Designing For Brands and Brand Experience

When it comes to designing for brands, there needs to be a lot of thought and work that goes into the project. There are multiple elements that you need to consider, especially if the business is in a competitive industry or market. It’s more than a matter of creating a web design that’s visually appealing, design marketing collateral that connects the audience and engaging user interfaces with the carefully crafted pathways. Let’s go into all the elements that lead to great branding design

1. Unique Selling Proposition 

One of the main points of having a brand identity is to distinguish your business from the competition. The mistake that many people make is thinking that your visual presentation is what distinguishes you. The reality is that you need to convey your unique selling proposition in your brand. 

For example, Amazon is known for being the most customer centric eCommerce site online. The customer is always right and it’s reflected in their logo. There is a smile underneath the Amazon typography to represent that. Then there’s the food chain Subway. The company focuses on quick and healthy made subs. This is represented by arrows on the ends of the typography. 

Of course, the unique selling proposition isn’t always easy to convey in the logo alone. That’s why companies like Subway include their slogan “Eat Fresh” to support their brand design. 

2. Message to Market Match 

Message to market match is very important when it comes to branding. Your message pretty much dictates your position in the market place. A good example of this is the US courier industry. USPS is the government’s shipping company and is reflected by colors and designs that reflect a federal organization. 

UPS is focused on business solutions and is positioned as a reliable courier through their brand. FedEx is known as a premium solution when you absolutely need your package delivered to the recipient as soon as possible. All three of these companies use a distinct visual representation to convey their position in the industry. 

You have to do the same with your brand. It has to convey what kind of company you are whether you focus on best solutions, premium products, customer support, etc. 

3. Competitive Research 

When designing for your brand, you have to be aware of what’s happening in your market or industry. Research how your competitors are branding themselves and how their designs are reflecting their brand. You want to avoid a situation where you end up creating designs that resemble your competitors. This is an issue you commonly see in legal and medical industries. 

Studying competing brands also allow you to look at what kinds of customers they’re targeting. This allows you to take advantage of audiences that are being overlooked. It also allows you to get a strong idea of what these brands are trying to communicate. You may find that many of the competing brands are not hitting the mark in terms of their message. 

Of course, your ability to find a competitive angle is supported by how well you know your target audience. In order to find a competitive edge, you must spend the time learning who your target audience is. 

4. Overall Brand Experience 

Today, the visual brand experience is more than a simple logo. Every touch point is an opportunity to convey your brand to potential and existing customers. This means that your web design, direct mail campaigns, online ads, videos, and anything else you’re planning to use needs to provide a consistent brand experience. 

Brand experience is also becoming more than just communication. It’s also the kind of interaction you enable on your website, how customers are treated by your support department, your ability to send offers that are relevant to customer’s needs, and the value you can offer through you content. In many cases, your designs are a big part of bridging the gap whether it’s using a storytelling approach on your website, crafting emails that get opened, or making your content easy to consume. 

5. Community 

While this doesn’t really involve design as much, community is becoming a big part of branding. It’s important for brands to have a strong social media presence. They need to build, foster, and maintain online communities. Everything from online forums, Facebook groups, customer loyalty programs, newsletters, and social media engagement should be a part of your brand strategy. 

Using various designs and functionalities like allowing for customer support via Facebook chat, contests driven by social media shares, the quality of the newsletter presentation, and other elements all contribute to the success of building a community. Of course, this is not easy to pull off and requires a team of designers, developers, and marketing strategists to execute. 

To sum up, there’s a lot that goes into designing for a brand. It requires a strategic and carefully planned approach for the best results. It’s not something that can be done by simply hiring a logo designer or a web designer. Creative agency – a talented collective of designers, developers, and strategists that understand the omnichannel approach with digital and print experience is an ideal team combination to achieve optimal results.