Branding: Don’t Fall for Trends and Influencers!

“Be a leader, not a follower.” Growing up, we’ve all heard these very words from everyone from our proud parents to our game-day coaches to our grumpy 6th grade school teacher. Cliche? – maybe. But when taking this basic, sometimes over-stated tidbit of ‘life-changing’ advice, one needs to hear it out a little more. This very phrase has a significant correlation to the world of branding and the building of company identities and can have a lasting effect on the performance and longevity of your brand.

Many companies invest significant time, energy and capital in building a sustainable and effective brand identity, only to dilute their efforts by succumbing to occasional fleeting market trends and outside short-term influences. These kinds of key distractors can quickly derail a company’s deliberate efforts in building brand loyalty, recognition and market share.

When developing a brand, businesses and their brand managers need to discuss the ramifications of both short and long market trends. They should recognized that brands take time to develop. A visual identity can be developed in a few weeks, but an all-encompassing brand needs time to spread, saturate and mature within your target demographic. Making changes to their strategic brand goals based on short-term market trends can quickly dilute the core message originally embedded within the brand. Short-term market trends come and go quickly, making constant adjustments to your strategy a must. This will only hurt the effectiveness of your efforts to build brand recognition and awareness around your product/service within your market.

Don’t sidetrack into a survivalist mentality of chasing new avenues. Outside ‘influencers’ – like short-term trends – can become a source of brand derailment. Some companies will experience slow starts. Meaning, they won’t see the immediate effects of a developed brand identity and go into panic mode; looking to new channels to drive sales. Doing this as a ‘reactionary’ measure will simply slow things further. Looking to new demographics (different from the ones identified as the original target at launch) can damage the credibility of your brand with those that have the highest probability to identify with it. For example, if a new cell phone company were to experience slow sales and market recognition within the first six months of being on the market, should they redirect their marketing to the 65 and older audience if their phones cater to a Facebook and Twitter happy generation? Absolutely not. They’ll be marketing to an audience that is slower to adopt technology then a younger generation, and will be throwing marketing capital at an unresponsive demographic – further slowing progress and brand saturation. They would also lose credibility in younger potential customers by having their phones becoming associated with an older crowd. As we know, cell phone and smart phones have ‘street cred’ among friends. If they carry a certain aura about them (“You have that phone!? Isn’t that made for your grandparents!?!”) then their brand credibility can be quickly disowned by the very demographic that had originally been identified as the prime, spend-ready target audience.

Maintain a core brand message and fight tooth-and-nail to protect it. Don’t be a follower and chase trends to drive what ultimately is a false sense of pertinence. These trends are short lived and are quick to become passé. Don’t allow your brand to fall into this dark well of survival amongst fierce competition. Focus on the long term by being unique in your message, distinctive in your visual identity and don’t get distracted by tempting blips on the radar.

Branding: An Initial Investment in your Future

It’s one thing to produce a quick promotional brochure or a make-shift logo to begin your outreach to potential customers, but at what point does this begin to work against you and your business? Getting a new business started is always the hardest part. There’s so much to think about; supplies, staff, marketing, overhead, initiation costs, etc.

But the biggest error any new business owner can make is to put their branding and marketing on the back-burner. Even if you give 110% of your initial effort to product/service development to assure you’re offering something under demand and of top quality – without a strategic brand and outreach conceptualization, you may be shooting yourself in the foot. Half-baked identities and make-shift promotional materials built in Word will only serve to tell your clients and potential investors that you are a second-rate company who doesn’t value their own market image.

Whether you’re seeking new clientele or propogating financial investors, they’re all looking at your presentation of your product or service as a window into your business. Attention to detail, level of professionalism, and ultimately your market image are what can make or break you. Invest some capital, some effort and some time in developing your public image – your brand identity.

