6 Branding Best Practices To Make Your Business Unique

The Importance Of Branding

In addition to leaving a lasting impression on consumers, branding is important since it lets customers know what to anticipate from your business.

When done well, branding can influence how people view your brand, encourage new business, and boost brand value. 

However, it can also have the opposite effect if done wrongly or not at all.

That said, branding is vital, given its overall effect on your business.

6 Branding Best Practices To Follow

Here are some guidelines for creating an effective and strong brand.

1. Define your ideal buyer persona and target audience

Your brand will only gain visibility, recognition, trust, or money if it connects with your audience. This is where researching your market steps in.

Before starting anything, you should ask yourself the following questions.

Who is your product intended for?

Who is the perfect client for you?

For each audience segment, develop buyer personas to understand better their buying motivations, research methods, sources of information used during the buying process, etc.

Branding Best Practices To Take From Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola is one of the most well-known drinks around the world. Their target audience is  everyone who enjoys sweet or sugary soft beverages, especially youngsters.

However, their ads don't simply sell a soda, but a lifestyle, an emotion, that consumers can identify with.

Nearly all of their advertising is purely emotionally charged, and shows relationships between friends, family, or lovers.

Branding Best Practices To Take From Harley Davidson

Giving your brand a human side is the aim of brand personality.

In this manner, your target market will be able to relate to your brand for a long time as though it were a real person. It will draw in your target audience and emotionally engage them.

Harley Davidson has a tough mentality that suits the outlaw character. It presents a patriotic, independent, and rebellious persona, and you can see it portrayed across marketing campaigns.

2. Establish your brand’s goal and mission

Your brand should communicate every aspect of who you are, and your purpose may be the part with the most significant influence. So, the question is – why did you start your business in the first place?

You must articulate the benefit your business offers before creating a brand your audience recognizes, values, and trusts.

Then, that goal and vision may be reflected in every aspect of your brand, including your visual assets, tone, images, etc.

Branding Best Practices To Take From Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola has been on the market for 136 years. And with its ability to adapt though all the changes, it‘s still as relevant and unique as ever. Their mission is to ‘refresh the world while making a difference’.

3. Define what sets you apart from the competition

There is a high chance that you don't offer something revolutionary. That's quite alright. You can still make your brand stand out.

Start with listing the original features of your brand and your products. 

Then, try to answer a crucial question: Why should clients choose you instead of your rivals?

Branding Best Practices To Take From Deadhappy

This insurance company's homepage differs from what you would expect from this niche. 

It is fun, has a play on words, and uses quirky humor. 

Its choice of fonts represents its playfulness, but it’s still readable and looks good paired with other, more formal-looking fonts.

Branding Best Practices To Take From Shopify

Shopify uses a unique selling point – USP, to differentiate itself from its competitors.

What makes this one of the branding best practices is that they effectively communicate their USP by referring to the SaaS as "the platform commerce is built on."

Additionally, they highlight the platform's benefits that combine everything needed to run an online store.

4. Create a visual identity, aka style guide

Your brand's visual identity serves as its public face, and it's often the first thing people notice. Therefore, the logo, colors, typography, and other graphic material are all relevant and should work together.

People will know and remember your brand based on how you represent it. Also, we tend to connect graphic elements, like colors, with emotions and memories.

Additionally, your brand's design will significantly impact how genuine and professional your business appears. 

The following list of the top 7 visual assets will help you create and develop your brand identity:

1. Logo – The identity and mission of your business are reflected in your logo. It should be straightforward, not overly abstract, and simple to remember.

2. Color palette – Different color schemes have a psychological effect on people and can significantly impact how they feel about your brand. Additionally, colors serve as potent emotional catalysts. So, make sure to strategically include a color that accurately reflects the identity and voice of your brand.

3. Typography – Your choice of fonts is your typography. Unexpectedly, typography also has a strong emotional impact, so choose them carefully. You shouldn't use more than 3 different fonts, preferably from the same font family, to ensure they look good together.

