Your business brand is much more than a logo, strapline, letterhead, or even what customers experience when they visit your company website. It is more than a colour palette or the words you use to tell people what you do and why. Although each of these things provides a touch point or physical representation of your brand, it is hard to assign a value to them individually beyond the initial design or production costs.

It is when you view it as a whole that you begin to appreciate the value of your brand as one of your greatest business assets – one that adds cash to your balance sheet.

What is a brand?

Wikipedia defines a brand as the ‘name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller’s product as distinct from those other sellers’. In other words, your brand identifies you as a business, it sets you apart from your competitors, and helps your customers know what to expect from you.

Your brand is a way of communicating to others why you’re in business, your values, your promise, as well as the experience you’re selling through your products and services.

One of the world’s largest branding consultancies, Interbrand, states in its ‘Best Retail Brands Report, May 2013’ that the most successful brands are those that ‘reflect a sensitivity to human needs and desires’.

What does this mean?

Your brand should celebrate the lifestyle of the people who best reflect its culture

We all have things to which we aspire. We may want to be more stylish, more organised, healthier, more environmentally conscious, better educated, or to have a deeper connection with others. The purchases we all make tend to reflect how we see ourselves or how we want others to see us. In short, where possible, we buy from companies that reflect our own beliefs or values.

The best brands are those that understand what drives their customers and represent the promise of a better life or brighter tomorrow. They are aspirational. People become loyal to a brand because they want a taste of the lifestyle it represents. This loyalty underpins repeat business and word of mouth recommendations, which are the lifeblood of successful businesses.

Evolving your brand

The best brands don’t stand still; they change with the world to remain relevant and responsive to their customers.

You’ve probably seen the word ‘engagement’ bandied around a lot recently but only because it is such an important concept to building and growing your brand. To harness its power effectively, you need to engage with your customers on a regular basis. Don’t just talk to them, invite their participation.

Start a conversation, find out what matters to them, what you do well in their opinion and what you could do better. Your brand should invite people to step inside of a unique experience when they buy from you, one they won’t get anywhere else.

Recognising your brand as an asset

Your brand’s value comes from factors such as its weight, influence and reach. For example, the more loyal a customer is to your business, the more likely they are to tell other people about it. Consequently, the more people who know about your business, the more likely they are to influence each other. This offers very real value in terms of sales, recognition within your industry, and repeat business.

Profit from your brand value

Many people – including some design companies – have yet to grasp the difference in value between creating a logo or website, and bringing together all the design elements of your identity within the context of a brand strategy.

Taken in isolation, a logo or letterhead has little value, and it certainly won’t add to the assets your business brings to the table. However, if you were to request an independent valuation of your business, your brand as a whole would be examined as an asset and allocated a monetary worth. Accountants tend to view your brand value within the context of goodwill, i.e. the extra worth of a business over and above its physical assets.

Customer loyalty is a perfect example of goodwill. By creating a strong and cohesive brand identity and supporting strategy, you will create a loyal following of repeat customers who are prepared to pay a premium to buy from you. Having a brand gives you – or anyone who buys your company – the opportunity to control this goodwill, a factor that will deliver future benefits and translates into cash on your balance sheet.

It pays to work with a branding specialist to create or build your brand because they understand and can maximise the value of your brand as a whole, rather than focusing solely on its individual components.

Recognising that your brand has a higher purpose

Ultimately, your brand’s purpose is more than just making a profit. Profit is what you do, not why you do it. Some of the world’s most enduring brands are those that enrich communities, improve lifestyles and deliver on their promise of a better way forward. This is what customers want from a brand – value and a meeting of their needs. View your brand in these terms and your brand value will skyrocket.

For more information like this, including helpful hints and tips about harnessing the potential of your brand, you can sign up to receive our FREE newsletter here.

Are you successfully harnessing the power of your brand’s value?Design and i brand identity web design graphic design and illustration

The categories we are finalists in are:

• Design, Under 30 Staff
• Creativity/Innovation, Under 30 Staff
• On budget, Under 30 Staff
• Effectiveness, Under 30 Staff

For more details http://www.recommendedagencies.com/agency-awards/2013/finalists/

Details about RAR and the Awards

Finalists in four categories for the 2013 RAR awardsDesign and i brand identity web design graphic design and illustration

Logo design is the start of any brand identity. Design and i have created many logo designs over the years, all becoming parts of blossoming company brands. The reason the logo is so important is that its the root of all design decisions that are made about a companies brand identity. Whether that be colour choices, design voice, themes, typography or graphic style, they all stem from the initial logo.

