“How do I make sure that my company literature is sending out the message I want it to?” Whether you like it or not, every business has a brand – from Nat West to Natalie’s Nails. Think of your brand as your business’ personality.
A strong brand differentiates your products and services from your competitors. It engages with your customers and your target market and creates an emotional connection.
Your brand is about more than just your logo. It’s about how you dress, how you and your team answer the phone. It’s about your products, your office, your car or van, and how you communicate to the outside world.
Your brand personality
Let’s start with your brand personality. What you’re trying to do is identify the image and key benefits of your business. Think about:
What you do...what you really do (ie, what are the benefits of your product or service to your clients? );
Who your target market is (it’s ok to have a few, but define them as precisely as possible );
Why they buy from you;
Who your competitors are;
Why you are so much better than your competition;
The image you want to portray of your organisation.
Design can be a very personal, subjective thing. There is no wrong or right in design, but sometimes fonts or colours are inappropriate or send out the wrong signals.
Focus on the brand messages, rather than its effectiveness as a piece of marketing. So look at the fonts, the layouts, the colours, the images used, the text – the ‘tone of voice’ it’s written in and what it says.
Give your notes to a friend or business partner. Do they get that same sense from what they see? If not, can they explain why not?
Is your image consistent? If you put two pieces of literature together, can you see that they come from the same organisation?
Some simple things that you can do to improve your branding
Evaluate everything you do against your brand personality. Create a set of brand guidelines, however simple, and give them to anyone who has anything to do with your organisation (graphic and web designers, printers, copywriters, marketers ). Good graphic designers can help you to create this. When briefing anyone, make sure you have communicated the look and feel you’re going for. You don’t need to tell them how you want it to be laid out, just the image you want to portray.
Keep control of your brand! If you’re happy that your brand is where you want it to be, make sure everything supports that design, and if it’s moved too far from there, make sure you tell your designer.
Keep a consistent look across everything you do – website, emails, letters, printed marketing literature, even your offices and car.
If you have staff, get them involved in the process of creating your brand personality.
Look at what your competitors are doing – what do they do that you like? Be honest.
Talk to your friendly KK Print & Design staff about how they could improve your branding. Call into the store at Unit 6a, Inish Carraig, Golden Island, Athlone, tel (090 ) 6477054, or visit www.printing.com
