Well folks, welcome back. In this post, I want to discuss and really educate what branding is, how it affects us, and what makes good branding.
Now for this Post, I almost made a giant super post with multiple points. But I think for the sake of continuation and advice given to me by my good friend, I'll try to make this a bit more bite-sized than normal.
What is branding
Branding is the identity of your product/Service/Project. It's how and what your audience perceives you as.
Logo Vs Branding
Now a logo is pretty important. But it is not a brand. Rather, it's part of the brand. To help you understand a bit more, I'd like to share some images of an already well-established company. Apple.
I want you to take a close look at this image. What do you see? An iphone? A macbook, peripherals? The apple logo?
What if I told you that everything in this picture is part of Apple's brand? Everything. From the design of their laptops, tablets phones mouses, keyboards, website, customer support, logo and even stores. It is all part of their brand. When you pick up your iphone and turn it on, you're experiencing Apple's brand.
A logo cannot be these things, as a logo is just a graphic. But a logo is very important and essential to a brand. Think of it as part of a tool kit to help convey your image to your audience.
Visualization of Branding
User Experience / Branding Strategy
As illustrated above, this is the brain behind the whole brand. Without a branding strategy, your branding overall isn't going to be executed very well. Branding strategy details and plans out what should be part of the brand, what the brand should feel like and just overall everything that has to do with the brand.
Also, User Experience. What do you want your audience to FEEL when they're using your products and services. What do you want them to feel when they're reading your content? User experience IS what they're experiencing.
Interfacing with Audience
This is how you communicate or interface with your customers. How your branding strategy plots this can determine everything from how you handle customer support, what your employees wear, or how you want your social media to be handled. It is the voice of your brand, and it is very important to how your audience perceives you.
Graphics
Now, Graphics are very important to what you want your brand to feel like. This includes your logo. Which is fairly important because a logo is very comparable to attire. It's one of the first things people notice about your brand. And if executed correctly, it's what they will remember. This also extended out to any graphics you intend to affiliate your brand with. If the suit is dark, then all pieces of the suit need to be dark. Everything about your brand has to feel like they're part of the same thing.
User Interface
This may not apply to everyone's project. And I will admit that this article is a bit more skewed to entrepreneurs and corporations. I will continue further anyway.
User interface is what the skin of your content looks like. When people are browsing your applications, your website, menus, even blogs. What does it look like? What about your products? What do they look like? User interface is a very important aspect and should not be taken lightly.
Marketing and Advertisement
Marketing and advertisement are very important. These are elements that are always going to be seen by the masses. This is the presentation of yourself to your audience. It's how you capture attention and interest, and without it, no one will know you exist. But careful, this is something that has to be thought of with care.
Executing Good branding
Ultimately, the best brands in the world do one thing very well, and that's providing a uniform and unique experience throughout all of it's platforms, products, and services. And they do it consistently through time. Here are some guidelines to help you build your brand.
- Always plot out a Branding strategy
- Focus on what makes you unique and emphasize on that
- Zone in on your audience, think of who your Audience is, and what would get their attention the most
- Graphics are the tools that your brand use, you will always need them
- Define your unique User experience guidelines, think of what you want people to FEEL when they view your content or product.
That's everything I got for now, but tell me what you think? What are some of your favorite brands?
Got a brand? Show us!
#####Thanks for reading, I hope you have a good one!