Branding is so much more than just a logo. We understand that most people see a logo as the element which makes a brand recognizable but a logo is only the cherry on top.

Coca-Cola is more than a soda. Starbucks is more than a coffee. Apple is more than a smartphone. These brands offer more than a recognizable logo, they offer an experience that makes their logo memorable.

From the language, they use in their commercials to the colors and typography they run in their Ads. Companies who create strong brands are in it for the long run and these types of businesses thrive once their mission and BRAND become recognizable to the public. It takes that initial push until it can just snowball down the Hill. It may take many hills before making it to the level of giant companies that’s why it’s important to maintain momentum.

What Is A Brand?

Let’s first ask ourselves, what is a brand, and what are the elements they consist of?

A brand is a feature or set of features that distinguish one organization from another. At least that’s the proper definition of a brand but as I stated earlier, a brand is an experience and that experience is what distinguishes one company and its logo from any other company and its logo.

A brand gives your business identity, makes it memorable, builds trust, encourages others to buy from you, supports your marketing campaigns, and brings your employees pride.

Brand Elements & Branding

Branding is the process of researching, developing, and applying brand elements to your company so that consumers can begin to associate your brand with your products or services.

A brand is compromised of a name, tagline, logo, brand voice, mission, color palette, typography, and much more. We will go deeper into how to combine these elements and create a brand that goes to work for you.

Creating A Brand

1. Finding Your Customer Persona

The first step in creating a brand is to first determine your target audience. Take a good look at your product or service and see the type of people whether they be in your personal business or in your industry, and make them into a demographic.

1. What kind of people are they?
2. What are their favorite activities?
3. What is the age range of your customers?
4. What gender is most likely to buy from you?
5. Where do they live?
6. What other brands are they wearing?

All of these are important questions on figuring out who your target audience is, once you’ve figured out who you are selling too then it will be easy for you to target directly to them.

2. Establishing Your Mission statement

The second most important element in starting a brand is your mission.  So ask yourself why you created the company in the first place, some other reason besides just getting money.

Before you can build a brand that your audience recognizes, values, and trusts, you need to be able to express your own passion and purpose that the business provides. Then, every element of your brand (logo, photos, tagline) will reflect the mission. Your brand needs a personality in order to thrive.

Your mission is the constitution which encompasses why your organization exists and why people should care about your brand.

3. Create Your Brand Guidelines

Your brand guidelines include color palette, fonts, phrases, and visual assets.

It takes a Graphic Designer or someone who has a good eye for design to pick out brand colors and fonts. The general rule for color theory and how to go about picking a color for yourself is:

1. First, find out what color represents your brand personality the best. Each color has a unique personality.
2. Once you picked out a color that goes with your brand personality you must pick a complementary color
3. Once you have your main color and its complementary find the analogous color schemes of each and you have your full-color pallet

Typography is more simple, you simply pick two fonts that work well together and stick with those two fonts for your brand.

You’re going to want to build up a photo library of all photos related to your brand. These photos will help you understand your brand visually and will make it easier for others to understand it as well.

Put Your Brand To Work

Now that you have a better understanding of your brand and its elements it’s time to put your brand to work. Make sure that you are omnipresent and display your brand anywhere and any chance you get to. These are channels where you can apply your brand across your business and into the real world.

1. Website

A website is your shop online where thousands of people walk into it every day. Wouldn’t you want your personality and mission to be reflected on your online shop?

Spread your brand across your website, don’t use anything else other than your brand guidelines. Your website is a major part of your company identity, if it doesn’t reflect your brand then it will only confuse your customers.

2. Social Media

If your website is your store online then think about social media as the hallways and walkways in the mall where everybody gathers around for social conversations.

Everything that you are putting out there needs to have your brand on it. Regular posts, carousel, slideshows, videos, stories, infographics, everything has to be presented so that it is easier for customers to recognize your business.

3. Marketing

Marketing is Primarily used to:

1. Get Attention
2. Keep Attention
3. Multiply Attention
4. Convert Attention

It’s critical that you run campaigns that establish brand awareness and introduce yourself to brand new audiences. To take it up another level, You want to convert your customers so that they become your brand ambassadors and keep buying from you. Brand ambassadors also tell others about your brand by commenting and sharing your brand. With your brand guidelines all in order, you already know how your ads should appear and what type of caption to write.

Here is an example of a brand guide that we made for one of our clients Discoverhorizons.