From business to brand. It’s not just about the logo

Let’s make it bigger.

Can you make it the same but in pink / yellow / blue / green?

Dekh ke maza aana chahiye!

If you have given or received such feedback, you know what we are going to talk about today.

Yes, LOGOS! Every time there’s a conversation around brand building, the first thing that comes to mind after a brand name is the logo.

Discussions over logos notoriously take over branding meetings, leaving precious little for the other crucial aspects of business promotion and advertising. And it’s time to realize that … a brand is more than just its logo. A brand is a living entity that walks, talks, grows and influences the people around it. Wish to know what makes your business a brand? Scroll down!

YOUR BRAND MUST HAVE A PURPOSE

So, what does your brand deliver? What does it want to be? Who does the brand speak to? Who should sit up and notice the brand? How would your ideal customer describe your brand? If you never asked these questions about your brand, then you must NOW.

For instance, your business might be that of making artisanal chocolates; but what it actually does as a brand is provide joy to the consumer, the experience of enjoying a delicious treat. That is the actual purpose of the said chocolate business.

Similarly, every brand has its purpose, a problem it solves, and questions it provides answers to. By defining this PURPOSE, the mission and vision of your business is formed. And this should be the first step you take in the process of branding, even before you think of a logo.

YOUR BRAND HAS A PERSONALITY

If your brand was a person, who would it be? How would he/she dress, what would be their favourite food, in which language would they talk? These questions help you define a personality for your brand. And when your brand has a personality, it is able to connect with the kind of people it wishes to serve.

So, how do you want your brand to be?

Approachable, genuine, validating and emotional, having an impact on the customer every time he/she engages with it.

Basically, MAKE YOUR BRAND HUMAN. To come up with a personality for your brand, you must…

• First consider the purpose and the message you want to convey.
• Study your competition and think of what will make your brand stand out from them.
• Come up with adjectives and phrases that describe your brand, like, Sophisticated yet Rugged, Intellectual but Street Smart, Honest and Friendly.

See what we did there? This is how you define your brand’s personality.

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Why DESIGN is the hero of your digital marketing strategy

Social media is no longer a child’s play. With more people having access to high speed internet connected to devices with the latest technology, a mere text post will get lost in the sea of millions of pieces of content being put out online daily. And this is where your design intelligence makes your stand out from the herd.

THE IDEA BEHIND A DESIGN

There is no dearth of written marketing content trying to sell you things online on websites though blogs and articles, but what sets the social media apart is its fusion of visuals and text. And in order to garner the attention of a potential consumer, one must use these elements in balance to create an impeccable design that speaks to him/her.

By picking the right colour and font for your brand and using them consistently in your designs, you convey the mood, meaning and feeling of the brand, and thus targetting a specific set of audience. And when you fit all this together with your content in the right copy space, you are effectively delivering your message to the consumers.

SIZE MATTERS (A LOT!)

One of the biggest mistakes businesses make in order to save costs on design (BTW, a big NO NO!) is create one graphic image or poster for both Instagram and Facebook. But one needs to understand both platforms have different post sizes for both desktop and mobile. This is to provide the user with the best quality in visuals of the graphics.

If one doesn’t optimize their posts according to the social media platforms, the image or graphic will pixelate, thus killing the design and the entire message you wanted to convey. Given below are the sizes one should use while designing for Facebook and Instagram

Facebook Post: 940 X 788 px
Facebook cover: 820 X 312 px (desktop) & 640 X 360 px (for mobile)
Stories & IGTV: 1080 X 1920 px
Instagram Post: 1080 X 1080 px (Square), 1080 X 1350 px (Portrait) & 1080 X 608 px (landscape)

MORE VISUALS, FEWER TEXT

Visuals always have an upper hand over text when it comes to social media. It has been observed that more people respond to images and videos than written content. Hence it is advisable to involve more visuals in your social media marketing.

You will attract more eyeballs when the images are original and the videos have real people in it and not just graphics. Use text only if it is necessary to convey a specific message, like an address, phone number, website or slogan. But make sure your visuals always have space for your logo.

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