What makes a good brand?

A brand is not merely a logo, or a colour scheme, it is the way in which your consumers see you. It sums up the identity of your company, and differentiates it from your competitors.

Despite what you may think, your brand is defined not by you, but by your customers. Your job is to do everything you can to ensure that they get the right impression, by communicating the goals and values of your business effectively.

Why is branding important?

The impact of good branding can’t always be measured with pinpoint precision, because the benefits are often linked to concepts like recognition and loyalty.

A strong brand will stand out to consumers, drawing attention and improving people’s ability to recall products and services. It will also prompt the development of deeper emotional connections, leading to increased trust and loyalty.

Building on these emotional connections, well-established branding will often have a higher perceived value to consumers (e.g. Pepsi vs supermarket-brand cola). An additional benefit of having clear branding is that you can use it to inform your marketing strategies, guaranteeing consistency across your communications.

What are the key components of a good brand?

Despite the earlier comment that branding is not merely a logo, or a colour scheme, that doesn’t mean that these things aren’t important for creating a good brand. In fact, visual elements such as logos, colours, and fonts act as the face of the brand, and have a huge impact on how recognisable your branding is. If you want an example, just think about Coca-Cola, and the iconic red that runs through every piece of communication that they release. Just that colour on its own is enough to get most people thinking about the company.

Your brand persona and voice are very closely linked. While your persona is the result of the combination of the values and traits exhibited by your brand, your brand’s voice is more about the tone and style in which you present these values and traits. A brand’s voice can be formal, playful, friendly, etc. and impacts the way in which people perceive the brand’s persona. So, your persona is formed by what you see as important, and your voice influences how these key values are presented to your consumers – with excitement, professionalism, or any way that you see fit.

In order for your persona and voice to hold up well, you need to establish strong brand values and guidelines. Your values are the principles and beliefs that your company stands for, and they give direction to your activities, both in marketing and the business as a whole. Clear values are key for allowing your brand to align with consumers that share in what you believe, allowing for deeper connections. Your brand guidelines, however, are put in place as a rule book on how your brand should operate. They ensure that you remain consistent with your communications, from colour scheme and composition, to values and tone of voice.

How do you create or grow a brand?

When developing a new brand, or enhancing an existing one, it is important to ground everything in research. An essential part of this process is making sure that you are aware of your place in the market. By identifying the strengths and weaknesses of your business, you can move forward with a better idea of what you need to focus on.

Past that, it is key to establish what your values are. If you have pre-existing brand values, then now is the time to analyse them, and their suitability to your current situation. Developing a relevant vision of your brand, in the context of the market that you operate in, is a fundamental step in deciding on the values that will shape everything you do.

Additionally, the needs of your consumers in the market need to be considered – what do they want from you? By aligning customer needs with your core values, you will have a far better idea of how to appeal to your target market.

Once these steps have been completed, it is time to delve in to the rest of the key components mentioned earlier. You must craft a distinctive persona and voice, an original visual identity, as well as values and guidelines that are always followed. These things will allow you to develop a brand strategy for the future that is clear and consistent.

At This is Fever, we offer a transformative brand workshop designed to help you establish the essence of your brand. Our team of branding experts will guide you through an in-depth exploration of what truly sets your business apart, challenging you to see your company from a new perspective. Through the course of the workshop, we will have gathered the insights needed to elevate the impact of your branding and help you to stand out in the market.

Find out more by getting in touch, or checking out our brand workshop and brand development services.