task of the brand is to create strong associations for users. As a result, the brand is focused, charismatic and authentic to the organization or product. This is the idea around which the entire branding is built, which is the platform for the brand identity and all expected brand communications in all marketing communication channels.
That is why the branding must have a substantial essence, an unshakable core, without which communication with the consumer simply will not connect effectively.
It is very similar to the traits of someone’s personality. It should be positive, endearing, aligned to the audience and consistent. This builds a reputable personality and it could be said that branding is the personality of a product or company.
What are the Examples of good branding design?
There is a common approach to branding design – the use of the characteristic forms of the visual brand identity, comprising of a logo as a motif and this is accompanied by all types of other components that when combined, make up the brand identity such as colour palette tone of voice, slogans, visual style, photography treatment etc.
For example, a particular company’s branding design can consist of a logo and it can use elements of this to make custom shapes to be used in the design of their corporate stationery, posters, social media profiles, printed marketing communications, website design building signage and product packaging design. This repetition of forms strengthens awareness of the brand identity and makes it bespoke and unique. The shapes used can be simple or complex, but they form a brand identity system that is ownable.
How to design branding that works?
Strategic branding helps to control the development of a business, by better understanding its consumers and taking informed steps to simply earn more. In this article, we will tell you what is needed to create branding that works, how to develop effective branding, make it strong and recognizable. And also – we will analyze the common mistakes that some companies make when they design branding.
The aim is to design branding that helps businesses stand out from the competition for the right reasons and earn more because they actually make a meaningful connection with their true target market. This is how strong, professional branding helps a business grow and thrive. For example, the retail price for a brand of cheese consists of the cost of labor, raw materials, packaging, delivery to the store. And the retail price of the second brand also includes those same elements, plus the cost of good branding design. Let’s say the professional branding increased the cost by 10%, but the product sells for 160% of the plain brand, the return on investment can be amazing. That is, a consumer buys not just a pack cheese, but a brand story. They are buying the feeling that they lead a more healthy lifestyle, eats right, lives with wellbeing. They believe the product is of higher quality, they feel a connection to it, it aligns to their values and ultimately pays more for it.
Why work with professional brand designers?
- The work of brand designers is very niche and requires experience and expertise. Engaging specialist brand designers will offer a good return on your investment.
- The profession of brand designers is creative, as well as strategic.
- There is high demand for professional brand designers, especially those with a strong track record. This is because their work is associated with an increase in the volume of sales for small, medium and large businesses.
- Because brand designers are outsiders with a fresh approach to your market, they do not conform or force a strict framework, so there is room for creativity, objectivity and even learning from the client side in order to disrupt and dominate a market sector when working with brave brand designers.
- Brand designers can work with companies from anywhere in the world. They can apply market research from their desktop and create effective branding design that can transform the successes of product sales regardless of their location.
What to expect from your branding agency?
Selecting the best branding agency for your needs is an important choice. As we said before, your branding includes everything from your company’s brand identity in terms of visual elements – logos, color schemes, etc. – as well as your brand positioning, personality, tone of voice, marketing message, and how you deliver that messaging in your brand communications.
Branding agencies will take all of these separate elements and combine them into a single branding design that both you and your target audience will love. Not because it looks good, but because its come from a foundation of a solid brand strategy. That’s the main difference in working with a leading branding agency such as Percept, because the branding design is far more effective when it is in the market because it has been well thought through.
Branding agencies have at their disposal a group of skilled and talented creatives, including copywriters, designers, strategists, developers and others to build robust and exciting branding solutions.
Some branding agencies even have specialists who work specifically in certain areas like advertising, social media, corporate design, or packaging design. This gives them great opportunities to build your company’s brand for a lot less money than hiring in-house branding staff that don’t have expert skills in the required areas.
How to choose the right branding agency?
Finding a branding agency like Percept that offers the full suite of services needed to make a successful brand is rare. You’ll need to look for a branding agency that has a proven history of dynamically developing companies using their vast experience, in branding that is focused on results. The best way to assess this is by the case studies provided on the branding agencies website.
Many clients only engage branding agencies with extensive expertise in their specific industry. This can make sense. For example, a lot of case studies showing projects in the packaging design industry means that the branding agency already has an established knowledge base strong in packaging design. Surely this indicates that their team is already well versed in the packaging design market, knows consumer behavior and target audience segments and can create effective branding to suit.
That being said, the absence of projects in a certain narrow specialization does not mean that a branding agency will not be able to develop quality branding design in it in a way that will help a company to thrive. Although, if they do, this absolutely can be an advantage.
