There are alot of exciting things coming up for Deer oh deer, including a 3 Friday run at Old Spitalfields Market, commencing on May 18th. Lottey and I are working on some new designs and busy prepping for our 'live sales' action! Back stage we are getting to grips with all the important things involved in running a successful business like Sales, Marketing, PR and Operations. Alot to think about and work on, but we have a great team and some very good business advisors on board, so I am confident we will make some huge steps in 2012!
This last month I have been trying to work more on how I present my graphic design business Jelli. In particular I want to focus more on making my social media presence more effective and useful for my customers. I have updated the site and done some work on the Facebook page, as well as introduce some cool freebies specifially for Facebook. I am very lucky to have a talented husband who is a photographer, so I have been creating some 'inspirarional' Timeline Cover images for anyone to download and use for FREE!
I am going to attempt to post some useful guides and tips at least once a month via my blog that directly relate to the Jelli side of my life. So I thought I would kick off with some tips about Branding for businesses. I am not an 'expert', but I do know that the experience I have gained through my Jelli work over the last 4 years has taught me some valuable lessons, so I want to share those with you :)
Check back for my next installment... in the meantime here are my
6 KEY TIPS FOR BUILDING YOUR BRAND!
Bold.Open.Useful.New.Consistent.Expandable
Bold
Think BIG when you are building your brand. Even if you have a product or service that
needs more subtle, gentle imagery; keep things as simple and striking as
possible. A strong colour identity and
confident fonts and shapes will immediately give your brand edge and instil
trust in your customers/clients.
Open
Be open and honest about what your product is. The clearer the message your branding gives,
the more likely you are to gain customers/clients, because they will know
exactly what you are offering. Think
about your message and visualise it as an image. For example; if you sell
insurance, how do you want to make your customers feel and what picture does
that conjure up in your mind? Perhaps,
the feeling of security and therefore a smiling face. This can really help to identify the overall
‘look’ of your branding and give your customers instant access to what you are
all about.
Useful
This may seem rather obvious, but it can often be
overlooked! Think about your target
audience; if you gear your branding towards them you will have ‘useful’
branding! If the majority of your
customers are young people, think about what they would like to see. There is no point having a beautiful logo
designed, if it is simply not going to appeal to the people you want to engage!
New
Whatever you do, DON’T copy someone else! It is inevitable that someone else somewhere
on the globe may have a similar idea to you, but try to keep yours as fresh and
unique as possible. Think outside the
box; don’t be afraid to challenge the ‘norm’.
For example, if other businesses in your field commonly use very
‘corporate’ branding, why not make a change and give yourself a real chance to
stand out from the rest!
Consistent
This is probably one of the most important aspects of creating
and maintaining a strong brand. Your
logo and colour scheme is essentially the face of your business and you want
people to remember and recognise it. So,
once you have created yours, USE IT!
Adopt your ‘colour’ across all your marketing materials, even perhaps in
your office or shop décor. Make sure all
your staff have your ‘font’ available to use for headers on documents and use
it for signage where possible. Your branding
should tell a story and become synonymous with everything you do, so don’t let
that slip once you have established it!
Expandable
This one is another important consideration that is often
overlooked. When you are brainstorming
your brands purpose, think about any services or products you may want to
introduce in the future. If you
currently sell apples, but may want to sell another type of fruit next year,
you may want to think twice about having an apple as your logo! (Pretty sure that one is taken anyway!) Think on a broader scale, perhaps a fruit
basket would be better! You never know
how your business will expand, so the wider the capacity you give your branding
at the off-set, the better!
HAPPY BOUNCING!