When building this identity, consider the merits of developing an outreach package that unifies your brand message. Carry a simple, concise market message, a distinctive visual design aesthetic and a core set of product values throughout each piece – whether in commercials, radio, brochures, electronic email campaigns, web, viral postings and any other creative medium. The more unified your outreach becomes, the better it will serve you and your business. People identify with brands in a number of ways. But the most influential emotional trigger to get customers to identify and interact with your offerings is through a single voice, a consistent message, and a repeating visual presence. If your outreach materials vary in look or message each time a prospecting customer interacts with It, they will fail to retain your message simply due to their subconscious not creating the correlation between your pieces.

Be calculated in your approach to how you market you new business. Give genuine thought ot how you communicate your message – and keep it unified across all your market collateral.

A bold, distinctive voice will create a thousand echoes -

Godspeed Steve Jobs

Very few people aspire to change how the world works. Quite frankly it’s a daunting task. Even fewer people actually follow through on this aspiration. Steve Jobs was one of those people. Having started Apple Computers in his small California garage in the 1970s with ‘The Woz’ at his side, he didn’t just see a new computer company, he envisioned a systematic change in the way we interact and use personal computers to fulfill our lives. He was a visionary – able to predict what we wanted before we even knew we wanted it. He had extraordinary vision, bringing us revolutionary products like the iPod, iPhone, and iPad – each redefining their respective categories in remarkably innovative ways. For those that knew him, worked for him, even read his biographies as I did, we know he was at times called a tyrant, a dictator. Depending on the source, he has been coined everything from a bully to a genius. But over the recent years, he quite simply proved to be the latter. If we could all have even half the drive, passion, and vision that he brought us, we’d be quite a remarkable race.

Mourn the loss of a great man, rejoice in the legacy of an “iCon”…

Don’t Ignore Building Your Brand Identity

Whether starting a new business or revamping an existing one, the notion of brand building certainly merits some serious discussion. Thousands, if not millions of dollars are consistently spent on product development for good reason. A company can not enter a competitive marketplace with a marginal product line and expect to survive. Further monies are spent on infrastructure, resources and market research. Again, a company cannot expect to stay afloat without the systems in place to meet product demand and expected levels of client relations and customer service.

With that said, each company can only start the game with one complete pie, made up of the several pieces mentioned above. Companies both large and small will construct a different allotment of which pieces of their respective pies will be awarded the most resources to drive sales depending on their markets, their target demographics and even their short or long-term goals. Savvy entrepreneurs and company leaders will understand the merits in slotting a significant piece of pie to branding.

A company that invest measurable resources into building and maintaining a concise and unified brand image will ultimately survive in markets where those that have not will struggle, if not collapse. A well-developed brand is what will help a company and/or product establish a visual identity while establishing an emotional connectivity with a specific demographic they are trying to reach.

To do this, the brand should not be designed to appeal to everyone. This will dilute the message and render a brand that lacks focus and analytical comprehension of their market. A brand message designed to appeal to everyone will ultimately not appeal to many at all. Successful brands build their identity around individualism, not the masses. They focus on a specific group, usually identified through extensive data analysis. So identifying your market demographics and developing a brand image and message around a specific sub-group within a market will often pay dividends on product awareness and adoption. Building a brand image and message centered around specific demographics and target audiences can be difficult and time consuming, but is a worthwhile investment in the longevity of a company or product.

Once your brand has been established it shouldn’t be altered or changed. Just when a brand may seem to become boring or outdated is usually when your market is beginning to adopt it and identify with it. Remember that your brand is designed around your market, not the personal tastes of employees. Build it, and then protect it. Keep your marketing outreach unified to the core message. Brand unification drives brand recall. Recall is the key to succeeding in today’s competitive marketplace. Having your target audience retain your companies brand as a front-of-mind trigger will drive sales and customer loyalty in ways that weaker brands cannot.

The lesson here is simple. When starting a new brand, or redeveloping an existing one, spend real time and energy in developing a brand that is based on market data, analytics and specific audiences. Not only does this serve as a way to design a brand that your customers will identify with and relate to, but it will also provide you with valuable insight into your market, their spending habits and emotional triggers along the way. This is insight that can’t be found through any other process.

