“Your brand is what people say about you when you are not in the room” - Jeff Bezos, Amazon
A brand is a system of value, look and feel, what you stand for, the identity, and what are you promising. ‘Branding is about making an emotional connection’. This means that all products are created for everyone. Design a brand that resonates with the audience.
When developing a brand, there are five different approaches: conducting research, clarifying strategies, designing an identity, creating touchpoints and managing assets. The process of developing a brand is a systematic approach used to create, communicate and strengthen a firm’s brand.
Conducting Research
Researching brands will help clarify the type of vision the company is aiming for - especially the goals and values. Research is conducted to showcase how a brand can be communicated by analysing the brand’s existing message, competitors or other technological/legal requirements.
Clarifying Strategy
Finding the strategy during the branding process is when the designer would look at different components that help build the brand. Components such as a platform, brand values and key messages will establish a clear view of how to develop it.
Designing an identity
It is important to understand how the identity of the brand is conveyed to the audience. This is where the brand starts to come alive; a brainstorm of ideas will showcase the future identity of the brand through visualisation.
Creating Touchpoints
Touchpoints mean how the audience will engage with the brand. The connections the brand makes with its audience are important, especially how they would use the brand. This can be done by producing merchandise, interactive media, graphics for social media etc.
Managing Assets
Lastly, over time the brand will continue to improve, and there would be new challenges and aims the client would want to seek. However, no matter how much the brand changes, it is important to stick to the given brand guidelines on how to use the company’s identity. This is from the sizes, typography, colour palette, tone and voice etc.
| Value | Brands are about value. It is essential to explain why you believe in it. Once formed, an emotional connection will be created with the audience. Experience: How users interact with the brand. Reinforce brand perception by connecting with your emotions. | | --- | --- | | Name | Positive association - serves the market well | | Logo/Wordmark | Used to identify an organisation. It works together with other graphic elements (colour, typeface etc.) which is part of the identity structure. The Design Programme includes basic elements, such as Name mark, simplicity, colour, type etc Attention/Holding power - does it catch the audience’s attention and does it draw them in? Application - What are the technical aspects of it? The size and colour; how will be logo be showcased when applied on different mediums/media? Tone - Is the ‘feel’ of the mark in keeping the ‘product’ Fashionability/Timelessness - Is it contemporary? Is it likely to lose relevance? Competition - Does the trademark distinguish itself from other marks? | | Typography - Quickest way to inject a personality | Type anatomy - A typeface can be played with, either by changing the kerning. Match the energy and attitude with the brand | | Imagery | Putting a twist by resulting words with an image | | Colour | Colour Psychology - how does the colour correspond with the brand? What does the colour represent? E.g Purple, Green etc. | | Touchpoints & Application - brand coming to life/merchandise/interaction with the brand | This is where your brand comes to life and where you test your brand. Especially, how it's used as well - Vehicles, packaging, services, uniforms, emails etc. Motion - creating animation to play around with the brand Merchandise - pencils, notebooks, case covers |
The tone of voice represents brand personality and values. The choice of words applies to the content you deliver - website, social media posts, emails and any other formats.