Frequently asked questions
Branding
What Is Branding?
Branding is a marketing practice in which a company creates a name, symbol or design that is easily identifiable as belonging to the company. This helps to identify and distinguish one product or service from another. Branding is important because not only is it a way to differentiate your brand from competitors, it is also what leaves a memorable impression on consumers.
Your brand should be built to be a true representation of who you are as a business, and how you wish to be perceived, since you wont always be in the room to explain it to consumers
Why Is Branding Important?
Branding is absolutely critical to a business because of the overall impact it makes on your company. Branding can change how people perceive your brand, it can drive new business and increase brand awareness.
Branding Gets Recognition:
The most important reason branding is important to a business is because it is how a company gets recognition and becomes known to the consumers.
The logo is the most important element of branding, especially where this factor is concerned, as it is essentially the face of the company.
This is why a professional logo design should be powerful and easily memorable, making an impression on a person at first glance. Printed promotional products are a way of getting this across.
Branding Increases Business Value
Branding is important when trying to generate future business, and a strongly established brand can increase a business’ value by giving the company more leverage in the industry. This makes it a more appealing investment opportunity because of its firmly established place in the marketplace.
Branding Generates New Customers
A good brand will have no trouble drumming up referral business. Strong branding generally means there is a positive impression of the company amongst consumers, and they are likely to do business with you because of the familiarity and assumed dependability of using a name they can trust. Once a brand has been well-established, word of mouth will be the company’s best and most effective advertising technique.
Improves Employee Pride And Satisfaction
When an employee works for a strongly branded company and truly stands behind the brand, they will be more satisfied with their job and have a higher degree of pride in the work that they do. Working for a brand that is reputable and help in high regard amongst the public makes working for that company more enjoyable and fulfilling. Having a branded office, which can often help employees feel more satisfied and have a sense of belonging to the company, can be achieved through using promotional merchandise for your desktop.
Creates Trust Within The Marketplace
A professional appearance and well-strategised branding will help the company build trust with consumers, potential clients and customers. People are more likely to do business with a company that has a polished and professional portrayal.
Being properly branded gives the impression of being industry experts and makes the public feel as though they can trust your company, the products and services it offers and the way it handles its business.
Branding Supports Advertising
Advertising is another component to branding, and advertising strategies will directly reflect the brand and its desired portrayal. Advertising techniques such as the use of promotional products from trusted companies such as Outstanding Branding make it easy to create a cohesive and appealing advertising strategy that plays well into your branding goals.
(Dandu, Clément, Parker, Williamson, & Matchett, What Is Branding And Why Is It Important For Your Business? 2020)
What is a logo?
1. Logo:
This is an easy, powerful, and memorable graphic representation or symbol of a company.
Symbolic logos. Think of brands such as Shell, Mercedes
Purely typographic logos, for example: Google, IBM, ExxonMobil, Visa etc
A combination of both ie MasterCard, AkzoNobel
Why is Typography (Fonts) important?
Any good brand has good typography (Fonts). It is a non-verbal form of messaginngs that speaks to the kind of brand you have. It ties all of your communications together and your website, flyers, letterheads, etc. should have brand consistency so that consumers can subconsciously remember you
4 common categories of font styles and their uses:
Serif
Examples: Times New Roman, Georgia
These are basic typefaces with serifs ie extra detailing sometimes called tags or flags. They are the oldest known typeface and therefore more traditional, portraying characteristics such as reliability, being dependable and respectable.
Sans serif
Examples: Helvetica, Arial, Trebuchet
Sans literally means without, so the characters are without the tags. They are neutral and contemporary used to depict simplicity.
Script
Examples: Alex brush, Lobster, Pacifico
Script fonts often look handwritten used to express feeling and creativity. The more curvy and delicate the script font, the more it portrays femininity.
Modern
Examples: Bodoni, Didot
Popular in the 18th and 19th Century these classic fonts are elegant and distinctive representing smartness and intelligence. They are structured and eye catching with by extreme line weight contrast with vertical stress horizontal serifs.
Whilst colours have meanings associated with them, fonts have these personalities, making them a valuable tool to communicate the personification or your brand. However, in order for them capture your brand essence correctly, it is important to understand the font categories, their characteristics and the demographics of your target audience; and not simply pick them because they are just your ‘type’.