Your Business, Your Identity

According to those quoted in the best selling novel, “The Tipping Point” by Malcolm Gladwell, the average person is subjected to over 250 commercial ads on a daily basis. There’s no question that’s a significant hill to climb as a business owner hoping to generate brand awareness or gain market exposure.

Within the myriad of logos and brand identities we’re witness to on a daily basis, less then 4% of them succeed in actually capturing attention (or sticking) in the minds of a passers-by in an effective, memorable way. Too many entrepreneurs and larger companies have dismissed the weight of a well designed logo as a trivial expense or unimportant to their goals.

Consider the aesthetic – Whether a designer or not, we can each think of businesses we pass by every day that quite frankly haven’t given their market image much thought. We’ve all seen them; cartoon-like renditions of some cute, cuddly animal or borrowed symbol from some unlicensed artwork. These scream amateur to a prospecting client. They’ll wonder if the product or service have been given any more attention then the lack-luster identity presented to them. A designer will help you develop a visually pleasing design while keeping your message in mind. Use them wisely.

Consider correlations – One also needs to recognize cognitive and subconscious visual associations people make with shapes, objects and imagery. Many identities/logos have adopted a specific visual reference, but the designer and/or the client haven’t heavily weighed the possibilities of it meaning one thing to them, while another to their target audience. An example you say! Alright. Although not logo specific, this one translates the idea clearly…

Honda recently released a television commercial in which they featured the new 2011 Honda Civic Hybrid. Throughout the commercial it shows a young adult girl going about her daily routine in her new Civic. The curious part of the whole brand message in this television ad was the fact that they chose to portray the girl as a, wait for it… a troll – a monster! Now, they may have been trying to take make a more “earthy” reference here, but the fact is that it can be interpreted in more then one way – and one of those ways is not a favorable one. Who knows a teenage girl who appreciates being referred to as a troll? Conscious and subconscious associations matter, so chose your image wisely and with careful consideration.

Watch the TV spot:

Consider originality – Another common mistake among business owners looking to create some sort of brand around their product or service is to mimic the identity of other businesses of similar construct thinking this copy-cat image will lend to their credibility within their chosen market. Another colossal mistake! This only puts your business identity into a scenario where you it simply blends in with the others in your market. Pharmaceutical drug logo designs are terrible at this. Again, watch the commercials on television and you’ll notice they all seem to look the same, incorporating the same colors and slight variations of a graphic where a circle and an arch form some sort of frolicking figure with arms outstretched.

The savvy business owner understands the tangible benefits of a well-though-out logo. It’s the one element of a business that is at the front lines of the battle of acquiring new patronage, while helping to solidify the relationships with those already acquired.

So what are the core elements that every logo design should incorporate to be an effective business tool and a strong bridge of connectivity with your target audience?

• 1 – Be original, unique
  Is it unique and does it make its own statement?
• 2 – Be flexible, scalable
  Is it a design that can be used and interchanged across multiple platforms of outreach and can it adapt easily to minor changes?
• 3 – Be simple, direct
  Is it simple and clear enough to communicate a clear, concise message?
• 4 – Be memorable
  Is it easy to recall, to remember? – as this is a crucial goal of any company identity.

Elaborating on these would not necessarily be fruitful as each business and each design will be targeted differently. The key is to always consider the above four elements.

Designing a Story

Henry Ford once said, “Every object tells a story, if we know how to read it.” In many cases that story is design. From the toothbrush we use in the morning to the tablet we read on the metro to work it’s purpose, it’s meaning is often defined by the manner in which we chose to interact or receive it’s message. Design is an integral role in how we use, discern and make decisions on items we interact with on a day-to-day basis. Whether from a cognitive or subconscious level, each object has a way of creating associations with how we categorize, define and use it.

This holds even more true when it comes to graphic design. Every piece is designed with a uniquely specific purpose in mind. Some focus on getting your attention, others offer a more intellectual approach to how the piece translates it’s message. Regardless of the end goal, the story should still be there.

