Having a robust brand shapes marketing strategy and supports business goals related to customer experience. When building a brand consider the following: 

❇️ Target Audience 

Research by talking (via social media, survey, or in-person) to current and potential customers about what they’re looking for in a brand that sells similar products or services. Use their language when describing your brand and see where they align with your brand’s existing values. This will make them feel heard and you can see where your strengths and vulnerabilities lie within the sales funnel of your product or services. 

❇️ Visual Components 

Your business needs to be recognizable. First, start off with a color palette. Research color used by competitors. Do you want to use similar palettes, or do you want to try something new not typically seen in your industry? Make sure they are culturally appropriate (Western vs Eastern ideology). Include primary and secondary colors. Secondly, determine if you want your logo to be a letter mark, wordmark, pictorial mark, or combination mark. What would make clients be able to recognize your brand online or on a store shelf? Thirdly, choose typography that fits the mood, readability, formality, and adaptability of your brand. This not only applies to your logo, but also to fonts used on taglines, websites, and printed materials. Fonts have personality. Look for free and licensed fonts that compliment your brand. 

❇️ Additional Elements 

Gather assets used for marketing materials. For photos, think about the tone or mood that they give off. Look at the lighting and layout of the subject. Consider if you want a designer to edit them as surreal-style artwork or just do minor touch-ups. For illustrations, make sure they are using your brand’s color pallet and have a consistent style. Consider custom icons to use digital marketing interfaces. Make sure they are not overly complicated and work for small sizes. Create social media templates in your brand’s style to fit the audience of each platform. 

❇️ Brand Guidelines

Create a style guide or manual. Have the information for your color palette, typefaces, logo do’s & don’ts, photo or illustration samples, icon info, and other data visualizations, so whoever is in charge of marketing can give it to a designer. This will help the designer stay consistent when creating materials for your brand. The consistency will help you become recognizable to your loyal and new clients. 

Start building your brand by calling 248.528.3600