If you need to reach a new customer base or become more recognizable as a company, then it’s time to develop a brand book. Here are some of the reasons that building a brand will help your business stand apart from the crowd.
1. Consumers Recognize Personality
If your company doesn’t have a brand then it’s just a name on paper. As boring as oatmeal, a company without a clear brand is hard to recognize amidst thousands of competitors. People experience this problem during elections if they haven’t heard of any candidates, and they feel the same despair when they look at phone books. Be a company that stands out to clients by creating a strong personality for others to recognize.
2. Thoughtful Branding Can Be Meaningful & Impactful
While lots of companies might create a logo and then use fancy fonts, few of them are using design with intention. When a company uses design with an agenda, it becomes quite meaningful and impactful. Customers often don’t realize why they are drawn to a brand: they just find themselves buying things from that company with loyalty.
3. Branding Targets Your Audience
Brands can help you to target the styles and themes that a market segment responds to subconsciously. Whether your customers are baby boomers, teenagers, or single moms, you can fine tune your brand to reach any group: it’s all a matter of colors, imagery, font selection, and wording.
Just as grocery stores play music that appeals to the customer group most likely shopping at a given time of day, a company should use its branding to attract the right crowd, too. Consider hiring experts to help you choose a theme that will reach your targeted audience. Here are some examples of recommendations experts give:
- Sans-Serif Fonts for Youths: Older generations prefer serif fonts, because they’re used to them and can read them more easily.
- Muted Colors for Professionals: Professionals don’t trust a site made of hot pink and turquoise; they like stable earth tones.
- Attract Creative Types With Style: Creative thinkers appreciate modern style and new designs that make ample use of white space, whereas others are more comfortable with formulaic designs and less stylized formats.
4. Consistent Branding Builds Trust
A brand that’s consistent across all platforms — from a company’s website to materials like the Halo promo calendar, for example — will earn trust and respect. People will recognize that the brand is thought-out and intentional. They’ll see it as a stable product that is professional and clear about its intentions.
Companies with mixed brands across platforms (such as a black-and-white print presentation with a loud, colorful site that reads as juvenile) won’t be recognized as a unit. They will be seen as separate entities, if not as a company with multiple personalities. Sending one clear message makes consumers feel secure.
5. Branding Is Uniquely Yours
Assuming you take the steps to register and trademark it, you own your brand and no one else can legally use it. This means that competitors will have to find other ways to target the same audience once you’ve taken up the best approach.
Stand apart from the crowd with a well-chosen design. Your brand book could be the key to reaching a new demographic and attracting more customers.
