Branding is important – and it is a combination of what your company ‘looks like’, what you say (your message) and what you do. Your logo, presentation, marketing material and customer interaction all need to be consistent.
The style all needs to match so, if you’ve got funky colours in your logo and branding, but your language and service are on the formal side you’ll find customers don’t feel comfortable. If you use a conservative font, but offer a refreshing new approach, people will struggle to reconcile the different ‘messages’ they’re getting.
A good designer will help you to develop your visual brand, colours and style, but you need to be conscious of all the other elements:
- The words on your website
- The style and approach of your marketing material
- The kind of material you blog about
- How you and your team address clients and potential clients by email
- The approach you choose when you interact with people by phone and face-to-face
In an ideal world this means that you need to think about all this when you’re developing your brand, but, for most companies, the brand evolves as the company develops, but that doesn’t mean that it automatically creates consistency.
If you’re looking at revamping your brand remember that designers tend to see things visually and may not necessarily look at the words that go with the brand or at the way your team operate. It’s worth looking around until you find a designer who looks at the whole organisation before developing your brand. It’s also a good idea to talk to your clients about how they see you, what words would they use to describe the kind of service your deliver?
Your brand is your company saying ‘this is who we are’ so it needs to be an accurate reflection of how you operate, not just something visually attractive.