4. Tagline/slogan –A brand's tagline should aim to express the business's essence quickly. 

5. Iconography – Icons can be used in various graphic components. Although subtle, make sure your icons complement your design rather than adding to its complexity.

6. Illustration can clarify abstract ideas and convey complex thoughts.

It’s a unique, entertaining, and recognized approach to telling stories while being amusing and artistically appealing.

7. Web design – The combined strength of your brand assets will be shown on your website.

Therefore, ensure that all of your branding components mesh effectively together.

Branding Best Practices To Take From Coca-Cola

The simple, red logo is the foundation of the Coca-Cola brand. At the same time, the script typeface expresses fun and happiness, which is the narrative they push through all campaigns.

Branding Best Practices To Take From Nike

Nike's catchphrase, "Just Do It," effectively communicates its message to the target audience and is frequently included across campaigns.

Their slogan translates into a brand message that motivates and ties consumers to the Nike brand.

And, even though Nike's logo is the simplest, everyone can recognize it at a glance.

5. Set your brand’s voice and tone

Your brand's voice reflects your company's distinct viewpoint and the principles you follow.

In short – the general personality of your brand.

Alternatively, a company interacts with its audience through tone of voice, including word choice and emotional style.

For example, you can be quirky, humorous, informative, etc. When you find your tone of voice, you should be consistent with it. But don't be tone-deaf – adapt your tone depending on the situation around you.

Branding Best Practices To Take From Old Spice

For instance, Old Spice is renowned for its hilarious marketing style.

They stand out in the personal care sector thanks to their hilarious, unforgettable advertisements.

6. Be consistent with branding

When you're done designing and developing your branding, incorporate it into every aspect of your business:

• Social media – Think about using your logo as your profile photo to help clients recognize your company. Ensure your brand voice is reflected in your profile information, posts, and captions.

• Ads – Advertisements must represent your branding because they are frequently used to build brand recognition and introduce consumers to your business.

• Packaging design, colors, size, and feel should correspond to your branding.

Branding Best Practices To Take From Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola keeps its branding consistency through decades, thus is recognized worldwide and across languages and cultures.

Common Branding Mistakes To Avoid 

To ensure your message is received as intended, try to avoid some of the most common mistakes.

1. Your logo is not clear enough

The primary brand markers are your logo, color scheme, font size, and typography.

Consider the most well-known logos; they are primarily simple and minimalistic.

But you should listen to your audience and their feedback.

Even some big companies have updated their logo elements in response to consumer criticism.

For instance, after receiving criticism for their provocative logos, Amazon and Myntra changed them in response to customer input.

2. You don’t use the social media potential

Social media plays a huge part in your online presence. 

Duolingo was one of those forward-thinking companies that embraced its creative side to capitalize on TikTok's enormous visibility and engagement potential. Shortly after, it rose to fame on TikTok with more than 4 million followers.

Duolingo's most popular TikTok hashtag is #duolingo, which was made and is heavily used for brand awareness. Each video uses an average of 6 hashtags.

Why does it work? Duolingo's TikTok account became popular due to its iconic, humorous, and engaging TikTok strategy. In addition, Duolingo took advantage of the idea that its audience foremost wants to be entertained.

3. You don't use design tools

Brand guidelines guarantee that all visual elements, like color, fonts, and logo, are uniform. But, don't begin each project from scratch!

Thankfully, design tools, like Glorify, have made it simpler than ever to create branded graphics. 

These tools can create designs from pre-made templates, include logos, custom fonts and colors to match the brand’s identity, and more.

Conclusion

And there you have it – branding best practices to try and distinguish your brand from fierce competition.

There are a lot of things that you need to keep track of, so why don't you automate part of it?

With Glorify, you can:

• Create logos,

• Apply your own Brand kit to any design with custom fonts and color palettes,

• Customize templates for Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.,

• Apply icons, illustrations, elements, and more,

• Instantly resize any image to fit multiple platforms.

Sign up today, and get a step closer to a unique brand!