A well designed logo should not just identify a brand, but do so by telling it’s viewer a brief story. Some of these stories might be evident, some may not. In some cases, purposeful narratives may focus on translating a message to the employees of a company where other designs might incorporate a narrative more directed at those looking into the company from the outside – their target audience. Often, the most interesting part of a logo or company identity is knowing how the company and designer ended up with the concept that they did. Why they chose certain associations, imagery or text to translate their message, what exactly is the message, and why they wanted that story transferred to their viewers.

A narrative can significantly bolster the design by provide a deeper understanding of the logo, poster, brochure or other through a simple narrative. Great works of art throughout the years are often viewed by the public in museums, but many who see them don’t gain the true essence or appreciation of a piece unless they read or educated themselves on their historical significance or the artist background. For example, would one truly gain an appreciation for a Van Gogh’s self portrait with one bandaged ear if they weren’t aware of his personal struggles of epilepsy, bipolar disorder among other ailments that drove unique characteristics to many of his later paintings. This is that story, that narrative – albeit a bit extreme in nature.

So, take a look around you and as you interact with the tings around you, try to discover their narratives. Whether the utensils on the table at lunch or the brands you choose to interact with. A message is there – it would be a shame to miss it.

The Client and The Designer

Design is a curious thing. Every client, just as every designer, searches endlessly for the perfect layout, the perfect logo design, the perfect webpage for their intended purpose. Personal tastes inevitably influences the design process from both designers and their clients. Whether by committee or an individual, the physical layout, typeface selection, imagery and style selection can quickly become a battle of wits between both parties as they both often bring conflicting expertise with relation to the product or service they intend to represent.

The client brings representation of the brand knowledge, background, and experience of the brand they are marketing. They can communicate the presumed direction they hope to have a designer point their brand in for any given purpose while keeping the designer grounded, and better informed on their goals.

A reputable designer tends to bring knowledge, experience to the creative process from an angle more relative to a more general, creative industry standpoint. Having worked on many campaigns and designs for a multitude of clients focusing on specific demographics, designers can bring acute insights into best practices relative to not only the design process but to what design elements or campaign aspects may further the purpose of the piece to render a stronger ROI.

So, how does one balance the division of interpretation within a campaign or creative piece? Well, here are some simple steps for the designer and client to keep in mind in order to move the project forward and leverage creative impact without compromising ROI.

1/ Communication

Maintianing an open avenue of communication between both parties is a key fundamental. The client must be prepared to offer insight into the company, it’s market behaviors and the goals they wish to achieve via the creative piece. Elements of particular note to share here are the specific purpose the piece needs to serve, and the audience it will be targeting. The designer is just as responsible in communicating any potential issues, concerns about requests and translating the design process to all parties involved. By keeping all participants abreast of what to expect and when, both sides will experience a smoother, more fluid design process.

2/ Seeding the designer

A savy cient will seed the designer. Meaning they’ll structure their requests and any design meetings in a way that puts the designer into a mental state that is cohesive and congruent with the client’s thought process and/or company persona. This may seem like a bit of a reach, but getting buy-in from someone who knows little about your company and it’s short and long term objectives will better enable deliverables that hit the mark. The designer’s responsibility in this arena is to approach a new client and project with open ears and an open mind. The proverbial slate has to be clean before initial design discussions. If the designer comes with preconceived notions or pre-developed ideas, they will more-often-then-not miss the mark on the desires of their clients and push more of their own aesthetics and function into the design. Depending on the client, they may want the designer to influence the piece more. It truly depends on the designer’s experience and reputation. Most new clients won’t afford a designer much leniency at first until they develop trust in the relationship and understanding of their brand.

3/ Managing client expectations

Once all initial requests and intentions have been communicated, it then becomes the responsibility of the designer to clearly communicate any potential road blocks, specific challenges, or specific time sensitive aspects of the requested design. Often is the case that designers fall into the trap of simply agreeing to all requests without expressing their concerns or specific difficulties in the requested design elements that they or the client quickly become frustrated. To the client, it may seem that a request to add a small animation here or a small copy edit there would simply take minutes to do. But designer’s know that this is not always the case. A “simple” change can often be challenging and time consuming. It is the responsibility of the designer to communicate these specific areas up front. As long as the client understands the particulars, they’ll be more patient and accommodating to the process.

