One of the most interesting things about your brand is the fact that it appeals to your audience via various mediums. The cost of your products and their features appeal to their rational side, while your marketing is there to appeal to their emotional and impulsive side. Keep in mind, though, that your marketing greatly depends on the visual representation of your business and your products. Therefore, before you start massively investing in this field, you need to give your brand a visual identity. Here are seven tips to help you do this.
Making a logo
When developing a logo, you need something that is easy to describe in words and easy to understand. Keep in mind that having your audience confused as to what the shapes on your logo should represent does nothing for your brand recognition. Also, you should try to make it representative of what you do. Various icons and symbols are an association with certain industries. For instance, a symbol of a cross or a heart represent a hospital, whereas a symbol of a book represents an educational institution. Making the logo of your business is hard work but it’s probably the first task to be done when you start giving your brand visual identity.
Choosing the color
Another thing you need to do when giving your brand visual identity is choosing a suitable color. You see, the color that you choose should send a message as well. This is why the majority of fast food joints and restaurant chains are using colors like yellow, gold, red, green, etc. this is due to the fact that these colors naturally increase one’s appetite. Aside from this, you need to keep in mind that these colors might appear in various different formats like your brand’s uniforms, product packaging, promotional materials and more.
Product design
The next issue you need to take into consideration is the fact that the biggest part of your visual identity is product design. A sleek-looking product is a huge plus to your brand, however, functionality needs to be a priority above visual features. Remember that even if your product isn’t supposed to be ornamental, the shape of the product and even the design of the product packaging may be the reason why customers pick your product over those of your competitors.
Promotional products
The next thing you need to pay attention to is recognizable promotional products. Here, we’re not just talking about brochures and flyers or t-shirts, hats and umbrellas with your company’s logo on them. What we also have in mind are professionally-made business cards which are a must-have for any serious businessman, even in this day and age. In some countries like Japan, these business cards are a crucial part of the business world etiquette, which is why you need to pay special attention to them.
Professional photography
Another part of your visual brand is the images of products displayed on your website, e-store and social media profiles. Other than this, you also want to humanize your enterprise and the simplest way to do so is with images of your team and headquarters displayed on your website. Also, keep in mind that photos of customers on testimonials may make them appear more genuine. One of the ways to get the most out of this is to hire a professional photographer and try to improve the quality of images that you upload. The use of techniques like ghost mannequin is particularly great for selling clothing items and there is a wide range of other similar techniques used for every single purpose.
The message that you’re trying to send
When developing a visual identity of your brand, you need to decide what the message that your brand is trying to convey is. If you want to reach out to your audience by offering the cheapest product on the market, your visuals need to appear simple and frugal. On the other hand, if you’re going for the appeal of a luxury brand, you should go with something more extravagant and elegant.
Website design
The last but in no way least important thing that you need to tackle is the issue of website design. The reason why we pushed this for the end is due to the fact that you have to use your logo and corporate colors as well as fill the website with all the high-quality images taken before. Sure, this is not always the case but it’s definitely how you get the optimal effect. Just remember that the responsiveness and functionality of your website are paramount. More is not always better and by limiting the number of elements on the website, you can speed it up.
Conclusion
As you can see, in order to make a great visual identity for your brand, what you need to do is cover all the vital fields that make a visual identity, to begin with. This means starting with a simple intellectual property like the logo, colors and packaging designs. Keep in mind, though, that alongside developing a visual identity, you also need to find a way to protect it. This, however, is a story for another time.
