So you have a million-dollar business idea, and are ready to launch it into the market. But are you? Whatever be your product or service, your business becomes a brand which your audience will identify with. Defining how your brand distinguishes itself from others in the marketplace is where branding becomes important. The first step to being market-ready is branding.
A brand is an identity. In today’s fast paced world, something as simple as a glance at the logo or a brand name is often all the time a potential customer is willing to spend before making a decision as to what to use their money to purchase. While the name, logo, color palette, voice, and imagery you choose to represent your brand is what branding is mostly about, it is also that intangible feeling your customers have when they interact with your brand. A good branding agency takes care of all these aspects and helps you build and maintain a reputable presence in the marketplace.
Be it creating a brand right from its name and logo or reimagining the way an existing brand is perceived through total rebranding, the branding services offered by Parel have always delivered results. From Brand Guidelines to Packaging Design, we offer a wide range of branding services to businesses looking to create and establish an identity in the marketplace. Here is a brief overview of some good branding practices based on what we do here at Parel:
Study Your Market
Analyzing where your brand can be positioned with respect to its competitors is a key factor that determines the success of business, right from when you are new to the marketplace. Conducting a thorough Strength, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats analysis (SWOT Analysis) can help you take care of this in an organized way. The best way to conduct an effective market study is to get a branding agency involved.
Once you have studied the market and your competitors, your target audience comes next. Gather as much data as possible about the needs, pain points, demographics and other such essential traits of your customer. Sorting them into various categories of profiles can help you create targeted marketing campaigns to engage with specific groups of customers.
Define Your Business Statements
Answering the basic questions behind the idea of your brand is among the most important steps in branding. The Mission, Purpose, and Vision Statements of a brand summarize this for its customers as well as stakeholders.
WHAT a brand does and for WHOM becomes its Mission Statement.
WHY a brand does what it does becomes its Purpose Statement.
WHERE the brand is going becomes its futuristic Vision Statement.
Narrate your Brand Story, Values, Personality
Identifying your core business personality is as important as identifying your core audience. The SWOT Analysis, customer profiles and business statements would have helped you answer the most critical questions required to recognise what defines your business. The next step is putting all this together effectively to come up with a brand story to help your audience feel connected to your brand. Defining your brand values to align with that of your audience is the key to having a successful brand story. While this may sound simple, it is best to involve a digital branding agency to make an impact and get results since these are crucial elements that determine the success of your business and require expertise.
Establish Your Brand Name And Brand Voice
Confirming the brand name and cultivating the brand voice is tricky especially if your audience demographics are diverse. All the research conducted in the earlier steps will work out now in establishing whether your brand is going to be fun and quirky, formal and no-nonsense, or simple and cordial. These traits reflect right from the name of your brand to the way you choose to engage with your target audience, especially in the digital space.
Come Up With A Catchy Tagline
While customers may need to look around a little to know more about your business, the one thing they will always want to know in one quick glance is what your brand represents. So while taglines may seem like just a catchphrase, remember they identify the brand’s value proposition to your customer, which always increases brand recall value during times of demand.
Determine The Visual Elements: Logo, Colors, Imagery, Typography
Once the personality is established, it has a name and a voice, it is now time to create the visual aspects of your brand. A logo will be the first mark of identification for your brand, right up there with its name and tagline. Your brand colors and typography also play a key role in keeping you unique and maximizing your brand recall value.
Since the imagery in the visuals you choose to represent your brand will also be a factor customers subconsciously associate with your brand, the theme of your brand should be followed here as well.
Develop Brand Guidelines for Marketing Materials
Your online and offline presence will need to be established with visual representations in customer touch points. Be it digital or print, marketing materials range from basic items like business cards and letterhead to infographics and whitepapers. Creating a brand guideline to be followed for each category will help in maintaining a uniform brand identity.
These are some of the essential elements to be considered while creating a brand. Coming back to the first question – Do you have a million-dollar business idea that you are ready to launch but don’t know where to start? Let us help! Take a look at some of the work we have done over the years to become the best branding agency in Kochi.
Or are you looking for branding services for your business? Talk to us to see how we can take your brand to your customers, better.