4/ Avoid trends when necessary

The creative industry, as any other, becomes prone to trends. A good designer should recognize these trends and be able to determine whether any project should follow or divert from the flow. Clients will often see elements of design they like in their environs and come to the table with requests to use these elements in their project. Designers need to be able to address these request appropriately depending on the desired goals. Trends are okay to fall into, but typically are best suited for short term campaigns in print or web as they are usually shorter term or editable pieces which won’t become dated over longer run periods.

They are not well suited to identity or general branding designs as these should be inherently long-term, forward-thinking designs that stay relatively unchanged over the years. Trends come and go, and thus date themselves as the new trends come about. So, it truly depends on the time a piece will be used. But, a strong design should always be unique, so in general, trends are not the best path to market differentiation.

Now, these suggestions don’t cover the entire design process, but will hopefully provide some useful insight in how to approach your next creative project with a designer or client.

Origins of a Logo

Sometimes one’s appreciation for a creative piece can be amplified when we discover more about it’s origins and the sometimes not-so-evident narrative behind it.

In our consumer-based society we’re surrounded by a barrage of symbolism and iconographic brands and logos meant to instill an immediate understanding and emotional connectivity to someone or something for a specific purpose. But their origins were quite different.

Until the recent centuries, literacy was sparse at best.  Populations were heavily divide between the literate and well-off and the commoners who didn’t have the means for an education.  The chosen method to convey messages, ownership, or affiliation was typically done through the use of iconography and/or crests.  Imagery could translate where words could not to the general masses.

Four thousand years ago, primitive local artisans used hand etched glyphs to mark their pottery, acting as an early trade mark of sorts. The glyphs were typically very simple and literal in their meaning. But as time progressed and competition for work increased it drove craftsmen to refine their glyphs to help drive return business and sustain their livelihood.

From the Fifth to the Fifteenth Centuries, in the coined Middle Ages, crests and family seals became another method to translate ownership, rights to territories, and were even displayed on the battle fields as a coat of arms.  These early logo predecessors incorporated the use of bold colors and descriptive visual details such as helmets, shields and other representative iconigraphy indicative of the family or clan as many who used them, again, were the wealthy and colors and symbology played an integral role in their public persona and perception and power. Words were very rare in these as literacy was still not prevalent in these times.

In the post industrial revolution age, what we now call logos are the mainstay in the business environment. Today’s logos often incorporate elements of crests and coat of arms (specifically the auto industry such as Porsche, Cadillac, and Alpha Romeo). But, we have moved into an era of simplification where information recall becomes one of the most integral part of a logo design.  With the immense competition within any given market today, the ability to recall a brand image is key.  If a brand is forgettable or indistinct, it will fail. Creating an easily read name in a unique way, tell a narrative about the company or product if possible, and retain it’s ability to be easily remembered are now the trend in logo design.

Although we’ve only skimmed the surface of the historical making of what are now called logos in today’s world, it is interesting to take note of the fact that in the past, logos, crests and the like were a means of communicating a specific visual message to the masses who were illiterate and became an effective tool in doing so. Today, literacy is no longer a barrier in communication. Words/names have become the focus while occasionally complimented by graphical or visual elements to compliment the business name. The names themselves have become the focus.

The Future of Print Design

The recent downturn in the economy has brought about a need for businesses to be more innovative in how they market their brands to prospective clients. For years there was a heavy reliance on print materials to sustain a campaign. Marketeers spent generously on building and cleaning their mailing lists, paying creatives to design a wealth of unified pieces and then paying an equally hefty amount to their mail houses to get these pieces into their lists’ hands.

But with the new era of digital and online marketing, print has taken a proverbial punch in the mouth. Marketers have now redirected the bulk of their campaign efforts and budgets online. From SEO enriched websites, targeted PPCs and Facebook ads to Web 3.0 technologies and brand communities and forums, marketeers have reluctantly come about on the innovative and measurable ROIs of online advertising.

