Introduction

Branding is the talk of the business town. A brand is the personality, expected experience and emotional attachment towards a business entity or a person. In other words, brand is how people think and talk about you when you are not in the room. The process of defining the philosophy of a business is branding.

Branding leads to lasting business relationships and a higher rate of peer recommendation which is free marketing for the business. In this article I’ll discuss a few suggestions for better brand recognition among your audience.

Misconceptions about Branding

There are numerous myths about branding.

Branding is not the same as logo and visual designs. It is the philosophy behind the design. Why we design what we design, is branding. The visual designs are derived from the values and beliefs of the business. I’ll tell you more about that in the later part of this article.

A lot of business people misunderstand advertisement and marketing material for branding. Advertisement and marketing is the communication of a promise of expected experience for an exchange of value. It is a contract between the business and its audience. Here defining what the customer’s expected experience (i.e. the promise made by the marketing and advertising) is referred to as branding.

It is not uncommon for certain shops in your local neighborhood to have businesses that are in operation three to four generations in. They have a reputation for behaving a certain way in their shop. That’s their branding. Knowing and applying those principles consciously becomes their branding. If there’s one thing that my extensive experience in branding has taught me it is that with proper understanding of the personality and the presence of an unique experience, one can create a captivatingly attractive and profoundly effective brand recognition.

Simplified Anatomy of a Brand

Branding includes the following components. There are more comprehensive ways that a brand can be defined. Explaining all of it would be way out of the scope of this article. Hence here’s just a glimpse.

Core Value

It is the governing principle or philosophy by which you or your business operates. For example, Karunya has set “Compassion” as the core value. Solving Human Problems is the extension from the core value. All the vision and mission statements relate back to the original core value. Likewise set yourself a core value. This is where your journey of branding starts.

If you are a data analyst, you can set your core value as a “truth seeker”, which will tell more about you than you can ever communicate otherwise. This is something that must be close to your heart. You can start from where you started your career in that field. Or you can observe what really hits you when you successfully finish a deal or a freelance job. That will be your core value, the experience people can get by interacting with you. It is the emotional context of what you do.

Value Proposition

You must have a set of Unique Selling Points about your product or service that is relatable and has a demand for. There are various kinds of value you can add to your product or service. Here are a few things to ponder,

Financial Benefit
Emotional Satisfaction
Comfort
Sense of Pride
Authenticity
Trust
Serviceability

Value Proposition is easily recognizable, measurable and realistic. Always remember to under promise and over deliver. That way your clients will develop trust and confidence in you and your business.

Market Positioning

As a small business or a freelancer you might struggle to get your clients/customers recognize your credibility and expertise. Building authoritative credibility and proof of expertise has never been easier. All you have to do is, show up in a space where your audience hangs out and showcase your skills. For example, if you own a bridal makeup business, you can collaborate with a photographer and share samples of your work with their audience. For some it may be writing blogs. This is called content marketing. You create content in a way that will allow people to discern your skills. To do this, I recommend that you analyse how you can creatively show your work and where you can share them effectively.

Interaction and Experience

Silicon Valley’s explosive growth of ‘App Development’ led to the rapid growth of ‘Interaction and Experience Design’. It helps them compete on the same platform for attention and retention effectively. It is not limited to websites and apps. It can be applied to every business operation.

The locations where you or your business interact with the customer are the touch points. If you have an office, it’s a touch point for your customer. What they feel when they are there will become your brand in their mind. Your social media pages and websites are touch points. Defining the interaction process for better experience makes the difference between branded and mediocre business. Observe each step of your business interaction and try to determine how the customer feels at each point. Make efforts and create systems that reduce hassle and stress. Keep doing this as long as you can. You will become the industry leader because of how your customer feels about you.

Visual Identity

Visual identity is the clothing of the brand. All the above mentioned components are the personality of the brand. It is easier to dress up like a billionaire. But it takes serious efforts, rigor and a personality to become one. Similarly creating a visual identity is easier than living up to it. Here are the components of a good Visual Identity system.

Legible Logo on various sizes and backgrounds
Reusable, flexible and recognizable visual style
Consistent web, social media and print designs

To know more about this you can pretty much look up the term “Visual Identity System”. The rule of thumb here is to create visual content that is relatable, easier to consume and entertaining to the selected audience of the brand. Researching for an audience is a topic for another day. I do recommend hiring a good graphic designer for this. You can build a unique identity system and sign a contract for your design requirements with them on a monthly subscription basis. This way you can keep your visual identity consistent and updated.

Conclusion

I hope this article provided you with enough information to develop a unique brand for yourself or your business. For further queries you may reach me at dpmgodson96@gmail.com. Have a great life!