Good branding is achieved when your brand becomes unforgettable to the customers. It deeply embeds in the minds of consumers, that they unconsciously select those brands among others.

The most successful companies understand the importance of branding and spend a lot of time, money, and energy in coming up with designs that separate them from the faceless crowd. However, a lot of businesses shy off from investing in branding & Graphic Design services as they perceive it as a big expense. What they don’t think of is that customers tend to pay more for branded products. Retail cost products these days are usually a fraction of the price, but customers are willing to pay more because they are not buying a product, they are buying a ‘brand’.

Why Have Good Design?

The key to having Good design in place is to differentiate yourself from clutter. Good design speaks volume, it is the symbolization of what your brand represents and values. It simply could make or break your business. So, having a strong sense of who you are and what you want to represent would allow you to be perceived differently from your competitors.

The design is the first impression that a customer has for a business, more often than not. The brand requires a sense of consistency that would promote easy recognition, trustworthiness, and reliability in customers. Your designs for the logo, business cards, printed marketing materials, social media accounts, and websites should all speak and communicate the same message. The design could be the deciding factor for you to either win or lose a potential client.

Work On Your Brand Personality

Being true to who you are and what your brand represents is the number one rule of marketing communication. Before deciding the aspects of designing, it’s necessary to figure out the personality of your brand.

Your brand communication should perfectly align with your brand personality. Having established this will give your designers more perspective and your designs will fall into place.

Understand Your Customers

The most important part of branding is to know your audience. What your brand chooses to communicate or represent should be structured entirely based on the kind of customers you are planning to target. Once you’ve done the research to determine your audience, you’ll need to decide the most suitable platforms and content to engage them.

Analyzing your competitor’s communication is also important. See what they are doing wrong, and how your ideal audiences respond to their marketing. Then differentiate yourself using elements that are unique and have a more lasting impression on your clientele.

Implement Consistency

In a situation where you have multiple designers, it could be difficult to maintain consistency across all platforms. Having inconsistency in designs makes your branding very ‘chaotic’. To solve this, businesses could implement certain guidelines/templates when applying to a brand’s different assets such as fonts, colors, layouts, etc. This will help keep your branding and communication consistent, resulting in an impactful, emotional and memorable reaction in your customers’ minds.

Having consistency in the look and feel of your branding helps you sustain a successful brand image, be it your designs for your social media platform or for your printed marketing materials. The key is for your customers to recognize your brand by your visual elements. This is exactly what makes your brand ‘Iconic’.

Good Designs Accomplish:

● Efficient communication for your brand
● A consistent image of your brand in the consumer’s mind, reinforcing offerings by your band.
● A story about your brand that clearly reflects the personality of the company that is visually appealing to the target audience.
● Customers engagement through content, emotions, imagery, and color

The design is a language of its own, that offers an instant connection between your business and your customers. The first impression with your business is the perception some customers will carry for a lifetime. It is important to have your designs right from day 1, as a poorly designed logo, marketing materials, website etc. portray an unprofessional image of your business that drives people away.

Especially in the given business environment, designs cannot be underestimated. Visual elements are the backbone of your brand and promotion. In the ‘tech-savvy’ era, good designs are not just an option but a critical factor to the success of your business. Every touch point with your customer, be it your social media, website, leaflet or trade show collaterals will represent the impression of your company. On the contrary, poor branding can affect the reputation that you have built.

Make ‘Good Designs’ an integral part of your business strategy and offer your customer better experience whilst earning their confidence and trust in you. Don’t just offer your customers designs that are visually aesthetic, but also offer them and the way it feels.

By Eddy Z

Eddy is the editorial columnist in Business Fundas, and oversees partner relationships. He posts articles of partners on various topics related to strategy, marketing, supply chain, technology management, social media, e-business, finance, economics and operations management. The articles posted are copyrighted under a Creative Commons unported license 4.0. To contact him, please direct your emails to [email protected].