We love logo design, it’s so creative and imaginative. Maybe there is something in the water in Derby, because we can’t get enough of them. Check out this bumper selection of logo’s we have created, which appear in no particular order. Lots of variety in there, with lots of different types of company. The design process is unique for each client, hence the range of styles. If you need a logo designed or an existing logo reworked, please give us a call on 01332 890333.

A selection of the Logo designs we have created for company brands

High Growth logo

Noble Health Consultants logo

Batchelor Pads logo

X Runner

Voodoo tape

The Main Event Logo

ATL logo

TME Professional logo – child co of The Main Event

EMC Logo

The Iconic Reveal Records Logo

Anitco Logotype

I know – but i couldn’t resist

AKG Photography Logo

Cyberlife Industries logo

EM Hiec logo

Unchaste Logo – Wild and wierd

Foresight Engineering Logo – Conveyors Rule

Mojo Logo

Ecovert Logo – Green is good

4D Designs Logo

Inner Game Logo – Deep thinking

sister to Site Reports

Site Reports – Monitoring big brands

The Bear Club – Bear done good

Paragon International – A Group

Richard Horton – Solicitor

Shakin It – Creamy Shakes

TAS – A vintage flavour for an older customer

Logo and icons

Verisafe Logo – very trustworthy

MCK Logo environmental sound construction

JS Logo – Up market London photographer

LWRM – a perfect finish everytime

The Nutz – Edgy logo for edgy car audio

Foston Park Logo – 2 forms

Food Logistics – A different feel for logistics

Clever Car Buyer logo

Big ant video

Wheel Tech logo

We Love Logo Design – A Bumper Selection of Our Logo DesignsDesign and i brand identity web design graphic design and illustration

The first way to strengthen your brand is to get to the bottom of what your company actually does for your customers. It’s all too easy to have huge long descriptions about what your company does. After all it’s probably complicated what you do, or there can be lots of different sides to the business.  Generally the problem with this approach is you are listing all the attributes of the business rather than what the benefit is to the customer. Ideally you need to sum up your business in around 7 or 8 words. It should be really easy for a customer to understand the benefit of using your business – this is your brand essence.  So with my business the essence is nothing to do with design, branding, creativity, web etc. it’s the end result of all that – “making businesses stand out from their competition” or “distilling businesses into brands”.  Think about what the end result is of using your business is; then ensure that essence is running throughout your brand and marketing.

Step 2 – Define the personality of your business?

Your brand is the way someone feels about your business.  Start of thinking of your business as a person. Different personalities appeal to different people.  What you need to decide is the personality of your business, and make sure it appeals to your target market. Once this is defined, compare it to all your current communications. Do they all communicate this personality effectively? If not you need to change them, or your brand will appear conflicted and confused. Any new communications need to convey your chosen personality effectively.

Step 3 – Define your Niche

When we think of successful brands we generally only remember the top 2 in the field. For example, with cola we think of Coca Cola and Pepsi, fizzy orange – Tango and Fanta. It’s quite hard to remember the others.

Think about your business; are you number 1 or 2 in your market? If not, try to think about what makes you unique compared to your competition. Try not to be a generalist. It’s better to be the number one in a smaller market than 1 of many in a larger market. Having a strong USP will help with this if you are struggling with finding your niche.  However be careful to choose a niche that actually has a market.

A great niche will enable you to have a more powerful brand and targeted effective marketing campaign.

Step 4 – Be Consistent

Once of the most important aspects of a great brand is consistency. Whatever the brand touch point is, it should be communicated consistently. From a visual perspective brand guidelines can really help. Once you have guidelines, everything visual in the brand can be checked against them. Pay particular attention to logo usage, typography, colour usage, photography/illustration and the visual language. Even without guidelines the untrained eye should be able to gauge whether everything is consistent from a general look and feel perspective. For example, compare your business card, your website, your brochure, signage and your van livery for example. Are they all using the same font? Is the logo the same on everything? Are the colours all consistent?

Other areas to check are things such as are the phones answered consistently?  Do you have the same feel to all of your written materials? Does it all match your brand personality?

Step 6 – Quality

Think about your business and then think about your brand communications. Does the quality of your brand communications match the quality of your business? It’s a simple question to answer. If your business has a 3 million pound turnover, does it look like your brand reflects that? If your average customer is worth X to you, how does your spend on marketing reflect that?

I have talked to many businesses over the years who had very poor, low rent brand communications, and then have turned up at their premises and have been shocked at the size and the quality of their set up.  If you can imagine, beautiful business premises, Aston Martin’s outside the door, and a logo done in Microsoft Word.

If you have a great brand and quality communication materials it takes doubt out of the decision making process. You might be an amazing company, but if your brand and your communications do not tell clients that, then new customers may just dismiss you because of the company they think your brand reflects.

