Fundamental Assets for a Successful Brand

When you take a step back and take a good look at your brand – does it have all the essential pieces to be successful? Does it stand out in the sea of competition? Can it make a solid impact in the marketplace? Having a strong foundational brand platform with a clear message will attract your target audience and grow your business.

When we meet with our clients to discus their branding and suggest components they might not have thought about, we can build together a strong brand platform. Having a strong cohesive and consistent brand will build awareness and help set you apart from the competition.

Your brand is made up of so much more than just your logo! A brand captures the “look and feel”, the tone, voice, and visual appearance of your business. Your brand has it’s own personality that makes it unique from others.

SO WHAT DOES A BUSINESS OWNER NEED TO HAVE A CONSISTENT BRAND?

LOGO 

This one might be obvious to some but a logo is always an essential part of your brand platform. A logo is a simple yet impactful representation of your business that holds so much meaning. A logo can identify key information about your business, communicate the industry your in, the services you provide, your target demographics and your brand values.

When having a logo designed – you want to be very cautious on designing something that isn’t “too trendy” and will withstand the tale of time. You want your logo to be around for a while and evolve with you and your business.

Other important factors that goes into developing a logo is to ensure that your logo has a variety of layouts (think horizontal, vertical, and symbol mark) that can be easily used throughout different applications. You’ll also want to make sure that you use limited colours that have contrast from each other and make sure it works in a black and white or one colour version. You want to keep in mind where your logo could be used – from letterheads, to promotional prints, and online on your website or social media.

FONTS & COLOURS

Fonts and colours are two components that can portray meaning, tone, and recognition in your brand. There is a deliberate and careful planning process that leads to the selection and design of brand colours and fonts. They work along side each other to provide further visual representation for your brand. Psychological studies have been shown that when fonts and colours are used correctly – they can make a huge difference for your brand. Hubspot has a great infograph explaining the meaning behind logo design here.

Additionally – when you are choosing your branding colours, you want to make sure that you choose a PANTONE colour but also translate those colours to CMYK (for print), RGB (for digital) and Hex (for web application). Having a solid set of colours in various colour profiles will help with accurately representing your brand, regardless of the platform or application.

VOICE

Your brand voice is the purposeful, consistent expression of a your business through words and writing styles that engage and motivate. The personality of your brand is determined by the words you use and the sentences you write. How you speak about your brand – either online or in person, leads back to your voice. Being purposeful and authentic in your brand’s voice will build trust with your clients through familiarity. From the first email or phone call, to meeting in person and even following on social media, you want your audience to feel as though they already know you because of this consistency. This trust and familiarity will instil a deeper connection with your clients, thus resulting in repeat work and referrals.  

These key assets come together to build a strong brand platform that you can proudly stand behind to represent your business to your target audience. If you want to grow your business with consistency and accuracy, contact us today to see how together, we can make your good ideas great!