Some time ago, the idea of branding was that of giving a company or corporation a specific image or design to be used in the advertising of the service provided. Overall it was mainly viewed only as a logo. But, is it limited only to this?
Table of Content:
- What’s Branding?
- First Step to Develop a Brand’s Identity: Research
- Strategy: Setting your company’s way to communicate
- Design: Transforming your Brand’s Values into Results
- Implementation: Revealing your Brand’s Identity
- Did you know that?
What’s Branding?
Branding is actually one of the most important aspects of any business, regardless of its size, type of business or the length of its existence. Your brand is actually the essence of your business. It is what sets you apart from everybody else. In the words of renowned graphic designer Marty Neumeier, Branding is a result. It’s a customer’s gut feeling about a product, service or company. It embeds in their heads, in their hearts, in their everyday activities. You may also say that a brand is also a reputation, the beliefs or opinions that thousands of people hold about a specific product.
Yes, a logo, palette, name and visual concepts are an essential part of a brand and of its process. But, it doesn’t end there. It’s also what happens next, how it reaches the consumer. What message is sent out and how it is received, through the branded products and the reputation it embeds in people’s minds through time.
Therefore if branding holds such power in consumer’s minds and habits, it is crucial to choose the right team and experts to guide you through the process.
How Does the Branding Process Work?
In order to develop a brand’s identity, there are four steps to get there:
First Step to Develop a Brand’s Identity: Research
During this first phase of the process it is important to gather information and analyze it in order to thoroughly understand the company, its target audience and its competitors. Desk research and field work such as interviews, surveys and polls are generally part of this procedure. This is necessary to orient your business toward specific goals and objectives.
Strategy: Setting Your Company’s Way to Communicate
Ok, so you’ve done your research, and now what do you do with the results? In this second step the results obtained from the research are used to center and cement the values, business goals and objectives of the company. It is during this step that the strategy sets the type of communication your company needs and provides a direction towards brand values and business direction.
Design: Transforming Your Brand’s Values Into Results
I have a strategy now, what happens next? In this phase your brand values are transformed into results, in a significant and visual brand identity. Design’s main role is to put together the company’s visual identity but it doesn’t stop there. Design can be applied in different areas of your company to improve services, products and functionality. Design is essential to put strategy into practice. This phase contains 5 steps: empathize, define, ideate, prototype and test.
Implementation: Revealing Your Brand’s Identity
This is the phase in which your brand identity is revealed to an audience through different channels. These channels must be previously studied to be pertinent with your established target audience. Implementation can take form in different ways: a website, a logo, videos or packaging, among many others.
This four step process is necessary to create and achieve effective brands that simply work and deliver results not only to your company but mainly to your customers.
A brand is the essence of a business, it identifies a product, service or company. It can be characterized by the relationship it settles between its partners, customers or staff. It is also what characterizes your company visually and makes it recognizable. A brand needs consistency in order to stay in its customers minds and habits.
Did you know that?
- Certain colors used in logo, web and brand design can boost brand awareness. Different colors impact people in different ways. By using certain colors a brand has the possibility of improve brand recognition by 80% according to surveys.
- Simplicity is usually the best way to go: 95% of the world’s top brands chose to keep things simple by using two or three colors in their logos.
At Creativa we have created long term relationships with clients nationwide and worldwide. Well established companies, startups, GMOs and professional individuals.
We have worked together with them to guide and assist them to find and establish a brand that represents their essence, philosophy and promise to their customers. These are just a couple of examples of projects we’ve done together:
Tiplr “The last guide you will ever need”. Tiplr is a global travel platform and aims to be the ultimate tool that serves as a community of smart travelers who can easily create, share, and collect authentic travel tips from each other. Creativa developed the concept, designed the entire brand identity including icons illustrations, then we entirely produced and both iOS app and website.
Coordinaire is a healthcare platform that aims to strengthen communication between healthcare providers. This company consists of individuals within the medical community who understand what they need to make their workflow faster and more efficient through technology. Because their tagline is Communicate, Collaborate, and Care, we designed a brand identity that illustrates these three actions into one heart and puzzle shaped icon. We also improved the UX UI of their current sites to make their websites more user friendly.
Tell us about your project ideas! Whether you’ve got a big idea or need some inspiration with a design project, from the concept to the final product, we are here to team up with you. Contact us, we are here to help.