While designers are concerned about the various colour modes in graphic design, brand stewards are looking for ways to use colours to reinforce their brand. Colour is one of the key elements when creating a brand. We have business owners or brand stewards that come to us, telling us to avoid using their brand colours in their marketing collaterals because they are tired of looking at the same colours over and over again. We understand what they are going through but as visual communicators we know that may not benefit their brand. Knowing the importance and impact colour brings to your brand is critical in creating a strong and cohesive brand identity. Colour brings emotions and feelings that are subjective to an individual based on culture, personal experience, religion, gender, etc. Colour plays an important role in visual communication. We use colours on text and images to reinforce desired connotations. How and why are colours important in branding?

1. Colours Encourage Brand Consistency

A brand identity can comprise of the logo, corporate stationery, marketing collaterals, packaging, uniform, livery, etc. Every communication device or symbol a corporate uses, add up to form the brand identity. In fact, colours are part of a brand’s identity. Consistency is the most important element to establishing a strong brand. Brand consistency can be attained through visual consistency, which is defined by the brand identity created by branding agencies or graphic designers. In graphic design, visual consistency can be achieved by the appropriate use of forms & shapes, patterns & lines, design & illustration styles, fonts, imageries, textures, etc. Employing colours is the easiest and most feasible way to ensure visual consistency across the different communication mediums. Defining brand colours encourage brand consistency which builds consumer trust.

2. Colours Bring Desired Associations to the Brand

Colours do not have meanings by themselves. Rather, people associate meanings to colours through what they perceive in their daily lives. People learn or are taught the meaning of colours through what they see. The stationary red man on the pedestrian light tells us not to cross the road – danger lurks. The walking green man on the pedestrian light signals us to cross the road – it is safe. We associate ‘danger’ to the colour red and ‘safe’ to the colour green. Colour associations are subjective and they are influenced by culture, personal experience, religion, gender, geographical location, etc. It is therefore, important for brand stewards to know their target audience in order to use colours strategically to draw desired associations to the brand.

3. Colours Define the Brand’s Visual Territory

In the world of brands, brand stewards are always looking for opportunities of colours. Given a choice, stewards would not use the same brand colours that their competitors are using. Having the same brand colours as your competitors can cause confusion to your audience. If you are a trailblazer company in your trade, congratulations! You’ve got the entire colour palette to choose from. Once you’ve identified your brand colours, use them consistently to form a strong brand identity. And when you’ve used them enough, you literally get to own the colours. Whenever a consumer comes across your marketing collateral clad in your brand colours, they will relate it to your brand. Colours define your brand’s visual territory. They put the audience in a familiar environment where they consume your marketing messages.

What brand colours do you own? How have you been using them to strengthen your brand?

Not all cheap designs are bad. And not all expensive designs benefit your business. The sole discretion of which offer to take, lies on the hands of brand stewards. Many clients who do not understand marketing and communication design often go for the cheapest price quote rather than the higher ones that promise better quality. Are you someone who go for designs that are value for money or simply designs that are priced the lowest? Most importantly, have you ever considered what you are really paying for?

This Branding Agency Can Create a Brand Identity for $500.

Sure. Your business targets the high brow market. But the brand identity defined by the branding agency probably gets ignored by the target audience and only appeals to the low brow market. You’ve probably bought a brand identity that does not resonate with your target audience for a cheap price.

My Graphic Designer Can Design a Business Logo for $5.

Definitely! You’re likely to end up with just a logo in JPEG format. You give this logo to the vendor for your store signage to be made. The logo’s resolution is too low. They ask for a logo in EPS or AI format. You do not have it and the vendor impose additional charges to have your logo retraced. There are many other issues you may get yourself into if you do not have a professional logo designed. You’ve probably paid for a logo that cannot meet your business needs for a cheap price.

That Web Design Company Can Design a Website for $800.

Unquestionably! You’ll probably get a ten-page website with your own images and textual content. Your website is not search engine friendly and will never appear on the Search Engine Ranked Page (SERP) results. The images on your website are not optimised and cause a long loading time which present a poor online experience. The filenames, titles and alt texts are not set to help increase exposure for your business. The navigation on the website is confusing and causes a high bounce rate. The design of the website is lacklustre and does not encourage the reader to spend more time on it. You’ve probably bought a dysfunctional website for a cheap price.

This Graphic Design Company Can Design a Brochure for $100.

Certainly. More than often, when you get a low priced design quote, you’ll only receive desktop publishing level of skills to craft your brochure. Desktop publishing (DTP) is a process that designers or even non-designers use to turn their images and textual content into marketing collaterals. DTP does not require extensive digital imaging and a creative process. It is a process that only requires the skill-sets of bringing images and text together to showcase the information. Graphic design on the other hand, involves the creative process of coming up with concepts, ideas and graphical arrangements for communicating a specific message in the form of a visual. The main aim of graphic design is to make effective communication and bring a favourable impact to the businesses’s bottom line. Good design is geared to convince the audience to act to your call to action. You’ve paid $100 for the brochure design. You’ve also paid for a brochure that does not yield conversions for a cheap price.

