“Can you help design my brand?” or “I’m starting a business and need branding!” are some of the most common questions or initial enquiries we receive in the studio.
In the most cases, what soon transpires following a brief conversation with the potential client, is that what they are in fact looking for is just a logo. The moment you mention the brand to some potential clients, there begins the confusion and possible misconception as to what ‘branding’ verses ‘a logo’ really means.
To most new businesses ‘branding’ means creating a company logo, when that is not the case. The following summary should help to clarify this and address the differences.
What is a brand?
Here at Tidy HQ we believe a brand is the ‘personification’ of a product, service or company. For a brand to exist it must have a physical appearance, a name, a persona; it must behave in a certain way, have core values that it believes in and a reputation to maintain. A brand builds relationships with its consumers in the same way we do with our friends and acquaintances.
How many times have we judged a person by the way they look? We are all guilty of it. Only after taking the time to get to know that individual can we truly understand them and form our opinion of them. Perception can be deceiving.
The same rules apply to brands – and how we perceive them.
Building a brand.
Building a strong brand takes a huge investment of time and effort. There is no quick solution or overnight results. The process can seem daunting and one that needs constant attention and nurturing. From a creative perspective, the ability to understand the client and their business proposition is paramount; what makes them unique, why do they exist, what’s the purpose and why should I care as a customer. These nuggets of information can provide the creative gold dust that help shape the image and personality of the brand and importantly makes them different from the competition.
Why do I need a brand?
The power of branding is all around us, we live and breathe it everyday of our lives. Stop for a second and think of how many brands we come into contact with on a daily basis; we are all consumers, we all make choices of what we consume and branding plays a huge part in that decision making process.
For any business, branding is a key tool for creating and maintaining an advantage over the competition. In a marketplace where there is little or no difference between product , service or price; branding makes the difference and holds the valuable key to consumer connectivity and retaining consumer loyalty.
Getting it right from the start
One of the biggest mistakes companies can make when starting up, is creating a logo, just for the sake of having a logo. Not investing the time and money to get things right from the start can prove costly in the long run. Companies can mistakenly believe, that if they have a logo designed and produced that appears on their business cards and twitter feed, that they miraculously have a brand; problem solved, right? Wrong!
Talk to the right people
Finding the right people to work with you and your business to create the right brand can be difficult and daunting, as these days anyone with an Apple Mac or PC has the ability to create. At Tidy Studio we have formulated a process that helps simplify things – that’s what we’re good at.
We will be discussing this in more detail in future Ask a Designer posts so look out for these! In the meantime, if you would like to discuss your brand with experienced, down to earth people – get in touch as we’d love to work with you!