When we love a brand, we stick with it.
We check social media to see what they’re up to and blog posts to learn from them. The brands we trust become reliable friends, there to help when day-to-day problems impact us.
According to research, brand loyalty is worth up to 10 times as much as a single purchase. So how do you convince customers to remain loyal to your brand?
Keep reading to discover the eight elements you need for impactful brand design.
With these tips, you can develop a corporate brand that keeps customers loyal for a long time.
1. Purpose and Positioning
Your brand isn’t just a logo or color scheme. It also involves emotional, intangible elements as well. Together, every part of your brand helps you create an experience for your customers.
Before you can develop the visual part of your brand, you need to determine its purpose and position:
- Brand purpose is the reason your brand exists
- Brand positioning involves your competitive advantage and customers
Establishing the brand’s purpose and position will inform everything else moving forward.
Let’s start with your brand purpose. How does your brand change the world? Think about what’s happening in the world that’s relevant to your business.
Then, think about what your brand delivers.
The overlap—what your brand delivers to benefit the world—is your brand purpose.
Brand positioning, on the other hand, makes that purpose actionable. Knowing your target customers and competitors will tell you how to accomplish your purpose.
2. In-Depth Market Research
In-depth market research can help determine your corporate identity’s:
- Market
- Customers
- Competitors
It can also help you pinpoint the world events that connect back to your brand purpose.
Try talking to your customers. Learn about who they are, what they need, and the problems they’re facing. You can also break your target audience into buyer personas based on:
- Likes
- Dislikes
- Purchase behavior
- Demographics (age, gender, marital status, education)
Dig into the details. Specifics can help you emotionally appeal to customers through your brand. When you know what your customers care about, it will become easier to speak with them.
Don’t forget competitor research. Recognizing what elements other companies use in their brand design can help you differentiate. That way, your visual identity will stand out from all the rest.
3. A Distinct Personality
Imagine your brand as a living, breathing person. How would they act? What would they say?
That brand personality can impact the tone and voice you use, as well as your messaging. Without a personality, customers might feel confused about who you are and what you do. A distinct personality, on the other hand, is easy to recognize and connect with.
A professional agency can help you develop the fresh, distinct personality you need to connect with customers.
As an important part of your overall brand identity, the personality can help you communicate with customers on a personal level.
4. An Eye-Catching Logo
Now it’s time to bring these branding elements to life.
Your logo is a central part of your entire brand identity. Your customers will see this piece of your brand more than anything else. It ties all your marketing materials together.
Your logo can communicate class, sophistication, and professionalism.
On the other hand, changing the imagery, font, and colors can communicate laughter, fun, and childhood memories.
A logo should look recognizable. Otherwise, you’re fading into the background. Keep simplicity in mind, too.
A cluttered, complicated logo will look messy and hard to read. A simple logo, on the other hand, works for a wide range of marketing materials.
Whether you’re using traditional marketing with flyers and brochures or digital ads, a simple logo can work everywhere.
5. A Distinct Color Palette
For a distinct color palette, consider one to three primary colors. You can use different color schemes such as monochromatic, analogous, or complementary.
What about color psychology?
By instinct, we associate red with passion (red roses). Meanwhile, we connect green to nature and health (leafy vegetables). Yellow, on the other hand, is vibrant and energetic (sunshine).
Think about the message you’re trying to convey. Even changing a color’s shade or tint impacts the messaging. For example, lighter blues are calming, but darker blues convey trust.
6. The Right Type
Font also plays a part in your brand design. The typography you choose should mesh well with your logos and color palette.
Don’t get too fancy, but don’t choose a default font, either. Instead, try to find a serif and sans-serif that contrast for balance. Make sure they’re legible, too.
The right combination can help you stand out.
7. Interesting Imagery
Supporting graphics will communicate your brand identity. These graphics include:
- Photos
- Icons
- Design assets
Try to develop an asset library of images that have the same look and feel. Otherwise, customers might not associate the images with your brand.
Determining a go-to set of images will help keep your future marketing materials consistent.
8. Brand Guidelines
According to research, consistent brand presentation across all platforms increases revenue by up to 23%.
Once you’ve developed the above brand elements, you can create brand guidelines to bring it all together. That way, everyone in your company is on the same page and working from the same vision.
The brand guidelines will outline when and where different visuals are used.
From letterheads to a social media post, these guidelines will keep your brand design consistent. Continuous brand consistency will help customers recognize you whether they’re online or in your store.
Beautiful Branding: 8 Elements for Effective Brand Design
Effective brand design requires a lot more than a color and font type. To stand out from the crowd, you need research, personality, and brand guidelines to keep it all consistent.
Once customers see your brand regularly, they’ll begin to recognize you on sight. That brand recognition will lead to brand loyalty, allowing you to keep customers around for a long time.
Request a quote from our team today to discover your new corporate brand.
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