Poor design forms negative brand sentiments and good design makes positive associations. It would have been better for you never to want a design made than to have a poor design that causes harm to your business. The next time you accept a design price offer, know what you are really getting.

The bottom line of branding is to achieve Top-Of-Mind Awareness (TOMA) for your business. It simply means to position your brand or specific product and have it occupy the topmost position of customers’ minds when they think of your industry. In marketing, Top-Of-Mind Awareness is a way of measuring how well brands rank in the minds of consumers. TOMA when defined in marketing metrics, is the first brand that comes to mind when a consumer is asked an unprompted question about a category. It is the percentage of customers for whom a given brand assumes the topmost of their minds.

Let’s illustrate TOMA with an example. We walk into a supermarket with the intent to buy a jar of peanut butter; Brand X flashes in our minds; in a jiffy we move towards the shelf, locate it and make the purchase. It doesn’t just happen. We were exposed to consistent branding efforts of Brand X; we were told of their unique selling proposition and brand promises; we liked the messages and experiences that we had received and placed the brand at the topmost position of our minds. Achieving TOMA is beneficial for businesses. How do brands achieve TOMA?

1. Increase Your Brand Exposure

When a business increases its brand exposure, it builds brand awareness. Your business can never achieve TOMA if nobody knows of your existence. Lets do a simple test. Shout out the first brand that comes to mind when I say cola? How about running shoes? And yes, our answers are all based on the brands that we know and have been exposed to. Those brands that we have never come across will not be mentioned in our answers.

There are many ways to make brand exposures. Your brand can be exposed to the public when you engage in community work. A marketing campaign that carries your brand identity is a brand exposure. A social media platform can be the place where your brand is exposed to the online community. The list just doesn’t end. There are countless ways to increase your brand exposure.

2. Make Brand Promises

Make promises that a consumer can connect with your brand. Brand promises are the audience expectations of a brand. They are the benefits that marketing campaigns try to associate with a product or service in the audiences’ minds. Brand promises can be communicated through visible or audible mediums. Brand promises are relevant even in the case when consumers do not immediately heed your call to action which may include buying your product or acquiring your service. Promises reside in the mind of consumers and collectively, they inch your brand towards the topmost of their minds.

3. Deliver a Positive Brand Experience

We have to be mindful that brand exposure is like a double-edged sword. Every brand exposure creates an experience and finally forms a perception to the consumers. A poor experience or design creates negative brand sentiments. A good experience or design makes positive impressions. It is therefore important for companies to produce quality experiences out of the brand exposures they make. The next time when you decide to settle for poor designs, think again! Poor communication design is detrimental to your brand.

Top-Of-Mind Awareness is the end goal for branding. Businesses of the same industry vie for the same topmost spot in consumers’ minds. It is the prized throne that is sought after by many. How well is your brand ranking? Start vying for the throne if you haven’t already!

A brand is represented by its name, which is in turn, characterised by symbols. To better understand what is a brand, do read this together with our preceding article that addresses branding through the typical brand model. Brand symbols can be:

The marketplace is full of brands. A brand is more than a name or symbol. It is at least two things: a name and a perception of what the name means. A brand is also a sign which comprise a signifier and a signified.

Branding is an important aspect in marketing and eventually it leads to Top-Of-Mind Awareness for your business. Understand branding through the brand model! It’ll give you a clear picture of branding and the different aspects to it. An effective brand strategy gives you an edge over your competitors. In simple terms, your brand is your promise to your customers. It relates to them what is expected from your products or services and distinguishes yourself from the competition in the marketplace. How does a new business kick off with branding?

1. Get a Good Logo Designed

Designers empower brand stewards with a great logo that is to be integrated in every single marketing collateral of the business. The logo is a visual symbol that represents the brand name and in most cases, it is the strongest symbol for a brand.

2. Create a Brand Masterplan

Know where your branding efforts are taking you to. Strategise, implement actions and measure the results. The plan is the road map for brand stewards to press on to their destination.

3. Define Your Brand Message

What do you want to communicate about your brand? Your brand messages should be made known to your employees. Employees are brand stewards. They live out and deliver your brand message to the audience or customer.

4. Be True to Your Brand

Deliver on your brand promise. A good experience influences the audience and develops a positive perception for your brand. The perception in return, will influence and shape the next experience in queue. A satisfied customer will return to you or refer your business to someone else.

5. Be Consistent

Ever wonder why big brands are so successful? Consistency is the word. It is the most important element to establishing a strong brand. Sculpt the perception of your audience to your brand name! This is the ever-going goal for any brand steward.