Developing a Brand For Your New Business

If you could describe in three words what your business is about, what would you say? What’s your company mission and what are your core values? And most importantly – can we see all of this in your BRAND?

What is a Brand?
Developing a brand for your company is one of the fundamental secrets of success for any new business and yet it’s something that new businesses often overlook or undervalue. A good brand will reflect your true values, promote your company and ultimately, drive your success.

But brand is not just about ‘logo branding.’ It’s everything associated with your image, from the principal foundations of your company to the philosophies that drive you and the colours and fonts you choose to use.

Start with the Heart
The key to great branding is knowing what’s in your heart – and having clear and succinct ideas about your company beliefs. What are the main values that hold up your company? What do you want to accomplish?

If you’re coming up with answers like “make money” or “sell something” then you’re not digging deep enough. While “making money” is obviously the goal of all businesses, it’s not what they’re really about!

Case in Point
Let’s take the company Crayola, for instance. Crayola’s goal is not to just “sell crayons.” Their mission is to bring out the ‘colourful originality’ in children everywhere, to nurture their creativity and their dreams and turn the impossible into the possible. This goal is at the core of all of their products and their visual branding.

Your beliefs and your central mission will define how your visual identity, your logo branding and your overall branding design is developed. So, dig deeper, think bigger and figure out what lies at the heart of your business.

Sort Out Your Audience
Knowing your target market is crucial in the creation of your brand. Are you aiming your services at men, women? Adults or kids? And at what age?   

A good way to determine your audience is to imagine your ideal customer – if he/she walked into your store or engaged your services, what would he/she be like? Do they laugh and smile a lot? Or are they serious and business focused?

What qualities do they value? How do they think? And what are their goals as a customer?

Look in the Mirror
Sorting out your audience also means deciding how you want your audience to see you – and how you see yourself. What does your company “see” when it looks in the mirror?

Does your reflection show a business that is smart, sophisticated and global? Fun-loving, adventurous and determined? Child-like and carefree?

Decide what you want your branding design to say about you, both on the inside (your heart) and on the outside (your reflection, your audience).

Work with a Graphic Designer
The people who run companies know that while they might be flourishing CEOs and expert business managers, they aren’t necessarily great designers. Instead, they have huge teams of marketers, graphic designers and artists who help bring their beliefs to life – and you should too.

A good graphic designer is not just about making something look good! They will want to dig deep into the heart of your company and understand what you believe in – and how you want to be seen. A graphic designer can work with you to help decide on your overall approach to your logo branding and branding design. If you’ve got some ideas already, that’s great, but a designer can help you refine these into something appealing and eye-catching that will stand out in the visual, online world.

The importance of consistent visual branding

How many logos do you recognise in a fleeting glance? Could you draw the Commonwealth Bank logo from memory? How about the Apple or Nike logo? Chances are you easily could. These companies have their branding elements successfully working together in the competitive world of product saturation.

Perception power
If you were looking to buy the latest iphone, would you consider a similar product which is $100 cheaper? Probably not. What if it was $200 cheaper, which brand would you choose? Probably still the iphone. What about $400 cheaper? Would you consider purchasing the lesser known brand even though it has all the same features as the iphone? Most likely your answer would be yes. Initially you might have been content paying more for the iphone because of your perception of the product. When we are faced with a value for money decision, often we are torn between our perception of the product or service and our account balance.

Many companies like Apple have mastered the art of brand perception using ingenious marketing strategies to convince the consumer they must have a certain product or use a particular service. Hours of research and development and often an element of failure, goes into developing successful strategies.

Building trust and repeat business
Without spending copious amount of time and money on research,  one key way to build trust and receive repeat business for years to come is to keep the visual brand of your business consistent. Branding your business goes beyond your logo or trademark. It's about making sure the visual elements relating to the identity of your business remain constant across all collateral used for promotion. These may be images associated with your brand which don't look like your logo but are perhaps similar in colour. It is vital to remain consistent across your stationery, advertising, signage and even the way you talk about your business. Visual perception of your brand is as important as the service or product you offer. Without one there is no other.

Why crowdsourcing can hurt your new business

If you're planning on starting a new business you will no doubt require a new logo. If you're keen to get up and running and only have a small amount of capital, then it's understandable to opt for the quickest and cheapest way to have your logo designed. Many turn to crowdsourcing. For $250 or even less, you can receive zero to infinity logo designs in your inbox from all over the world. Then take your pick and award the winner! It sounds impressive. It sounds mind boggling if you ask me, and although you may think you'll be getting great value for money, think again. Cheap may not always be better in the long run.

Not real designers
People who choose to participate in crowdsourcing are not real designers. Designs are created to please the client on a visual level, bypassing the strategic process of design and eliminating valuable team work between client and designer. Apart from email banter, there is no genuine engagement with the client and a true interpretation of the client's business is often a blur. Many designs are done offshore, which can make overcoming cultural and language barriers difficult. In fact, most of the logos are way off the mark and sorting out the good from the bad can be time wasting.

So does the client really get value for money? Is the designer who wins the contest truly passionate about their client's business? Is the client paying for designers who participate in crowdsourcing for the thrill of the challenge? It's important to find a designer who becomes a partner in your business. Crowdsourcing may provide you with lots of designs to choose from, but a real designer will provide you with one or two because they understand your business the best. The process in which a real designer goes through often involves mind-mapping, pencil sketching and most importantly, face-to-face client contact. Your designer should have all these skills and have dealt with all sorts of design jobs.

Beyond the logo
Logo design is just the start of your business journey. As your business develops you're likely to need a stationary pack, marketing collateral, a website, possibly advertising and other marketing tools that require strong graphic design to ensure your branding is consistent. Engaging with a designer who has taken the time to understand your business means they will be well placed to help you in extending your brand consistently across all future material.

Final thought
If you're anything like me, you're rarely phased by scare tactics and rely on gut instinct when it comes to deciding what's best for your business. Just remember to keep in mind what Red Adair once said: "If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur."