One of the most misunderstood concepts I come across when dealing with clients is their perception that their logo alone is their brand. While your logo does makeup one central element of your brand, in this article I’ll cover why your brand means more than just that, and considerations to take into account when developing how you want your business to be perceived.
What does a brand encompass?
Your brand encompasses many aspects that revolve around the interactions between your business and its consumers, and how these are perceived. A few examples are:
- Logo;
- The tone of voice;
- Personality;
- Values;
- Colour palette;
- Secondary language;
- Typography;
- Photography;
- Tagline;
- Iconography;
- and more.
In short, developing a brand is all about how you market your business to gain a specific perception in the minds of customers concerning your product or service.
It is important to remember, that our brand perception will be influenced by all experiences with a brand, including publicity, word of mouth, advertising and marketing strategies, etc.
What things will affect how my brand is perceived?
Your visual branding as a whole, including your logo, colour palette and imagery will influence who your brand speaks to and how it captures your audience.
Colour is an important element and I’ll use that as an example. If your brand is based around hues of pinks and purples, your advertising will typically influence and attract a feminine audience, whereas vibrant primary colours will draw the attention of children. To learn more about how different colours are perceived, read this article.
How do I know if my brand is successful?
Tracking the direct success of a brand isn’t an exact science, and it’s usually measured by the success of other campaigns. For example, businesses that receive a lot of word of mouth sales will typically have a strong, consistent brand that remains fixed in it’s customers’ minds – which then results in the ability to visualise and remember the brand, and thus business name when making a referral.
Consistency is key to emitting a strong and powerful brand message.
Remember, your brand will evolve
One aspect to take into consideration with your brand is how it will evolve along with your business. Your brand may achieve success in a particular environment, however, when your business seeks to expand to new fields you may need to re-evaluate how you attract your target market and adapt rather than reinvent your branding strategy to appeal to the new audience.
Under these circumstances, it is important that your brand maintains its core values, messages and visuals, instead focusing on tweaking the sub-elements of the brand in order to become more relevant to the intended audience.
