WORLD EXECUTIVES DIGEST | When creating a brand, it’s incredibly important that you focus on its visual aspect. Why? Well, people will notice your brand long before they interact with it and far before they start reading about it. This is basic human nature – biology really, seeing as how an average person receives 90 percent of all information from visual stimuli, and the human brain processes visual information about 60,000 times faster than verbal. Here are six tips to make all of this come together.
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Pick the right logo
The first thing you need is to pick the right logo for your company. Here, you can go for a symbol, monogram, initials or something else entirely. When it comes to the logo, you have several crucial objectives. First, it needs to be unique enough so that others don’t confuse it with the logos of others. Second, it needs to be self-explanatory and representative of your industry. For instance, a book symbol clearly states that you’re in the education industry, while the symbol of a piece of sporting equipment speaks about the fact that it’s a sporting organization. Third, you need to keep it simple. The right logo can send a message of its own.
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Consider the emotion that the color evokes
Every color affects our mindset in its own peculiar way. For instance, it’s not accidental that red and yellow/gold are the color of some of the most important food brands out there. We’re talking about McDonald’s, Burger King, KFC, Pizza Hut, the list goes on and on. These two colors are known to boost appetite and are often associated with food. However, this is just one example that’s efficient in the food industry. Other industries have their own rules, their own cravings and emotions to satisfy, which is something you need to turn to your benefit.
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Think about various formats
Speaking of the visual impression that your business creates, what you need to bear in mind that the name of your business, your logo, your corporate colors and designs are going to appear in all sorts of different formats. First, they’ll appear in the digital world on your website and on profile/cover pictures on your social media networks. In the real-world, they’ll be on promotional merchandise and product packages, as well as billboards and banners. This can also come in handy when thinking about the verbal part of the visual identity of your brand. Ask yourself, what would your company’s name or slogan look like on your business cards? This might help you figure out if it’s the right thing for you.
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The product design
Think for a moment about the automotive industry and the way in which you’re able to differentiate between two vehicles. Is it just the logo at the front/back end of the vehicle, or is incorporated into its entire design? Now, think about the average person buying the vehicle. Sure, it’s a major financial decision and a lot of people do the research on mileage, performance, maintenance and other crucial factors and properties. However, assuming that the way that the vehicle looks doesn’t enter the decision-making process is simply preposterous. The same goes for any industry. In fact, it also goes for the product package, not just the product design.
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Be unique
A lot of businesses resort to various black-hat tactics in order to give their brand a head start. Imagine a scenario where you would want to launch your own soft drinks manufacturing business. Making a package and a name that looks like, let’s say Coca-Cola (since it’s, by far, the biggest name in the industry) may sound smart but it’s actually a horrible move. First of all, it could put you in all sorts of legal nightmare scenarios. Second, you don’t really want to trick your audience into buying your product once. You want to generate return business.
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Be ready to evolve
Lastly, there’s something that you absolutely have to know and it’s the fact that businesses evolve over the course of time. Their target audience grows, changes and evolves and those who refuse to keep up with the times are destined to fail. So, regardless of your current visual identity, keep in mind that, at one point in the future might be forced to go for a rebrand. At that point, try not to deviate too much from your current form, so that you maintain a certain degree of continuity.
Conclusion
In the end, you need to understand that the visual identity of your business has a huge impact on your brand’s recognition. This is the first step that your average audience member needs to take in order to, eventually, become a paying customer. After that, comes brand awareness, interest in your product, return purchase and some of them might even become brand ambassadors. These, however, are all stories for another time.