In general, make your brand communications look the best they can be. After all, before you start dealing with a client this is their only insight into your business. Are they going to spend 50K with a business who has done their logo in Microsoft Word – probably not. I am sure you get the idea.

In Conclusion

Following the 5 steps above will help you identify any problems with your brand and give you some idea of how to improve it. Brand is one of the most important aspects to your business so you need to get it right. Allocate time to really make your brand as good as your business. If you need any help with the areas above we would be happy to work through some exercises with you to improve and define an amazing brand.

Five steps to a better brand – a guide to improving your brandingDesign and i brand identity web design graphic design and illustration

Trust and reassurance

One of the most important aspects of a businesses’ brand communication is to give reassurance to potential customers. When buying services or products, a major consideration for potential customers is whether they trust a company. Are they credible? Will they deliver? Are they professional? Are they established?

Strong company branding takes these trust related considerations out of the decision making process. If a customer is sold on trust before entering the sales process, they are far more likely to purchase a product or service. This is the power of great branding.

Strong brands have the following traits in common to create reassurance for customers.

Brand essence

It is essential for companies to have a clearly defined brand essence and company vision. This defines them as a company. Businesses without this, communicate mixed and confused messages that will diminish trust with a potential customer.

Brand personality

As with people, companies have personalities. Defining a brand personality is essential to appeal to the companies target market. The brand personality should be communicated consistently across all brand communications. Poorly defined brand personalities can lead to mixed messages being communicated to customers, which could put doubt in their mind.

Consistency & Quality

Strong brands are consistent across all brand touch points. What ever the visual medium the branding should be the same. So whether it’s a web site, a vehicle livery, premises or a business card, the design and message is consistent. This consistency promotes reassurance with a potential customer.

Brand communications should always be professionally designed and written. The quality of the brand communications has a perceived relationship with the quality of the business. Poorly designed and badly written brand communication will have a negative impact on a customer’s trust of a business.

There are other attributes that make a great brand, but those listed above have a direct relationship with a potential customers trust of a business.

If you would like help with building trust with your branding, please call us on 01332 890333.

Taking trust out of the decision making process – Power of brandingDesign and i brand identity web design graphic design and illustration

Low Plains Drifter – Oil on canvas

Suspension – Oil on Canvas

Banks Mill Open Studios 2012 Details

Over the past 13 years Banks Mill Open Studios have firmly established themselves as a key date in Derby’s cultural calendar. This year the Open Studios event takes place from the 23 November to the 25 November.

More than 50 artists pull together to offer a display of some of the finest art and artistic products in the city. 5 floors, 38 Studios all packed with interest, talent and intrigue.

We invite visitors to meet and buy from the artists and makers, to view and explore the unique concentration of talent spanning a vast range of creative practices, from fine art, glassware, jewellery and ceramics to photography, graphic and web design, weaving, fashion and textiles.

Opening times are:
Friday 23 November 5 – 8pm
Saturday 24 November 10am – 4pm
Sunday 25 November 10am – 4pm

The event is free
Please note that we only have disabled access to the ground floor only as there are no lifts in this building.

http://www.facebook.com/BanksMillStudios

Follow us on Twitter: @BanksMillStudio or #BMOpenStudio

Banks Mill Open Studios 2012Design and i brand identity web design graphic design and illustration

We’re over the moon to announce that we’ve been nominated for a 2012 Recommended Agency Register Award in the Creativity and Innovation category. Not only is the award highly prestigious and competitive, it is based on ratings left by our clients.

We would like to thank all our fantastic clients who provided feedback to RAR, its really appreciated. We are passionate about brand and design, and when we get recognised for it, it means a lot to us.

Being a finalist in the creativity and innovation category is brilliant as it sums up our approach to branding perfectly. It also means our customer focused approach and exceptional work we deliver has been given a seal of approval.

The RAR awards ceremony is on 4th April in London, when the winners will be announced.

About the RAR awards

The RAR Awards are unique because they are assessed by the people who really know how good an agency is – their clients! And that makes them one of the best awards to have to your name.

RAR collects 5000 client ratings each year, with clients assessing agencies on their skill at specific marketing disciplines – design, digital, advertising and so on – and also their service levels – creativity, value for money, ability to deliver on time etc. Each rating is given out of 100. Average weightings are applied so that agencies with more good ratings are scored higher than those with fewer ratings.

Each February, the ratings are downloaded from the system and analysed by the RAR team. The top-10 scoring agencies in each category are then shortlisted as finalists for the awards. At the awards ceremony in London, the winners in each category are announced.

Finalist 2012 Recommended Agency Register (RAR) AwardsDesign and i brand identity web design graphic design and illustration

While it is always good to look forward in business at new techniques and methods, it can also be beneficial to look back at techniques that worked well in the past.

