Standing out above competitors in the 21st century requires far more than good products and great customer service. In today’s world, branding is the key to winning customers and becoming a success. Brands work well because they are recognisable and easy to trust, which makes it easy for customers to chose to purchase from them in such a crowded market place.

Good brands are often simple yet impactful and have the potential to become global. Brands such as Nike, Apple and Disney, for example, have customers in almost every corner of the world and each new product that they release is guaranteed success because of this large, loyal customer base. Creating a brand requires trial and error- you hardly ever get it right the first time! This article will guide you through the main design stages of creating a brand.

Establish your brand goals and voice

Before you being to delve into the design process of creating a brand, it is important that you establish a clear brand voice and that you set your goals straight. Without clear priorities, the branding process can become very confusing. The best brands know exactly why they want to create their products, what makes their products better than competitors, who they want their products to be targeted at and what message they want the brand to send across to consumers.

For brands to connect with consumers, they need to have an appealing ‘personality’. This all comes from knowing your message and sticking to it throughout your branding process. You should spend time thinking about your aims and ensure that every member of your branding team shares the same understanding of your brand’s goals and voice.

Market research

Once you know who your brand will be aimed at, it is important to learn exactly what they’re are looking for in the brands that they buy from. Every audience demographic will have slightly different likes, dislikes and needs and knowing what these are will help you to focus your branding for optimal impact. Market research can be carried out via questionnaires on social media or by analysing the stats of competing brands. Learn what other brands do well and what they could improve on, this will help you to fill a gap and give competing brands audiences a reason to start buying from your brand instead.

Designing the visuals

Visuals make brands recognisable and are a great way to ramp up an advertising campaign. The most common visual elements that brands will use to establish themselves are logos, typography, mascots, colour schemes and website design.

Logos are the first thing that customers will associate with your brand. Effective logos are simple, unique and interesting. Your logo should be in line with the personality of your brand but, you should try to avoid making it too busy as this will be difficult for consumers to recognise in advertising.

Synergy is the best way to establish a brand through visuals. Synergy means that all colours, fonts, layouts and logos associated with your brand are similar and link well together. Using synergy will create a strong brand ‘look’ which will help customers to remember the brand and quickly spot it in advertising.