What is branding? A Ketchup guide to building a spectacular brand.
It’s a term that gets thrown around a lot in the marketing world, but what do we actually mean when we talk about branding? Simply put, branding is the building of your company’s identity to make you recognisable to customers and distinguishable from competitors.
It’s a fine art that takes expert knowledge and skill to fine-tune, but knowing the basics behind branding will help develop your business’s sense of identity when reaching potential new customers. In today’s blog, we cover the branding basics and provide insights into the work a brilliant branding agency [like ourselves] provides. Don’t know your merchandising from your rebranding? Fear not, we’ve got you covered.
Let’s start with the basics… What is a brand?
A brand is a marketing or business concept that people use to identify your company and its products or services. A unique brand and logo design distinguishes you from your competitors and gives your company a clear identity, helping you to stand out in a busy market. Branding is so much more than a font and colour palette. It’s the way you communicate your values and missions to your customers.
If you hit the nail on the head, your branding will involve an aligned team striving towards your shared missions and offering a positive customer experience on all touch points. Whereas your logo is the element that people identify your company with, your brand is the thoughts and meaning that your audience associates with your company – so be sure to build a good first impression.
When reviewing your branding, it’s important to ensure you’re marketing your brand correctly to support effective reach and to remain memorable in the consumer market. So, sharpen your pencils and whip out your Pantone chart, this is Ketchup’s rundown on how best to build your brand!
How to build your branding: the valuable assets
There are many ways to build your branding through digital and print collateral. From the initial step of perfecting your logo to rolling out on-brand signage, here are some of the areas our team recommends incorporating your business’s branding into:
Eye-catching logo design
People identify your company through your logo, so it needs to portray the right values and messages that reflect your offering. Embodying colour, fonts and graphics, as well as being informed by your target audience and competition, your logo also needs to be unique and versatile. Why? Because it has to be as flexible as your marketing strategy, with the ability to work across all digital and print formats.
Leading with the logo: Bentons Estate Agents case study
The design we created for Bentons Estate Agents is the perfect example of how a thoughtfully designed logo can set your branding on the right path. As local property experts, the client wanted a new distinctive brand image to carry across their marketing collateral.
Our clever designers created an outline of various properties, perfectly representing the marketplace covered by the business. This concept illustrates which industry Bentons works in without overcomplicating the design. Paired with national and local advertising campaigns promoting their rebrand, this new logo helped to raise Bentons’ profile across the whole of the East Midlands by featuring on their merchandising and sales collateral.
Read the case study
Merchandising that mesmerises
From giveaways to corporate gifts and branded stationery for the office, merchandising is a great way to get your business noticed on a range of items, with supportive endorsement by your team and clients. Think of it as free advertising for your company, championing your brand design. That’s why we keep our offices stocked with plenty of Ketchup pens!
Vehicle livery
If your company operates vehicles, vehicle livery is a great mobile advertising opportunity that will increase your marketing reach. This method of promoting your brand in your local area and potentially across the country is not only cost-effective but also adds credibility – if people see your brand out in the real world and not just on a screen, it leaves a memorable impact. Think of it as planting a very hearty marketing strategy seed that blooms into blossoming brand visibility!
Showstopping signage and billboard advertising
Sitting at the high-profile end of a marketing campaign, signs and billboards allow you to make a big and pretty bold statement in a public space. The choice of advertising space, images and copy is key to building a public perception of your brand; with only seconds to get your message across, you need to make it count. No pressure…
Be honest, is it time for a rebrand?
Your company is constantly innovating, and your branding needs to reflect this. If you’ve outgrown your current branding and feel that it’s dated, or you simply want a refresh to power your future marketing strategy, it may be time to rebrand your company. Executed correctly, a rebrand can breathe new life into your business’s marketing and also build momentum to reach a newer and often larger audience.
A rebrand with a digital focus: Emintell case study
Emintell helps to shape the leaders of the 21st century with kindness, integrity and expertise. By transforming their previously information-heavy website into a slick readable site complemented by calming shades of green, we were able to boost the visitor experience.
By combining a complete rebrand with a new website design, a clear colour theme and sense of brand imagery are now carried across the entire Emintell website. We’re proud to have created a powerful brand identity that reflects Emintell’s precise and impactful work perfectly.
Read the case study
Why opt for a professional brand design agency?
As we said previously, brand creation is a fine art that requires strategic knowledge to inform effective strategy, as well as artistic flair to execute a stylish design. Branding informs your marketing strategy and so it is important to begin your brand story on good footing. Don’t leave it to guesswork – let a branding agency like Ketchup take the stress out of perfecting your branding and logo design.
Ketchup can have you feeling brand new
With an in-house team of specialists in graphic design, copywriting and marketing, Ketchup can ensure all bases are covered when building your brand. We deliver a variety of marketing solutions to a vast range of industries, including an amazing in-house digital and graphic design service. We also know a thing or two about making an impact with memorable campaigns.
A brand reimagined: Alacrita Consulting case study
As a life sciences consultancy, Alacrita required its branding to reflect its technical expertise. Our design team produced new visual guidelines that combined minimalism with dramatic imagery and bold colours. The result was a consistent brand that appears modern and technologically sound across Alacrita’s web design and print collateral.
Alongside developing a streamlined website and providing impactful technical copy, the resulting rebrand formed part of a marketing strategy that delivered impressive results in just three weeks from its launch.
Read the case study
[Saucy] branding specialists
Ketchup approaches brand design by looking at your business’s values and qualities, and our design and branding specialists plan ways to represent these visually. We’ll make you memorable without compromising on your personality and make sure your originality shines through.
After designing a series of concepts, we work collaboratively with you to ensure that the visuals we create reflect how you envision your business being perceived by your potential clients and customers. It’s not all just pretty colouring in!
From our visionary logo design service to our website design service, choosing Ketchup as your branding agency means you’ll get direct access to our creative team at all times. Working closely with our designers, copywriters and marketing team, you’ll have a great insight into the project as well as the opportunity to shape your vision, whilst we provide the specialist skills to execute it brilliantly.
Ready for your business to feel *brand* new? Discover how our Brand Design service can transform your brand vision.