Branding
Branding is more than your logo, or the colours and fonts on your website or packaging. It’s about your reputation — how consumers perceive you. Brands largely control this perception through their products, associations, messaging, advertising, social platforms, and of course through their logo, colours, fonts, website, etc.
Every aspect of your brand needs to be carefully thought out and adhered to so that it’s consistent and conveys the message you want associated with your company.
When auditing an existing brand, or designing a brand from scratch, there are some important steps to consider, such as:
- Look at brands in your category, and outside of your category, to determine what you like about them, and why you like them.
- Determine what you want your brand to stand for. Simon Sinek calls this your “why” – why does your exist? What is your mission?
- What is your personality or voice – how do you want your brand to be conveyed?
- Start to pull together inspiration on a mood board and start to make decisions about colours, logo style, tone, fonts, imagery, messaging, etc.
- If you have existing customers, ask them why they choose to go with you. Customer insights can be incredibly enlightening, often revealing things about your brand you may not have been aware of.
Branding is A Lot Like Trying on a Pair of Pants
Branding is a lot like trying on a pair of pants. Sometimes you need to try them on to know if they fit.
Similar to branding, you won’t always have a fully fleshed out idea of what your brand is. Ideas rarely come fully fleshed out. Branding, much like ideas, evolve over time. What you thought your brand was can actually be something that you no longer align with. Only when you see it in action, or try it on, can you recognize what it should be.
You gain clarity, and a livelier perception of the truth, as it collides with error. Sometimes knowing what your brand isn’t can help steer you more toward what it is.
Continue Reading: Branding is A Lot Like Trying on a Pair of Pants
Building a Brand Series
In this series, we take a brand from conception to completion, doing everything from brand strategy, social strategy, consumer path to purchase mapping, logo and package design, brand guidelines, website design and builds… This series allows you to peak behind the curtain to see how we think about brand building so you can apply these frameworks to your brand. Where applicable, we look to disrupt traditionally ‘boring’ categories through creativity, strategy, and execution. If you’re not disrupting, then you’re being left behind.
What is your Brand's Essence?
Brand essence is the core of a brand’s identity and encapsulates its fundamental qualities, values, and personality traits. It’s the intangible attribute that differentiates a brand from its competitors and creates an emotional connection with its audience. When thinking about brand essence, it’s helpful to imagine it as the soul of your brand, guiding all its expressions, from visual identity and messaging to customer interactions and experiences.
One engaging way to conceptualize brand essence is to ask, “If your brand was a car, what kind of car would it be?”
Continue Reading:
What is a Brand Wheel and How is it Used?
Circle K Brand Refresh
While visiting Taiwan, where convenience stores are on another level, I wanted to try my hand at doing a complete rebrand of a North American convenience store – I chose Circle K. Here are some concepts I came up with. You can read the full blog for more details on what I would do to transform this company, not just the colour and logos, but the entire ethos of the brand.
Read the Blog: Circle K: A Mock Rebrand Concept
I say all the time, don’t sell the taste, sell the experience.
It appears 1800 Tequila didn’t get the memo.
Taste is subjective and while it’s a factor in a consumer’s purchase decision, it’s not the most important. The experience is a much more powerful motivator.
Why?
Because people first buy with emotion, and justify second.
Case in point, Red Bull doesn’t taste particularly good for many people I’ve spoken with. Liquid Death is just water and I suppose is the absence of taste.
Yet, both of these companies are well known for creating distinct and strong brands.
In the case of 1800, I would argue that people tolerate the taste of tequila, most are not thinking about the taste. Instead, they’re drinking on vacation, while celebrating with friends, a solitude ritual… sell them that.
Craft a story about how your tequila is represents these moments, build that association over and over through social media, advertising, sponsorships, etc.
I wouldn’t even mention taste.
If I can pick on 1800 one more time, if you go to their Instagram account, nearly every post is just showing their bottle. 👎 👎
Nobody cares about your bottle.
While I also show a bottle in my ad, I did this only to create as close to an apples-to-apples comparison. I put my bottle on a beach at sunset with a tagline that pulls people into a moment that they can relate to.
Continue Reading: Building a Brand: Ever Beverage Co.
Continue Reading: Building a Brand: Skybar
Logo designs
When it comes to logo design, the real talent is in coming up with simple, yet memorable designs. Think of logos from Nike, Apple, Amazon, Target, Twitter, Adidas… none of these complex or difficult from a design perspective, but they work.
So when designing logos for brands, we think very deeply about trying to come up with the next iconic logo that people remember and reference for the next 100 years. No easy task, but we’re up for the challenge!
Original
My Revision
Infostrux Solutions: A Case Study
Existing brand
Infostrux’s branding used simple cartoon characters, lots of purple, bold typeface, and didn’t showcase their people and expertise.
As a new company, they were looking to convey more maturity and market-leadership when compared to other brands.
Brand refresh
Taking inspiration from high-end luxury brands, we brought in darker tones, replaced the cartoons with actual images, and used a sleeker and more modern font.
For the logo, we adhered to their existing mark, but updated it to match the rest of the modern and sleek typeface found on the site. By capitalizing the word mark, our aim was to convey more maturity and authority.
Comparing the old with the new
From the Blog
Whether you need a site refresh, a logo redesign, some brand consistency, brand strategy, product packaging… we can help.