Before web sites were around, businesses relied on printed brochures. These were often beautifully designed, with lovely materials, but more importantly were well written and were inline with the businesses’ vision. Where printed brochures excelled was that it was easy to stay on brand and on message.

When web sites were first introduced in the early days of the internet, design was limited and many of us started obsessing about Google ranking, which lead to poorly written search engine optimised text which was not on brand. Unfortunately this is still a practice that goes on today. How many times have you clicked on a link at the top of the results on Google and thought “oh no, I don’t trust this”, or it has been information overload. There probably is nothing wrong with the company, but because their content reads poorly because of SEO, and perhaps the design is compromised, we have little trust in the company. The company succeeded in getting to the top of Google, but ultimately lost us when we visited their web site, potentially compromising their brand long term.

I think an important exercise when commissioning a web site is thinking about how you will drive traffic to your site. Some businesses will ultimately need click throughs on search engines such as Google. However many businesses, especially those who provide professional services, will often use their web site more like the old fashioned printed brochure. What I mean by this, is they may have a sales person who is working a database of clients, or maybe networking. They may have created an advertising campaign (maybe Google adwords) or are running a promotion. In this situation the potential client will be visiting the web site for reassurance and to find out more about the company. The reason they are going to the web site is because of the meeting with the sales person or contact with an advertising campaign. In this situation it is essential that the businesses’ vision is communicated to create that reassurance. We still want to use all the latest technologies such as social networking and regular blog posts, which the old printed brochure couldn’t do, but ultimately we want to wow the client and hopefully convince them to use our company. The worse case scenario would be a potential client being put off your company because of your web site.

It is an added bonus that if the site is designed using web standards it will naturally start ranking on the search engines. The more articles and useful information you write, the bigger your net will be. But whatever pages you have on the site, your business brand and vision must be communicated. Don’t compromise it with short-term benefits for being found on a search engine such as Google.

So to conclude, make sure your site looks and reads as good as a premium printed brochure. Yes, use all the latest technology, after all we want to engage visitors and keep them coming back. However, don’t use it at the expense of your brand.

Rethinking your website – going back to basicsDesign and i brand identity web design graphic design and illustration

What’s this all about

Recently I was speaking to a client and they were talking about how the company who had designed their previous web site had developed and built it first, then designed it afterwards. In the words of the web company, the design stage was just adding a few logos and pictures. Interestingly, this same process came up when I was pitching for a web site not so long ago. Apart from being horrified at this concept, I felt it would be a good idea to put my thoughts into words, highlighting why I think it is essential to design a web site first, then develop and build it afterwards.

Before I start, this isn’t an attack on web developers. They have a very important skill set, but ultimately they are not designers (a few of them are).

So why design first and development second?

So Mr Hyde, tell me why we should design first and develop second?

Well, let’s use the example of a building. A good building is first designed by an architect, then engineers and builders make that vision a reality. The architect designs the features, the specification, the function, and the usability of the building as well as the aesthetics. This is their area of expertise, and they can interpret the client’s requirements into a design vision which then can be built by talented engineers and builders.

To build the building first then to bring in an architect ‘to pretty it up’ would make no sense at all. Examples of these types of building are horrible to be in, the layouts make no sense and are hard to use, and overall the buildings look aesthetically poor. These type of buildings are usually eye sores.

So let’s carry that idea over to the creation of a web site. My opinion is that, as with a building, the web site needs to be designed first then built second. The designer needs to work with the client and interpret their brief. As with a building, the designer will design the features, the specification, the functionality of the site, and how the web site will be used. With a web site being a brand touch point for a company, the designer will also interweave the brand message and brand identity. Once the client is happy with the designs, and what the site will do, it is then time for a developer to make the designs a reality. As with an architect, the designer then works with a developer to bring the vision to life. Before the website is even built the client knows exactly what they are getting.

Interestingly if you look at any product it is generally always designed first then built/engineered second.

Generally, as with ‘Design and i’, the developer and the designer are part of the same team. They can also be separate companies, which is also fine as long as they have a good relationship. The designer doesn’t work in isolation, they still communicate with the developer, but more in terms of ‘I have this great idea for a feature can you do that?’

Conclusion

My advice to any company who are thinking of having a web site is to take heed of the advice in this article. Make sure the web company you are using designs the site first and develops it second. Before the site is built it is important for you to know exactly what you are getting. As long as you use a reputable company who employ a design process, the web site you commission will meet, and hopefully far exceed, your expectations.

If you would like to discuss a web project or would like a review of your current site, call us on 01332 890333 or drop us an email on the contact page.

Design before development – Why websites should be designed firstDesign and i brand identity web design graphic design and illustration

Higher Education AcademyDesign and i brand identity web design graphic design and illustration