Brand Early, not often

“Brand early, not often” might be one of the most important things we’ll say this year. In fact, you’ll also likely hear us mention it frequently. Why? It’s a statement that resonates with us so strongly. 

Too often we’re faced with the question, “Can you just design a logo for me?”. Either because the business is a start-up, there’s budget constraints or there’s a lack of faith in the product. 

The simple answer to this question? No. 

Branding is more than just a logo, a name, or making things look good, it’s everything that represents your business AND what makes you unique. Think of a brand as a person - everyone has their own personality, style, values, characteristics, and story to tell. So, for us, when we encourage businesses to prioritise brand development over “just a logo” - it’s because we have a duty of care. 

Why is investing in branding early one of the most important things you can do for your business? Let’s jump right in…

• Forgoing brand development in the beginning stages of your business leads to an inconsistent visual identity and key messages later - Ultimately, this then leads to consumer mistrust.

• Prioritising brand development in the beginning stages of your business will not only ensure consistent visual identity and key messages, but it also guarantees consistency across all consumer touchpoints – Ultimately, this helps build consumer trust.

Now if you didn’t notice, we’ve just thrown in a small but important word – trust. This five-letter word is almost as important to us as the word brand is 😉

To build trust with your consumers, you must first know who they are, including what problem you’re trying to solve for them. You must also understand the emotional needs of your audience, including their attitudes and behaviours. 

Wondering how we’re going to get to know our audience AND build a great brand that’s trustworthy? Lucky we’ve put together four must-do steps 👇

1. BRAND STRATEGY
You need to understand yourself, your business and your consumer before you can start “making things look good”. A brand strategy is going to help you do this. 

Think of a brand strategy like building a house.

• A house is the finished product of the building process. A logo is the finished product of the branding process.

• If you skimp out on building costs, you’re likely to have problems with the property later – cracks will start to form and water damage will appear. If you skimp out on branding costs, you’re likely going to need to rebrand later – at the detriment to your business.

Plus, it’s clear that the world’s most successful companies have one thing in common: powerful brands.

Hot Tip: Developing a brand strategy will help you align your business elements with your target audience, to ensure consistency on all channels. Something we mentioned was important earlier 👌

2. BRAND NAME & BRAND VOICE
A brand name and brand voice are another step in building a strong house. It’s the opportunity to evoke a feeling and pique curiosity, rather than simply stating what your business does. 

The name of your business should come from the “why” - Where you came from, your story to tell and what drives you and your business. This is the secret sauce to creating a thoughtfully crafted name with meaning. 

If you think about it, Apple doesn’t automatically tell you what the brand does, but it does make you curious to what that is 🤔

Hot Tip: Choose a unique brand name that can evolve over time. This allows you to expand your offering and product range should you want to. 

3. BRANDING
Now we’ve built the foundations of the house, it’s to make it feel like a home.

For us, this is the fun part… We’re ready to step in and make your brand personality look and feel GREAT. Here we decide all the finishes and fittings (fonts & colours), informed by your brand strategy, name and voice. 

Good branding should be unique, make you instantly recognisable and build an emotional connection and trust with your customers. To do this, as part of our process we develop two brand concepts which convey your key messages while appealing to your consumer. Then, it’s up to you to decide which one feels more like home. 

Hot Tip: Choose a visual identity that’s timeless and not driven by current culture or design trends. This ensures you’re able to “brand early, not often”.

4. THE ROLL OUT
Once all the work on the house is complete, it’s time to start living in it. This means rolling out your brand strategy, brand name and voice, and branding across all consumer touch-points.

To do this, you’ll want to develop a marketing strategy, or work with someone to do so. Once you’ve established what you want to include as part of your marketing mix, ensure there’s a branded asset to accompany it. Think digital assets, including website, social media, email marketing and e-books. Print assets, including packaging, uniforms, brochures and flyers. 

Hot Tip: Our philosophy for marketing is the opposite to our opinion on branding. “Brand early, not often” for design, should be “Plan early and often, not once” for marketing. When the landscape is continuously evolving – be prepared, not scared 😉

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