Create a memorable brand
Creating a recognisable brand is all about how design, imagery, tone of voice, social media presence and customer relationships all work in a consistent way. The first step is to work out what your brand stands for with a vision, mission, company values and tone of voice. The next step is fleshing out the visual aspects of your brand like logo design, website, packaging and stationery.
Tips for Creating a recognisable brand
Consistency is key when developing your visual brand elements. Here are our top priorities when developing new brands for our clients:
Logo Design
Plain and simple, your logo needs to reflect your character traits and appeal to your target market. You may have several variations of a logo such as stacked versions, horizontal versions and icons.
Colour Palette
What colours are in your logo? These become your primary colours. In addition to these, pick two-three complimentary colours that work well with your primary colours. Your colour palette is what brings together your identity in the absence of your logo. A great way to help choose your brand colours is to read up on the Psychology of Colour.
Typefaces
Pick two-three fonts for your brand identity. Fonts themselves have particular visual personalities, so try for fonts that match the character of your brand. Another important thing to remember is to select fonts that are legible at small sizes.
Imagery
Images shouldn’t be used just to ‘fill space’. Each image chosen is an opportunity to show your customers what you’re all about, so curating a library of go-to imagery, or creating a mood-board is an essential step in planning your content creation. When we can, we love to do shoots for our clients so they have original content for collateral which helps separate their brand from competitors. In fact, recent stats show that consumers are far less likely to act if obvious stock photography has been used on digital platforms!
Tone of voice
A tone of voice is not what you say, but how you say it. It is the embodiment and expression of your brand’s personality and values. People often make critical judgement upon their first experience to tone of voice, so be sure to make it appealing. Not only the words you choose, but also the rhythm, order and pace are influential to your overall tone of voice.
Your chosen style should be distinctive, unique and recognisable — and remember, keep it consistent across all applications.
Social Media
Social media is one the most powerful tools available to businesses great and small. It is the ultimate platform to communicate with your clientele on a more personal basis, helping to:
- Increase brand recognition and loyalty
- Create more opportunities to convert customers
- Increase inbound traffic to your website
- Improve your Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
- Make for a richer customer experience
- Improve customer insights
Like all other elements discussed above, make sure your content aligns with your brand values and visual elements.
Keep it consistent with a branded style guide
A style guide is your go-to for maintaining brand consistency. Think of it as a compact package that encompasses the all-important elements that that make up your identity. This document is essential when outsourcing work to professionals such as designers, developers and advertisers to let them know exactly how your brand works and what it stands for. Make sure your style guide has the following essentials:
- A ‘Who we are page’ to briefly describe your vision, mission and values
- Your top USP’s (unique selling propositions)
- Tone of voice; how you talk to your customers
- Logos and icon do’s and don’ts
- Colour palette with Pantone, RGB, CMYK and HEX values
- Typefaces and typographic rules
- Imagery mood board, link to gallery or examples of what you like
A strong brand strategy is often where many business owners fall short of the mark. Interesting in a brand strategy workshop? Get in touch via our email hello@lemontreemarketing.com.au