5 Essential Ingredients for Good Branding

First of all, what is branding? Branding is your company’s name and how it is visually expressed. Essentially, it is your company’s face to the world.

What’s the difference between a logo and branding? A logo typically consists of your company’s name and an icon or symbol. Branding is the consistent utilization of your logo, its colors and elements, throughout all of your marketing materials.

What are characteristics of good branding? Good branding should create a positive awareness about your company. It should be displayed consistently and appeal directly to your target market. At a glance, someone should be able to look at your logo and know what your company is all about. Typically, simple logos are more memorable than complex logos.

With that in mind, what are the five essential ingredients for developing good brand recognition?

1. Determining the decision makers. Whether you’re a large corporation or one person company, it is important to determine who will be the decision makers for your branding project. Everyone who will have a say in your branding should be on board at the outset. You may think, I’m a one person company, I make all the decisions. But if you rely on your spouse or a close friend to bounce ideas off of, it is wise to bring them into the process early. That way they understand the entire thought process that went into the final design.
2. Understanding your target market. What are their demographics? Are they mostly male or female? What is their age group? Buying habits? An attorney’s logo will look much different than a skateboard manufacturer’s logo because the demographic of the target market is completely different.
3. Evaluating your competition. Who are they? What does their branding look like? How can you differentiate yourself from them?
4. Contemplating your style. What style of logo is appropriate for your industry? Should your logo be conservative or artsy? Straight lines tend to indicate trustworthiness & dependability. Curvy lines indicate creativity. What style of logo do you like personally? Make a list of three five logos that you like and why you like them. Remember, you may not be in your company’s target market. It is possible that the style that is most appropriate for your market may not appeal to you. In that case, you will want to strike a balance between your personal taste and what’s appropriate for your market’s demographic.
5. Defining your company’s mission. Being crystal clear about your company’s purpose should drive the creative process. What do you want the viewer to think when they see your logo? Can you boil that down to one sentence?

Once you have determined the decision makers, have a clear understanding of your target market, competition and company mission, the branding process is very likely to yield a positive result that will represent you well for years to come. Happy branding!