(B2B International, The Importance of Typography in Branding 2020)
Why is color important to your brand?
Red, Blue, Yellow, Green, colors may just be part of the basics but for businesses– they stand a crucial role.
Color is very important in branding and marketing because it is where first impressions of customers are based. Also, color is the secret in producing a good identity for a company. Colors are more than just a visual aid because colors convey emotions, feelings and experiences. There are meanings behind various colors and for companies, it will help if they are abreast with this because choosing a color scheme can affect their business – it may either make or break them.
Why is color important?
A branch of psychology called “color psychology” is the study that deals about colors and its effect to human behavior.
Color psychology emerged years ago when Egyptians studied the effect of colors on mood and used them for holistic development. Before, red symbolizes increase in circulation, yellow is for purifying the body, blue is to sooth pain, purple is for skin problems, orange is used to increase energy and black stands for life and rebirth.
In modern psychology, Carl Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist, believed that colors and humans have a special connection, “humans have universal, bodily response to color stimulus,” he said. He also stated that “colors are the mother tongue of the subconscious.”
Such studies years ago, paved way for the rise of color being associated with marketing, branding and architectural design.
Overall, Color Psychology showed that color can affect human behavior, influence human perception and enhance effectiveness.
In a study called “Impact of color in marketing” it showed that 90% of customers’ product judgments are based on color alone.
Another study titled “Exciting red and competent blue”also revealed that the purchasing intent of customers is greatly affected by the brand color because the color speaks for the brand’s identity and personality.
Other studies also revealed that the human brain prefer brands that are recognizable, which makes the brand color all the more important.
These studies proved that there is really a significant relationship between brand color and customer reaction therefore it is a must for business owners, advertisers, designers and office leaders to be aware about this because choosing the right colors could lead to a more successful business venture.
Colors have universal perceived meanings, here is a quick run:
BLUE – Blue is seen to be very positive color. It may invoke trust, security and responsibility. It is also associated with creation and serenity. Blue instills trust and security that’s why there are many institutions that count on this color.
RED – Red is a powerful color. It is also very energetic, aggressive and provocative. Red can be used to incorporate passion and energy to your product.
GREEN – This color symbolizes health and nature. It also has a calming feeling especially for lighter shades of green.
YELLOW – Yellow is the color for vibrancy and optimism. It can also be motivating and captivating that’s why some tag prices are in this color because it helps get the attention of customers.
PURPLE – This color offers sophistication, nostalgia, exclusivity and royalty making it perfect for some of those selling expensive jewelry.
PINK – Dark shades of pink are very energetic and instills excitement while lighter shades shows a romantic feel.
ORANGE – This color can be effective for children because of its cheerful, friendly and fun feels.
BROWN- This shade elicits simplicity and stability. It also looks very down to earth.
Black – Black promotes a serious or classic campaign. There is also sophistication and exclusivity in this color which works well with expensive products.
White – This color looks very plain but when used, it shows purity, cleanliness and is very enticing to the human eye.
Every color has an equivalent meaning behind it and conveys a certain feeling which makes them all the more vital, that’s why it pays if business owners have a little background before choosing a color scheme.
Factors to consider in choosing a color scheme:
Aside from the meaning of different colors, business owners should also be aware of the other factors that they should consider in choosing a color scheme, here are some:
Appropriateness
Business owners should know what message they want to convey to the public given the kind of business they have, in that case, the message could be matched to an appropriate color shade.
Target market
It is also important for business owners to know their target market and to whom they offer their services or products so that the color will also be appropriate to the kind of encouragement needed for the target customers.
Consistency
Consistency in the color scheme of a brand strengthens its identity in the market. It also helps the brand to stand out and rise against the tight competition in the industry. Further, consistency also gains the trust, loyalty and familiarity of customers.
Color should not be underestimated because studies have already proved that this element has a connection to human behavior and in the long run this color will represent the company in the coming years.
K., & K. (2016, September 21). Why is color important to your brand? Retrieved November 25, 2020, from http://www.keycolour.net/blog/color-important-brand/
I have a logo but I would like a flyer, business card, etc. what do I need to know?
You need to provide a .png, .eps, or .ai file if you would like logos on the flyers, etc.
