Would your customers recognise your brand if your logo was not attached? This is an interesting question. I have been reading a lot about brand awareness and brand recognition this week and what has stood out to me is that in our modern, technology-driven world we need to ensure that our brand stands out, even if our logo is not attached or on an image, for example.
What do I mean or How do we do this?
Let’s look at Woolworths as an example. Woolworths is a well-known brand in South Africa. They are known for general high-quality products and service. Their branding carries this through with clean images, often with a white or black background and clean fonts and advertising.
Would you recognise Woolworths without their logo? Let’s look at a photo that they recently tweeted:
https://twitter.com/WOOLWORTHS_SA/status/516950629843861504
Here, their “W” or “Woolworths” name branding is not clearly visibly, however, their image is clearly Woolworths. We can recognise this by the fonts, the clean images on a white background and other subtle elements.
Why is this so important for my brand?
Another great question. Looking again at the example above, this image was Tweeted – we live in a world where the way we interact with customers is different. A huge part of this was the birth of Social Media. Social Media gave the client more power and there are a lot of people wanting your client’s attention.
On Social Media, your community is bombarded daily with thousands of images, advertising and articles. Images need to be clearly branded but we can’t brand it in the conventional way. Firstly, the images need to be clear and uncluttered to grab our follower’s attention and secondly, if we brand every image in the conventional way it will come across as advertising and be ignored even if it is not advertising. We need to approach selling in a very different manner and we need to sell ourselves first before we sell our product or service.
[Tweet “We need to approach selling in a very different manner and we need to sell ourselves first…”]
Gareth Hardy shared the following tips when it comes to visual brand recognition:
- Choose the right brand name. Even though naming isn’t technically part of the visual design process of brand identity, the brand name should still be considered a visual element. A strong brand name shouldn’t just sound right and be easy to pronounce; it should look right too.
- Create a consistent visual style. All of the brand elements should follow a consistent visual style throughout. If, for example, a decision is made to design a brand identity that is visually romantic and endearing, then this style should be applied to all visual elements. Exceptions can be made for advertising campaigns, but the overall brand identity should always be uniform.
- Develop a compelling logo. The logo is the flagship image of any brand. Logos can quickly speak volumes about your business, your mission and what services you offer. An enterprise without a logo has no chance of making an impact on its target audience.
- Pay attention to color. Colors can play an integral role in brand recognition and brand loyalty. They influence our emotions and help us distinguish between competing brands. Having acknowledged this, considerable research should be carried out before deciding on a final brand color or palette.
- Select appropriate typography. Typography concerns the style and appearance of any lettering or fonts used as part of your visual brand identity. These characteristics can have a significant influence over people’s purchasing decisions and help to further emphasize the message of your brand. Typeface and font choice can affect whether the right message is being communicated and these should conform to the overall visual brand style.
Tell us what makes your brand stand out in the comments below!