So, where does that leave print? Well, clearly their marketshare of advertising budgets have been significantly impacted due to costs associated with large print runs versus immeasurable ROI. But marketers and advertisers would be wise not to jump ship from print. With aging baby boomers becoming the largest demographic of consumers over the next decade, there’s still significant merit in maintaining a tentacle of print in marketing campaigns. Although more independent thinkers then their parent’s generation, they hold value the idea of “tire-kicking” items before making a purchase. Boomers still seek tangibles when measuring value in a product. They may not require a “brick and mortar” location, but they do still seek a product or service that can show grounding in tangible outreach – something they can hold, read, and reference. The trust in an entirely online voice has not penetrated them yet as much as Gen-X and Gen-Y buyers as of yet.

Large scale print houses would benefit from adjusting their focuses on volume runs to more specialized printing processes. Marketers may not seek the same quantities as before, but will look to them for more unique, scalable printing processes to make their pieces more dynamic and innovative in their presentation. Boomers will remain receptive to print, but will expect a more unique, catered feel from the pieces they’ll respond to and convert from.

Designers, this is your queue to raise the bar in your layouts and materials selections and presentation to help drive the uniqueness of the pieces you design. Boomers will respond more to sophisticated designs that appeal to their intellect and desire for a more engaging purchasing experience.

Marketers, be selective in your design firm and be sure the they fit into your vision.  But, don’t dominate the design process.  Let the creative you’ve opted to hire do his or her thing. They have been in the creative business for a while and can provide unique solutions to copy and content layout and design that will help you take your outreach to a new level.

The Process of Designing a Logo

Logo design is a uniquely finicky business, considering the entire process is based on the ever-present, double-edged sword of subjectivity. The common denominator for so many designers is the bridging of design principles to a clients needs without breaking down the foundational trust. I’ve read blog after blog on this, ranging from utter frustration over the so-called “nightmare client” to sheer elations of the rare finding of an “ideal client.” In most scenarios, there is often a gap (large or small) between the creative and their client in terms of direction and construction of a design, at least initially. So what’s the source of the problem and how do we as designers find a work-around? How do we knock our clients socks off while still giving them something that reflects their initial ideas in a fresh, creative way? Well, there’s no elusive or self-evident answer here. Many factors begin to emerge from the first client consultation.

First, in todays “The World is Flat” age of technology, creatives often result to email, Facebook, Twitter and sometimes phone, Skype, even texting to communicate ideas and thoughts with their clients – and visa-versa. The inherent problem with this as a sole approach to contact is that it does not allow for the designer to truly get a sense of the personality and identity of their client. Without building a strong client profile, the design process will most likely discover significant gaps between the designer’s renderings and the client’s desired look. As we all have witnessed, many of us can get lost in translation through our email voices. So ultimately, nothing replaces quality face-to-face time with a client when possible.

Second, we need to look into whether the phrase the customer is always right is truly applicable to your business or not. Frankly, it’s a meaningless rule on its own. If a client was always right, then they simply wouldn’t seek out your services now, would they? Many designers hop on the ego train and can’t adjust their vision to better suite their client’s desires. Others will simply render anything the client throws at them. Either way – you’re doomed to fail! The best recipe for success is to listen to, and utilize, the input from your client while providing creative insight and adjustments to eventually give your client a design that successfully presents a creative solution.

Finally, the most common error in the design process is not taking the time to explain the mechanics behind designing logos, brochures or whatever it is you’re putting together for them. A seasoned designer invests in describing their process, their tools and their normal steps of operation as they know that if the client has a deeper understanding of the time and effort that will be spent, the higher their end satisfaction. Designer’s should avoid getting caught up in becoming a “yes man” and focus on how to cooperatively coach a client through ideas that allow for a reasonable work flow and well-constructed design. Design principles exist for a reason, so educate your client on the expertise you bring to the table.

The better either side understands each other’s intentions and undertakings the stronger the final product will be. Mutual understandings are often significantly under-appreciated.