Common mistakes that people make with their branding.
We love branding. It’s the most visually inspiring story that you can offer about your business. Your brand allows you to draw users into your world, and gives you the tools you need to create a space that people enjoy visiting again and again.
A logo is not a brand. A logo is a part of your brand, but it's nothing without everything else. Your brand is your tone of voice, your language, your colours, your imagery, your graphics, icons, illustrations, images. It's how much you speak to your client; it's how you speak to your client. It's what you share, what you reshare, how you package, what you post. It's everything and it should all be coming from the same place. It should be considered, thoughtful and wholly you.
Not evolving. So, five years ago you invested in a brand for your business. Amazing, great start. But now we're five years down the line. Are you the same business now as you were then? You haven't grown, nothing has evolved? Of course, it has, so why should your brand still be the same. We’re not suggesting that you need a full, extensive rebrand every few years, but you do need to look at where you are. Is it still serving you? What is missing? What elements don’t you use/like anymore? You may just need a refresh, something to put a little pep back in the step of the brand that you and your clients love.
Inconsistencies. We get it, you've been using your branding for the past 12 months, and you want to shake things up. Maybe with a new font, maybe a new colour - maybe some new icons? Before you know it, your once consistent, beautiful brand is becoming a Frankenstein. Question why it's become inconsistent. Are you just bored? Is the brand not offering enough of what you need? Are your brand guidelines good enough to keep you and others that work for your brand on track? Has it been a while since you last refreshed your brand?
How do I use it?! It’s easy to get swept up in the experience of having your branding created by someone. You can get dazzled by the lovely images and mock ups that they use, and before you know it – it’s signed off and now all over to you.
How do you now use it? Realising that you’re unsure how to implement it, once its signed off and paid for is a little too late - so keep this in mind during the actual design process.
A few things to think about:
How will this sit on my website?
How will this work on my social media?
Can I design a couple of instagram posts using this branding?
Could I create a flyer/poster for my business confidently with this branding?
Don’t be afraid to ask for some assets from your designers so you can start to have a play around with it yourself, before you sign everything off.
Expecting a logo do everything. See ‘A logo is not a brand’ from above. Sometimes people expect their logo to do all the heavy lifting for their business – but this is impossible. A logo cannot tell someone exactly what you do, what you stand for, how you do it and what experience they should expect all within a condensed sequence of type and shapes. Logos that try to do this end up cluttered, messy, hard to read and confused. Your logo should ‘feel’ like your business, it should give a hint, or a look into who you are, with suggestions of what that might mean – but it’s everything else that starts to bring your story into focus.. Stood at the front, your logo leads the charge, but it still needs an army behind it.
Too much change. If you are an established brand with a loyal client base, but you think you want to give your whole business a complete rebrand – just pause for a moment and check you’re doing that for the right reasons. Your clients will have built up a connection and trust with your brand – if you change completely, you break that bond. Sometimes it definitely is needed, and you just need to make sure that your new brand can quickly form those bonds again, whilst attracting new customers. Other times, you may just be rebranding because you think you should, or because you’re bored or because others in your field have, or because your mate Terry said you should. Maybe it’s not a complete revolution that your brand needs, maybe you just need a refresh – maybe your brand just needs to evolve rather than starting all over again.
Not knowing who your brand is for. Starting a new business can be very exciting, and creating your branding suddenly starts to make it all feel real, but make sure you don’t run before you can walk. Take the time to figure out who your brand is for. You probably have a good idea already, but right it all down, do some research and create some user profiles to ensure that you’ve considered every option. Often, when we launch our own brands, we’re creating something for people like ourselves, so we feel we know everything about them. But everyone isn’t like ourselves, and without taking the time you may be missing out of key touch points, opportunities, or whole demographics.