Let’s cut to the chase- 65% of the population are visual learners. What does this mean for your business? It means that your business’s brand visual identity plays an important role. A brand visual identity is, as its name suggests, the visual elements that uniquely represent your brand and its values, essence and personality. This includes your logo, typography, colour palette and other visual and design elements that may be a part of your brand. Not only will it act as the visual representation of your brand but it also enhances your brand’s recognition and memorability. It’s designed to communicate the overall essence of your brand to its consumers. Now you may be wondering- “How do we build a brand visual identity system?”. Well, allow us to shed some light onto that by starting off with how branding contributes to your business’s success!
The Role of Branding in a Business’s Success
Branding is more than just a logo or your business’s name. Imagine if your brand were a person, branding is how you’d present this person to the public to deliver the right message, embodying your brand message and promise. This ‘person’ will then have to build a strong relationship with your target audience. Since every person is unique, thus, branding is what sets your business apart from others, making you stand out in a crowd or compel your target audience to approach your brand.
On top of that, the role of branding goes deeper than the surface. When done right, branding can potentially build your business’s reputation, building trust and garnering loyalty. This trust and loyalty comes from the emotional connection that’s formed from branding. Plus, with a comprehensive brand guideline, your branding ensures consistency and coherence across all touchpoints, contributing to the foundation of that brand trust. Therefore, what does this ‘person’ look and act like for your business?
Benefits of a Brand VI System
We’ve mentioned some of the benefits of a comprehensive brand VI system earlier, however, let’s elaborate on those benefits:
1. Enhanced Brand Recognition and Awareness
Enhancing brand recognition and awareness is one of the initial steps that lead you to success as a brand. How would you succeed without being discovered first, right? A well-thought-out and well-designed brand VI system will help you achieve that. Whether it be attractive colours or a logo that resonates with both your brand and its audience, it will help catch a consumer’s eye and discover your brand. Even if it’s a glance, the visual elements, colour schemes or typography can potentially engraved itself into the subconscious of consumers, which leads to recognition and awareness.
2. Consistency Across All Brand Touchpoints
Imagine a brand or business that wasn’t consistent at all throughout their materials. This would not only complicate brand recognition but it would also decrease reliability. Creating and building a standardized brand VI system would help maintain consistency. Whether it’s a website, packaging, social media, or physical stores, a cohesive brand image garners trust and reliability from consumers, reinforcing the brand’s identity at every interaction.
3. Clear Direction for Marketing Strategies
Similar to the previous point, a well-established brand VI system will ease the process of determining a clear direction for marketing strategies. It acts as a blueprint or a guideline that ensures the tone, style or imagery aligns with your brand’s identity.
Creating a Brand VI System: Key Elements
So, when it comes to creating a comprehensive brand VI system, there are a few key elements that should be part of that system:
1. Logo and Visual Identity
A brand should always be represented by a good memorable logo. Creating your brand’s logo will then pave the way for the rest of your VI system. This should convey your brand’s values, ensuring that it not only resonates with your audience but also leaves a lasting impression. In this process, you can decide what type of logo you want, making sure that it effectively represents your brand.
2. Brand Voice and Messaging
How would you like to communicate to your audience and what message do you want to deliver? As we mentioned earlier, you can imagine your brand as a person. Once you’ve determined your target audience and discovered their preferences, you can shape your brand voice around that as well as your brand message. Ensure that it resonates with both your brand and its audience.
3. Brand Guidelines and Standards
A brand guideline is what you get when you compile everything you’ve built. All the designs, colours, typography or applications. You can check out our other blog about what is included in a brand guideline too. Having a comprehensive brand guideline will ensure that consistency is maintained across all touchpoints of your brand.
CR8’s Successful Brand Transformation
To show you how a brand can grow with a proper brand VI system, we’ll be showcasing one of the successful brand transformations we were involved in: Maha Berjaya. They’re a leading distributor of consumer goods that’s been in the industry for over 50 years. Therefore, they reached out to us for a fresh new look! We gave them a rebrand, updating their visual identity and entire brand guideline which increased their brand trust and recognition. They’ve since successfully relaunched and are doing well!
Logo
Colour palette & application
Brand Guideline
Implementing a Brand VI System in Your Business
1. Steps to Develop a Comprehensive VI System
If you’re wanting to build your brand VI system, here are the steps to kickstart the process:
- Define brand values and objectives.
- Create a memorable logo and visual elements.
- Craft a unique brand voice and brand message.
- Build a comprehensive brand guideline.
- Implement and monitor.
2. Collaborating With a Branding Agency
Sometimes, researching is easier than doing. Therefore, if you’re still struggling to start creating a brand VI system, then consider hiring a branding agency to collaborate with your brand. Not only do they add professional guidance and valuable insights to the process, proper branding agencies are able to ensure that it’s done right and done well. For instance, we, here at CR8 Consultancy, offer a myriad of services that encapsulate everything branding and marketing related. Therefore, branding agencies that possess in-depth knowledge of the industry may also add a second perspective to the branding process and introduce you to new and creative ideas.
Maintaining and Evolving Your Brand VI System
Once you’ve completed your brand VI system, you have to remember that it’s not a one-and-done thing; it’s a process. The digital world is constantly evolving and consumer preferences are always changing. Therefore, make sure to monitor or periodic review and update your brand VI system accordingly.
Conclusion
Although it may be a lengthy process, a properly comprehensive brand VI system can act as your brand’s foundation for the long run. Think of it as an investment for the better future of your brand, laying the groundwork for brand-consumer relationships and ultimately, brand success. It shields you against market volatility while giving your brand a competitive edge, fostering loyalty and driving growth along the way. It’s not just about the aesthetics, it’s about building your brand’s DNA. Nonetheless, we are always readily available to assist any brand of any industry with any concern. We’re only one call away!
Build your own Brand Visual Identity System today. Schedule a FREE 1-hour consultation with us now!