Maintaining a brand identity is no easy feat. The biggest brands have had years to strengthen and build up how they present themselves. These brands have the reputation to change whenever they need to go in a new direction. Branding impacts nearly every facet of how you do business, such as how your business looks, how it communicates, and how it markets. That’s why it’s integral to build a brand that customers can easily connect with, and also why you should maintain a strong brand personality throughout all of your online activities.  Continue…

In history classes growing up, we’ve studied the importance of the printing press and how it led to a revolution: the rise in literacy rates and the spread of knowledge across the world. More recently, however, we have encountered another revolutionary invention that democratized the digital world and pioneered graphic design. The introduction of the Macintosh computer in 1984 changed the design world forever with its featured font menu. After taking a calligraphy class at Reed College, Steve Jobs understood the importance of typeface and later integrated this feature into his computer. This type menu has transformed design forever and become an integral part of artistic composition. As you devise your branding and marketing efforts, keep in mind the importance font plays in identifying with target audiences, gaining the attention of consumers and creating an image that resonates with them.

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Brand strategy as a concept can often be bit murky or esoteric. Whether you’re an established business or an individual searching for a more prominent way to self-brand, it can be difficult to identify a starting point and select a course of action. Social media offers endless opportunity for engagement, so maintaining a cohesive presence across platforms can be daunting. It’s important to remember that your strategy is your anchor, and keeps your team in sync with how your brand interacts with the world.

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Identifying your target market isn’t easy, and it takes time. Once you’ve identified your target market, you need to get in front of them, grab their attention and give them a relatable reason for why they should choose your product or service. This is where it gets tricky–it is up to you to also give your customer something in return for their attention. In other words, you had better know your audience.

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All successful brands have one core element in common, consistency. Would we all have memorized the Nike slogan (“Just do it.”) if their marketing team used a new slogan for every product? Would we be able to see a yellow “M” and instantly think of McDonalds if the color changed every week? Brand recognition is difficult to achieve. However, once it is acquired, that brand can then work its way into the consumer’s evoked set. This essentially means that your brand is then stuck in their head, for quick recollection when needed, which is exactly where we want it.

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Branding is often discussed everyday by individuals in the marketing, advertising and design industries, but rarely is it defined with a simple answer. In brief, branding is one of the most important tools a company can utilize to reach their target market, build recognition and develop customer relationships. It includes a wide range of factors such as logos, colors, patterns, typefaces, imagery, packaging, taglines, wording and more, all of which combine to create your company’s image.

Why Do Consumers Need Consistency?

In order to build a strong brand, you must stay consistent throughout all of your selected mediums. This strategy creates the opportunity to gain brand recognition among your target audience when done correctly. On top of that, consistency brings clarity and purpose that consumers then buy into. In turn, consumers become loyal to a brand. However, building this kind of trust takes time and effort.

Most consumers have to be exposed to a brand many times before they are loyal to it. So a consistent brand message has to be established so that consumers will immediately distinguish it from a competing brand. This means a business potentially loses customers, and may even help its competitors, if a consistent “look” and tone is not achieved. Continue…