When you think of Coca – Cola, what’s the first thing that pops into your head?
For those of you that thought of the colour red, you’re not alone.
That’s the magic of branding. You’ll always associate red with this product as it’s been so cleverly branded for a very, very long time. They practically invented red, right? And let’s not get started on why Santa Claus is red, that’s a whole other rabbit hole!
So how can you make magic through your own branding? Let’s dive into this fascinating world of opportunities…
The power of the USP
Ask yourself this question over, and over, and over again. What makes your business stand out? What can you offer your customers that your competitors can’t? Combine this information with what your customers want and ‘hey presto’, your USP (unique selling point) is born. Your values, your story and your promise are all perfect avenues for you to showcase your uniqueness to the world. Identifying what makes your business special is what will set you apart from the competition, and it’s the best way to kick-start your branding route.
Develop your brand voice and stay consistent by following these five easy steps:
1. Identify your audience
Conduct as much research as physically possible to identify who, what and where your customers are. If you have existing customers, you have a gold mine of information. Dive into their world and find out their interests, needs and pain points and cross reference between individuals to see if you can notice any common characteristics and patterns. This is where you can define your target audience.
If you’re a completely new business, check out who’s buying from your competitors. This type of market research can help you uncover industry trends, consumer buying habits and customer interests. The chances are, these customers will be interested in your business too. So, dig deep and make sure you plant your business feet firmly into your industry field.
2. Your promises, your values and your mission
Summarize the purpose of your business, what you do and how you do it, sprinkle the words with a little fairy dust and voilà you have your mission statement. Mix that with your core values as a business and your promise to your customers and you’ve got the foundations of how you want to represent your business.
The next step is implying these values and promises into your company culture. It’s so important your messaging is clear, concise and widely practiced throughout the company, so your brand image doesn’t get conflicted.
3. Your brand personality
How would you like your brand to be seen? The combination of qualities your company projects will form customer perceptions of your business and ideally attract them to you. Your brand personality is how your customers can build emotional connections with you which comes with heaps of benefits. From customer loyalty to recommendations, the minute this bond is formed, your business stands out.
Pick the traits and qualities you’d love your brand to be associated with and match your voice to this. For example, if your brand personality is friendly, your branding could be happy and welcoming. If you want a real-life example of this – just look at our FigFlex branding, your friendly neighbourhood serviced office provider ;).
4. Brand Assets
This is where your creative flair really kicks in! From colours, fonts, packaging, slogans and your logo, these elements will determine how your business is identified. Certain colours evoke specific emotions and meanings which people will automatically feel from your brand. Remember the coca-cola example? Just the same as certain font styles will project specific messages about your brand i.e. choosing a sophisticated font with neutral colours could represent a luxury brand.
Whichever colour scheme and style you go for, just remember to make it distinctive and easily recognisable. In the words of Richard Gere, ‘Give ‘em the old razzle dazzle and they’ll make you a star!’
5. Be consistent
Once all the above is signed, sealed and delivered, your next move is to keep up with your brand. From your website to social media channels to offline interaction, its super important your branding stays consistent through all avenues. Your customers should know exactly what to expect or feel as soon as they see your logos, content and brand assets.
POV: Apple randomly decides to turn its logo into an orange – could you imagine the upset and uproar from all the people that felt deceived and let down by a company they trust? Oh, it doesn’t bare a thought!
Consistency builds familiarity trust and loyalty, the very foundation of successful branding.
We couldn’t write a blog on branding without hearing from our very own branding experts, so here’s a note from our FigFlex designers about their branding journey…
We’ve carefully crafted the FigFlex brand to reflect our company values and make sure our personality shines through at the same time. We want to visually convey the friendliness of FigFlex and our community spirit through strong and vibrant brand colours with welcoming tones. FigFlex office environments are far from the stuffy office sector some are so used to, we break out of this mould by engaging with people who want a fresh, vibrant, and happier place to work from. We feel we’ve created a brand that makes people feel energised and motivated to succeed in a positive and friendly business community. Once you know your brand personality and values inside out, branding can be pretty straight forward – and don’t forget to have fun with it!