Whether a brand is only days into its infancy or has been established for many years, there can be numerous ways in which failures with your brand strategy can cause a lack of customer loyalty, a drop in revenue, miscommunication and a combination of other struggles. Below we have highlighted just a few causes of these issues and suggestions on how to avoid this happening.
Ways you can avoid making poor design choices:
When creating and building a brand from a visual perspective it's best not to chase the current trends as this can date the brand extremely quickly when that fad or trend passes and it's onto the next big thing, your brand will be left in the dust. It’s important to communicate your brand and its story in a clear and simple, but memorable way so you stand out from your competitors and become your target audience's go-to choice. A branding workshop here at GEL Studios is just the solution to making sure your brand captures the essence of who you are, whilst staying true to core principles.
Make sure you do your research:
Failing to carry out sufficient market research in any shape or form can lead to not fully understanding your target market and their wants and needs. This will then lead to a brand strategy and visual that falls flat as it doesn’t connect with your intended audience. Take the time at the beginning of the process to really understand the brand, its story and the people behind it all, what are their goals for the future? Where do we want this brand to be in 5/10yrs time, what makes them different and why should people engage with them and not go elsewhere? Also, look at the current competition to make sure no toes are being stepped on from an offering and visual point of view, the last thing you want to do is craft a brand that looks uncomfortably similar to something that already exists in the industry.
Follow your brand guidelines:
Becoming too relaxed when it comes to brand guidelines and not upholding the core brand messaging and visuals cohesively across all aspects of the brand can lead to customers becoming confused at various touchpoints and encounters with the brand and therefore become mistrusting and can lead to losing loyal customers as they would prefer to shop or use a brand that has cohesive messaging and communications across all platforms.
Never underestimate the power of online and social media platforms:
In this tech-savvy day and age, if as a brand you neglect the power of the digital marketplace whether that be your website or social media channels, you will miss out on harnessing an ever-increasing percentage of the population who the majority will encounter your brand or business in this way, so making sure your brand identity and messaging is consistent here will ensure that users know exactly who they are engaging with at every step of the journey.