Designing a successful brand

Your brand strategy defines what your business stands for. It captures the promise you make to your customers and the image that your business conveys.

Businesses often rely on the creative elements to express their brand, for example:

• their logo
• colour scheme
• tagline
• website
• sales literature

It's important to remember that your brand exists in every day-to-day interaction you have with your customers as well. This could be your:

• messaging on your websites or advertisement campaigns
• recruitment drives
• customer interactions

Your brand strategy should consider both the fixed creative elements and the less prominent, day-to-day dealings with your market. It should be an integral part of your overall design strategy for business.

Strategy for creating a new brand

When developing a new brand, you can build your strategy around:

• emotional benefits - focus on the features and benefits of your product or service that will appeal to your customers or meet their needs
• brand personality - describe the essence of your business then convey these traits in everything that you do or create
• positioning statements and brand story - choose colours, fonts and other visual elements that match your brand personality and help you convey the story

Small businesses will often need to start developing their brand from scratch, including choosing a logo and brand name.

Strategies for existing brands

If you have an existing brand, make sure that you keep your communications fresh. Review regularly if your brand is working for your and - if not - decide if you want to:

• overhaul your brand
• reinvigorate it occasionally
• create additional endorsed brands
• develop sub brands and use brand stretching

For more information, see branding: the basics.

Using designers to help with this process every few years should be an ongoing investment rather than a costly extra.

Rebranding strategy

Rebranding might be an option if your customer base is declining, the market has changed substantially or you have no point of difference from your competitors. It can be a good idea to hire a designer to help you rebrand. Find out how to choose and work with a designer.