For many, branding still refers mostly to the visual style and the name of an organization or product. And no wonder when even sources like Cambridge Dictionary still today define branding as an act of giving a company a particular design or symbol in order to advertise its products and services.
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In reality, modern branding is much more than the visual style, logo, or a name. It means how people perceive the product or organization. By focusing purely on the visual identity, one excludes the other aspects that play a crucial role in how the consumer builds their mental image of the brand.
Instead of thinking about how the brand looks, think about how the customer experiences it.
Think about the touchpoints
The brand is built by various things, including values, customer service, communication and marketing activities, general reputation, social responsibility, and, of course, the visual style.
Before taking the fastest way towards the launch to the market by creating a brand manual with a logo, a bunch of colours, and a pamphlet about how to use them, it is crucial to take some time to get into the very basics of the brand.
At this stage, the aim is to find all touchpoints you have with a potential client. These touchpoints refer to all the places people come across with your brand. To send a coherent, trustworthy, and real brand image, the desired message needs to be communicated at every touchpoint.
If other touchpoints are forgotten and the focus stays mainly on the visual style, you control only a small portion of how people perceive the brand. When this control is lost, you have very little, if any, power to affect the way your brand is perceived outside the focus area of your visual identity.
By focusing on the big picture of your brand and thinking about all the touchpoints people have with it, you make sure you pass the desired brand message at every one of those points.
Cover these touchpoints and make sure that each one increases your brand value – or don’t and risk letting them decrease the brand value by passing an undesired message to your audience.
When the groundwork on the brand is done, you can finally let the visual designer work their magic on the look of the brand.
