Branding / Brand Identity
/ Corporate Identity
You run your
business, you easily speak about it
in a one to one situation, or to a small
audience. Given a platform to express yourself,
you are able to put forward
the
various reasons why your company, products
and services are great, and why they are
of value to your clients. Also, you will
have no difficulty in getting the message
across as to the values, moral ethics,
beliefs your company stands for / represents,
how
you are different from the other companies
in the industry, how you may want to change
perceptions about your industry, how your
values and professional ethics are crucial
to define who you are and why people should
choose you.
Yes, when you run your company, or are
involved in a business at sales or executive
level, you can do all this quite easily,
honestly, with confidence and certainty
in your message. And you will often convince
your audience to use your company and get
new business this way.
Now, how do you do the same thing to reach
millions of people you will not have a chance
to meet and speak to directly?
The answer: Your Brand will do it for you.
What is a brand?
A brand is reflected by a set of images,
graphics, concepts, words, slogans and ideas
representing a business. It is a mixture
of verbal and non verbal attributes, such
as the company name, slogan, mission statement
etc. and a set of symbols such as the logo,
colour palette (colour scheme) which is
used for all variations and types of designs
/ graphics representing the company, adverts,
website, business cards, brochures, folders,
DVD's, media and all graphics scheme that
are made public representing the company,
its products or services.
Brand recognition is what a business wants
most to achieve when entering a branding
/ re-branding process. The idea is not
only to be "instantly recognisable"
by the customer, but in a much deeper way,
to be recognised while transmitting a
set
of values and positive messages that are
instantly "felt" by the customer.
Of course, brand recognition is strengthened
with the accumulation of experiences with
the specific product or service. The more
your Brand is "out there" through
the influence of advertising, your website
popularity, and media publications, the
more Brand Recognition you will achieve.
This is why a successful brand needs to
have a coordinated approach to their branding
and marketing in order to allow the brand
to be experienced by potential customers.
In short, a brand is a symbolic representation
of all the information related in any
way to
a company, and its products or services.
A brand's purpose is to create associations
in the mind of consumers, a desire, expectations
to experience the products and services
supplied by the company and "be part"
of the implicit values those products or
services represent.
Branding requires a great deal of research!
the key is "implicit values",
which means that the Identity defined will
have to speak to the potential consumer
on a sub-conscious level - the sub-conscious
being very symbolic / imagery driven and
triggered, that then tells your conscious
mind that this is "right for you".
So, your branding exercise would be a comprehensive
study of your Brand and its perception in
conjunction with the values and attitudes
you wand people to feel, the emotional message
you want the client to perceive when buying
your products or services.
It is a complex exercise, requiring skill
and time.
Is it expensive?
It can be, but doesn't have to be for most
small and medium size businesses.
The myth about branding cost:
When you hear on the news that such and
such company has paid £100K or more
for a logo, your rational mind tells you:
"What a bunch of fools this company
must be". You may not even like the
logo and think it is a huge waste of money
and resources the business could have used
towards a more productive task.
However, the media only give you "the
short story". Of course, No one in
their right mind would pay 100K for a logo.
This is nonsense.
What the "big brands" pay for
is for a creative agency to help them understand,
define, and transmit their vision of the
business, its products and services to consumers
and create positive associations towards
such products and services.
This will result in a new logo, but also
a set of graphics, colours, words that will
be the core to all future actions undertaken
by the business in regards to communicating
with their potential customers.
We are extremely competitive in terms of
pricing and the quality of our work is nothing
short of excellent.
Please
contact us to
see how we could help you
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