Your products/services seem to have it all – the cool features, the money-back guarantee, the great customer service and the workmanship.
Yet consumers don’t seem interested. Some may not even have heard of your brand. Sounds familiar?
This lack of interest is most likely because your audience doesn’t have brand loyalty and awareness towards your offering.
Nowadays, with so many choices in the market, your branding strategy should start with creating meaningful customer to brand relationships. But how?
Creating a powerful brand visualization, or that single image or “visual” that tells the story of your brand, would be a good start.
Because branding has become extremely personal and consumers expect brands to have – just as humans – their own characteristics and voice, developing a distinctive visual identity to support your branding strategy is crucial in ensuring your marketing efforts are successful.
There are four main blocks your company should consider to make your brand visually memorable:
Source: Visme
1. The first step in the process is designing a relevant and eye-catching logo. Think of it as a human face. That is the first thing most people notice and it takes even less than 10 seconds for a potential customer to form a first impression about your brand, which later translates into how they view your product or service.
Shape, font and colors are all important when it comes to your logo design and branding. They should express the message behind the brand, and the value your customers will get from using it.
Are you trying to convey speed and movement like Nike with its famous “swoosh” symbol, fun and joy like Lego, or simplicity and sophistication like Winc, a wine club that delivers wine to your doorstep?
2. Fonts carry a certain meaning. Digital Synopsis has put together an easy-to-follow guide that will help you determine which type of font would represent your brand the best and form the deepest connection with consumers.
Remember that in order to boost brand recognition, the same font plus a maximum of two other accompanying fonts should be used across all channels and applied to different texts whether it is a newsletter, gift card, or the homepage of your website.
3. Colors trigger particular emotions. When it comes to colors, they have an even stronger psychological impact on consumers than fonts. Cool-toned colors, such as blue and green, suggest calm and peace, while warmer tones like red or orange, trigger more intense, strong emotions.
The golden rule here is to not exceed 4 colors; they should complement each other and belong to one color scheme which would create a unified image and reinforce the brand’s identity.
Source: InfographicNow
Consistent use of colors throughout your ads, social media posts and other marketing materials will only increase brand recognition and hence brand recall.
Everyone now recognizes Starbucks just by seeing the white cups with the green logo, and their website and app as well, use the same color scheme. Southwest Airlines likewise has effectively showcased its warm and welcoming personality through the yellow, red and blue tri-color palette.
4. The final stage in creating a strong visual identity is none other than the visuals themselves. A photo or video is worth a thousand words, and the fast-paced consumers who do not have time to read a long article or blog post now rely heavily on them.
A recent study by Convince & Convert revealed that Facebook posts with photos receive 37% more engagement than those without, and the numbers are even higher when it comes to videos – one of the top marketing tools in the nearest future.
Not only does visual media help you communicate your product/service’s features, but it can be used as a powerful tool to display your brand values, style, persona and message. Airbnb does exactly that by using people-heavy imagery to encourage people to go places and get exciting new experiences.
Source: Airbnb
Besides, both photos and videos let you step outside the box and be creative just like Dollar Shave Club did with their most referenced promotional video of all time, and engage with the audience directly through live, behind-the-scenes or Q&A videos thus showing the human side of the brand.
Visualization is key to a successful branding strategy because it helps your brand form a distinct and memorable brand identity, higher brand awareness, and boost brand loyalty. No matter what or how you choose to create your visuals, it is essential to stick to your selected brand colors and story. Your message across all channels should be simple, clear, and relevant because that is the only way you can reach consumers who believe in you, recall you, and return back to you.
by Agnese Zimele,
Blogger and Marketing Assistant